凱瑟琳的褒貶不一

【經典對白】

Joe的大型連鎖書店開張不久，生意興隆；Kathleen的兒童書店受到沖擊，門庭冷落：兩個現實中的冤家對頭卻在網上聊成了朋友，并相約在咖啡館見面。這之前，Joe比Kathleen先知道了對方的身份。于是，有趣的一幕出現了——Kathleen一邊稱贊著即將見面的網友，一邊數落著面前的Joe——Joe Fox——Joe也只能聽著，誰讓他愛人家呢。

(Someone comes into; Kathleen raises her head and looks forward.)

Joe: Take a wild guess that's not him either. So who is he, I wonder? Certainly not I, neither the world's greatest living expert on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, but somebody else entirely different. And will you be mean to him too?

Kathleen: No, I will not, because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you. The man who is coming here tonight is kind and funny and he's got the most wonderful sense of humor.

Joe: But, he's not here.

Kathleen: Well, if he's not here he has a reason because there's not a cruel or careless bone in his body. But I wouldn't expect you to understand anybody like that. You with your theme park multi-level homogenize the world mochachino land. You've deluded yourself into thinking that you're some sort of benefactor bringing books to the masses. But no one will ever remember you Joe Fox and maybe no one will remember me either, but plenty of people remember my mother and they think she was fine and they think her store was something special. You are nothing but a suit.

Joe: That's my cue. Have a good night.

【重點講解】

有人進了咖啡館，Kathleen馬上抬頭看看是不是她要等的人。Joe調侃她，這個人會是誰呢？肯定不是他，也不是還活在世上的參加過尤利烏斯和伊塞爾•羅森伯格案件的偵探專家。living表示活著的、在世的。

末了，他還加問一句，“你不會也對他發這么大脾氣（be mean to sb.）吧？”mean的原意是卑微的、不雅的，這里的意思是壞脾氣的。Kathleen立刻回答說，她今晚要見的人善良（kind）、風趣（funny）、極具幽默感（sense of humor）。

Kathleen時時刻刻都在拿那個人和眼前的Joe相比：那個人不來一定有他的理由；那個人不會像Joe一樣冷酷漠然（cruel and careless）；Joe只會用他的連鎖店使世界變得毫無特色的趨同（homogenize v. 使同質化，使均質化）；Joe誤認為自己是把書籍帶向大眾的恩主（benefactor）。詞組delude somebody with something(into doing something)，欺騙，使某人有錯誤想法。

為了解氣，Kathleen最后說，Joe只是個徒有其表的人（nothing but a suit），（suit整套的衣服）。而Joe的回答則復雜得多——郎有心、妹無意，只好無奈地見好就收——“這就是你對我的看法”（That’s my cue.）cue本來意思是提醒演員上臺的提示詞，引申為暗指、提示、指點，這里也可以說成“多謝指教”——顯然，Joe是不滿的。