Tight-lipped

Tight-lipped

Tight-lipped. That’s today’s phrase. Think back to how you heard it the first time. HBO is being extremely tight-lipped about what happens in Season 8 of Game of Thrones. They’re not saying anything. No clues, no hints, no advance footage, no leaks, no gossip, no nothing. They’re being tight-lipped: they’re not saying anything. You remember last season they suffered a leak that spoiled the anticipation for all the fans, so HBO isn’t taking any chances this year.

When you want to say that someone is not revealing any details, when that person is keeping a secret, even if you really really want to know something—that person is being tight-lipped.

It’s common for police to be tight-lipped when they are investigating a crime. They don’t want the public to know all the details of the investigation until it’s complete. Police are often described as being tight-lipped. Businesses, too. If a company is planning a big product release, they are tight-lipped until the big announcement. Apple is famously tight-lipped. They don’t release any details of upcoming products until they have a big announcement. Some celebrities can be tight-lipped about their personal lives. They don’t want people to know what’s going on in their personal lives, off-camera. Other celebrities are loose-lipped. That’s the opposite. Loose-lipped. They want everyone to know all the details. They want to be in the gossip magazines. They want to be talked about, for good or bad. They think if they’re loose-lipped, if they over-share, then they can stay in the public eye.

The Royal Family is famously tight-lipped. Although they are constantly the subject of gossip and speculation, the British Royal Family prefers to be tight-lipped about personal matters. They take great care to cultivate their public image. When they say something publicly, it’s very deliberative.

There’s a politician in the United States—Joe Biden. He’s famously loose-lipped. He was vice president when Barack Obama was president, and at least once he was on a talk show and accidentally announced a new policy that wasn’t public yet. He was caught swearing on a live microphone at a very formal government event. Anyway, there are a lot of people here who are running for president in 2020, hoping to beat Donald Trump. Officially, Joe Biden is not one of them. He has not announced he’s a candidate and in public he has always said he’s undecided. Not sure if he wants to run. Then in one speech, he described himself as the most progressive person running for president. Oops. Then he caught himself and backtracked. Talk about loose-lipped! He couldn’t keep his own candidacy a secret.

That’s all for today’s episode. All you Game of Thrones fans: enjoy yourselves Sunday night. JR will be watching with you. I will be watching baseball. And on Monday if you find yourself in need of your Game of Thrones fix, then go to PlainEnglish.com/book and search for the George R. R. Martin books. Remember, your first book is free—and that can be up to 47 hours of Game of Thrones audio, for free. That’s the equivalent of a full work week of audio. And if you like it, you can remain a subscriber and get up to one book a month after that. PlainEnglish.com/book .

Quick hi to a few listeners. Reginald from Malaysia, Wanda from Florida, Moshe from Israel, Israel from Brazil, and Ivan from Brazil. Thanks for your notes See you on Monday