胡扯與巧言令色

Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often. The word also has another meaning in English. It is used to describe something—usually something someone says—that is 1 or wrong or foolish.

Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city， Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage， a mixture of smoked， spiced meat from cows and pigs. But baloney sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone.

Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression“baloney.” Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth…in the same way that baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it.

Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents.

The expression has been used for years. A former governor of New York state， Alfred Smith， criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Smith said， “No matter how thin you slice it， it is still baloney.”

A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is “blarney.” It began in Ireland about 1600.

The lord of Blarney Castle， near Cork， agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And he made them sound like very good excuses.“This is just more of the same blarney.”

The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone， so the story goes， can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them， even when you know they are 1.

A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City， Fulton Sheen， once explained， “Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it.”

Another expression is “pulling the wool over someone’s eyes.” It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore 1 hair， or wigs， similar to those worn by judges today in British courts.

The word “wool” was a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man’s wig over his eyes， he could not see what was happening. Today， when you “pull the wool over someone’s eyes，” he cannot see the truth.

baloney的意思是：荒謬，大香腸，騙人的鬼話。

“No matter how thin you slice it， it is still baloney.”意思是：不管切得多薄，香腸就是香腸。引申含義：不管你如何狡辯，都是胡扯。

blarney：奉承話；諂媚的意思。

布拉尼城堡（Blarney Castle）位于愛爾蘭的布拉尼小鎮，該鎮位于全國第二大城市科克城附近。城堡最初的歷史可追溯到公元10世紀，毀于1446年，但隨后由芒斯特爾國王（King of Munster）科馬克·麥卡瑟（Cormac MacCarthy）進行了重建。該城堡是愛爾蘭歷史最悠久的城堡之一，也是最牢固的堡壘之一，吸引著全世界各地的游客前往游覽。另外，修建于1874年的布拉尼屋（Blarney House）如今也對外開放，這是一座蘇格蘭男爵樣式的官邸，是非常值得一游的好去處。

布拉尼石（Blarney Stone）：布拉尼城堡里面有一塊“神奇的石頭”叫布拉尼石，人們叫它“巧言石”。據說如果吻了這塊石頭，這個人就會變得聰明、善于奉承、巧于哄騙（clever， flattering， or coaxing talk）。有那么一句話：“你今天滿口都是恭維話，一定是吻過‘巧言石’了。（You are so full of compliments today that you must have kissed the Blarney stone.）”講的就是這個意思。

巧言石“神奇功能”的起源并不十分清楚。但有一個故事是這樣說的：一次，蘇格蘭國王救起一位將要淹死的老婦。為了報答，老婦就帶國王到這塊石頭上，施展符咒，要國王親吻這塊石頭。從此，這位國王就有了一種甜言蜜語的能力（the ability to sweet talk），他對任何人講過話以后，那個人就會心甘情愿地為他做事。

后來，愛爾蘭和英國之間有過不少爭執。在外交討價還價之際，據說愛爾蘭官員給了不少無法兌現的美好承諾。最后，無可奈何的伊麗莎白女王只好說，愛爾蘭那里有Blarney Stone嘛。

如今，Blarney Stone已經成了旅游勝地。“巧言石”的傳說是有趣的，作為一個景點十分適宜。但如果滿世界都是哄騙人的花言巧語，那可不是一件好事。

“Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it.”意思是：baloney（胡扯、瞎說）如此夸張，它不可能是真實的；而blarney（奉承話）如此單薄（意思是極易被看破），我們卻都喜歡。

“pull the wool over someone’s eyes”直譯就是：用羊毛遮住了某人的眼睛，這樣TA就什么都看不見了。因此引申為“蒙蔽某人，欺騙某人”的意思。