Spoiled for choice
Today’s phrase is “spoiled for choice.” That means you have a lot of choices, and it usually refers to when you have more choices than you could possibly need. The fact that there are so many options is itself a luxury. When you’re choosing a restaurant in Toronto, you’re spoiled for choice. If traditional Canadian food is too plain for you, try some spicy Indian food. Not in the mood for the great Thai restaurants? That’s okay, try some Lebanese shawarma. Too cold for Baja fish tacos? Warm up with some spicy Trinidadian chickpea stew. You’re spoiled for choice in Toronto because there are so many great options.
If you live in Toronto and want to travel, you’re spoiled for choice, too. Pearson airport flies to 167 cities around the world with direct flights. You can take a two hour flight to Moncton, New Brunswick in Canada, or a fourteen hour flight to Shanghai—and anything in between. You’re spoiled for choice. And if you don’t want to go all the way out to Pearson airport, you can fly out of tiny Billy Bishop airport, right next to downtown. That’s if you don’t mind those tiny prop planes that Porter flies.
Spoiled for choice—I think you get the idea. The phrase comes from the word “spoiled,” which is another word you should know. This—you might not know this word, but you’ll recognize the concept, I’m sure—this refers to kids who are given everything they could possibly want from their parents, and they still behave badly. You know the type of parent that always says “yes,” even when they really should say “no” to their kids? Their kids are spoiled—they eat junk food whenever they want, no bed time, no discipline, they get whatever they want. That’s a spoiled child—it’s not a compliment, that’s for sure.
But it’s good to be spoiled for choice. I’m usually spoiled for choice when it comes to things to do on a Saturday, but not today. That’s because we got a snowstorm here in Chicago and I don’t really want to drive in the snow. And a certain podcast producer—ahem!—took my train pass home with him after he borrowed it last weekend. So I’m stuck at home today—but, I am spoiled for choice on Netflix, I will say that.
That’s all for today. I hope you liked today’s episode—a little different than normal, but I hope still interesting and helpful to you. Don’t forget to sign up for the episode emails by going to PlainEnglish.com/mail and entering your details there. If you’re on the list, then you get a summary of every episode, links to articles I used to prepare the show, and one extra word or phrase from the episode. That’s all for you at PlainEnglish.com/mail. We’ll be right back here on Thursday with a new episode of Plain English. See you then!
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