J ournalists are nosy (curious) people, so I asked someone in the queue why so many people were lining up. She told me people were queuing to buy cookies from Jenny Bakery. I had never heard of Jenny Bakery but found out from a quick Google search that many Hong Kong people found the butter cookies to be mouth-watering. I immediately thought to myself : "Have Hong Kong people gone loopy?" I would never line up for over an hour to buy cookies, no matter how mouth-watering they are. There are nearly 1 billion starving people in the world and Hong Kong people are lining up to buy cookies. Loopy mainlanders are doing it too.
When something is mouth-watering it means it is so tasty or delicious that it makes you salivate (produce saliva). To queue up and to line up mean the same thing. Americans usually say "line up". The expression "stretches beyond" means to go further than. The expression "stretching almost to" means almost reaching a particular point, place, or area. The word loopy is a slang word that means crazy or stupid. As I have said many times before, Hong Kong people have a herd mentality. A herd mentality means large numbers of people all following each other to do the same thing. It is a herd mentality if large numbers of people join a queue to buy cookies just because some people say the cookies are mouth-watering.
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每次我途經皇后大道中的萬邦行，總會見到許多人在排長龍（queuing up）。有時那條人龍延綿過了（stretches beyond）H & M百貨店對面的行人斑馬線。一開始我不太在意那條隊到底是為甚麼而排。但近日，我每次經過都會發現，那條人龍一次比一次長。我也留意到有許多內地人在排隊（queue）。上星期某天約早上十時，我更驚愕地（dumbfounded）發現那條隊已經差不多延伸至（stretching almost to）砵典乍街了。
記者總愛多管閒事（nosy），於是我就詢問其中一位排隊的人，為何有這麼多人排隊。她告訴我人們排隊（queuing）買珍妮曲奇的曲奇。我從沒有聽過珍妮曲奇，便快速用Google搜尋一下，原來這些牛油曲奇令許多香港人垂涎三尺（mouth-watering）。我立即想到：「香港人是不是瘋了（loopy）？」我永不會為了買曲奇而排隊超過一小時，無論那些曲奇如何令人垂涎欲滴（mouth-watering）。世界上有超過十億人在捱餓，香港人卻為了買曲奇而排隊。瘋癲（loopy）的內地人也是這樣。
說某物是mouth-watering意思是它很美味，令你垂涎（salivate）。To queue up和to line up意思一樣，美國人通常用"line up"。習語stretches beyond解作伸延過了，stretching almost to則是差不多到達某點、某地或某區。Loopy是俗語，解作瘋癲或愚蠢。我曾說過許多遍，香港人有羊群心理（herd mentality），總是跟風做同樣的事。當有一大群人要排隊（queue）買曲奇，只因為有些人說那些曲奇令人垂涎（mouth-watering），便是羊群心理（herd mentality）了。
mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧