Waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop

This night, however, the second booming noise never came.

As it turns out, that night, the young man is about to drop his second shoe before he suddenly comes to his senses, realizing that the noise he make may be too much for his neighbors. Ergo, he proceeds to put the second shoe ever so gently on the floor, without causing, like, a whisper.

Early the next morning, barely at dawn break and way before sunup, the young man is awakened by loud knocking noises from the door. It is the old man from downstairs. When the young man opens the door, the old man asks, rather angrily: “What went wrong? What happened to you last night?

“Every night, I hear two sounds but last night I heard one sound and never the second. In waiting for the other shoe to drop, I never had a wink!”

Well, that’s what I used to hear regarding the story about the other shoe. I’ve heard different versions but they are all the same, people wait for the other shoe to drop. Presumably they have to wait for the other shoe to drop before they can get on with their lives. And the other shoe, the other shoe to drop, or the proverbial shoe, or the other proverbial shoe becomes synonymous with something that’s inevitable to happen.

Something bad, especially.

All right, let’s read a few more media examples to hammer the point firmly home:

1. Back in 2003, when the Supreme Court struck down all state laws against homosexuality, Justice Kennedy also wrote the majority opinion. That opinion, in the case Lawrence v. Texas, set the stage for today’s majority opinion authored by the same justice. In 2003, Justice Kennedy argued that laws restricting homosexual acts and relationships were driven by moral animus against homosexuals and homosexuality. He acknowledged that this moral judgment is both venerable and deeply rooted in the moral traditions of Western civilization, but he condemned such laws and, writing for the majority, struck them down. He employed the very same logic today in striking down DOMA.