bad hair day

本日は昼休みのオフィスから投稿します。

”何をやってもうまくいかない日”というのは考えたくもありませんが、やはりどんな人にもついてない日というのがあるものです。英単語の"day"には”よい時、盛り、全盛期”といった意味があり、主に所有代名詞（hisとかherとか）を伴って現れると、大体そのような意味になります。

Every dog has his day.

という諺は中学（高校？）の教科書にも出てくるくらい有名なものですね。

さて、冒頭の"bad hair day"ですが、私はこの表現を知りませんでしたが、何でも”朝起きてみたら寝癖がついていて、どうやっても取れない状態で仕方なくそのまま1日を過ごさざるを得なかった”みたいな状況からの連想であるようです。見栄えを気にする紳士淑女の方々には深刻な問題かも知れませんが、ちょっと大げさな感じがするのは私だけでしょうか？

Mother Jones: Credit crisis, credit crunch, depression, recession, slowdown, downturn—why do you think we have so many terms for our current financial situation?

Geoffrey Nunberg: To a large extent, the uncertainty about what to call it has a lot to do with the uncertainty about what it is—and how optimistic or pessimistic you are and what you have done with that 401(k). The word "recession" was originally introduced as a euphemism for "depression." And very quickly those words acquired the connotations they were designed to escape. I'm kind of nostalgic for the days when we just called them "hard times." The new language gives an aura of precision that really isn't justified. In fact, whatever economists tell you, words like "recession" and "depression" are really no more accurate and precise than "bad hair day."
(MoJo Interview: Geoffrey Nunberg. Monther Jones. June 5, 2009)