vini
Help me understand this dialogue from Mad Men - Your mother can check under my fingernails IN PETE CAMPBELL’S OFFICE Pete is mid-twenties, charming, all-American, and on the phone. Pete (to phone): Oh, honey, don’t worry, I’ll get home safely. I have an important appointment right now, so why don’tyou go shopping or something? Take your mother to lunch, tell her it was my idea. Dick (to Ken): Wow, he’s good. The three guys, Ken, Dick, and Harry, settle into different places around the office. A few of them light cigarettes. Pete (to phone): It’s just a bachelor party. …No, I really don’t know what they have planned, but judging from the creative brainpower around here, we’ll probably end up seeing “My Fair Lady“. Ken looks offended and takes a card out of his pocket with a drawing of a stripper, on it is written “The Slipper Room”. He holds it up for Pete. Pete (still on the phone): I’ll tell you what. I’ll stop by your place on my way home. Your mother can check under my fingernails
12 de dic. de 2015 8:31
Respuestas · 2
3
It is an idiom that means that he is willing to meet the mother so she can confirm for herself that he is clean and presentable (which implies respectability) so he is therefore a sutable person for her daugher to associate with.
12 de diciembre de 2015
2
Children (in the U.S. anyway) (some, anyway) are taught to use a fingernail brush and scrub their fingernails when they wash their hands. A little line of dirt gets trapped underneath the edge of the fingernail and is (truly? supposedly?) a place where germs can grow. It also looks dirty and unsightly. Literally, it would be an insult for a grown person to check under another grown person's fingernails because it is questioning basic hygiene. Figuratively, Pete is saying "It is annoying but understandable that your mother would want to meet me and judge me. It will be socially awkward. I won't enjoy it. But I will do it."
12 de diciembre de 2015
¿No has encontrado las respuestas?
¡Escribe tus preguntas y deja que los hablantes nativos te ayuden!