Skip to main content

The Meaning of Headlines: 'in a pickle'



The UK Mirror published an article on 6 May 2016 with the headline: ‘Worker buried underneath 55,000 tonnes of cheese escapes after eight hours in a pickle.’ What does ‘in a pickle’ mean and how are pickles related to cheese?

The Free Dictionary of idioms and the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs define ‘in a pickle’ as ‘in a mess’ or in trouble or ‘experiencing a difficult situation.’ A pickle is ‘a worrisome or awkward situation’ according to Dictionary.com. A pickle is a plight, a quandary, a bind, a jam, or a scrape. The food, pickle, is a cucumber that has been preserved in salt water or vinegar.

The article states that a forklift driver was feared dead when 18-metre high metal shelves carrying slabs of Cheddar cheese and Red Leicester cheese, weighing 20 kilograms each, collapsed onto him. Other workers said that the noise was deafening – like a sonic boom or an earthquake.

Rescue teams involving 13 fire crews of 70 fire fighters from multiple departments used sniffer dogs and a drone to find the man. Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Rod Hammerton, said it was difficult to find the man underneath the cheese because they were ‘giant blocks of cheese.’ The fire crews cut a hole into the building wall.

After eight hours trapped underneath the cheese, the man walked out unharmed. The man, in his 30s, was taken to hospital as a precaution and to ensure that he was not injured in the collapse. The rescuers think that the frame of the forklift truck prevented the man from being crushed.

The Scorecard for the Mirror headline is 75%. The situation was serious – being trapped for eight hours under heavy metal shelves and the 55,000 tonnes of cheese. So the situation was rather more serious than being ‘in a pickle.’ However, in an English lunch, the combination of cheese and pickle is a perfect twosome. As Gary Oldman said: ‘I like cheese and pickle. Nice cheese and pickle on real old-fashioned bread. Ploughman’s lunch.’ And how many people can say that they were covered in cheese!





MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...