Wear and tear

Wear and tear

So like I was saying before, there are a lot of great words in this episode, but I chose the phrase “wear and tear” since it’s probably the most common and the hardest to figure out. Wear and tear refers to the process of breaking down over time. If you have a long commute, your car might experience a lot of wear and tear—it’s gradually breaking down since you drive a lot of miles. Here in Chicago, we have freezing weather and it causes potholes in the streets. That increases the wear and tear on the cars here, since we constantly hit these bumps.

Sometimes you might say an ageing athlete has a lot of wear and tear on his body. Tom Brady is 41! Can you believe that? He’s the quarterback of the New England Patriots; he’s managed all the wear and tear of being an NFL quarterback very well, since he’s still out there. Still beating the Chicago Bears, like he did two weeks ago. For most players, by the time they hit their mid-30s, the wear and tear on their bodies is too much—they have knee, shoulder, arm injuries that persist and cause them to slow down.

And so it is in the beautiful old cities of Europe, which are now trying to accommodate more and more visitors. The buses, the trains, the sidewalks, the roads, the museums, the airports, the plazas, the parks—all are experiencing more wear and tear than they’re used to. And what happens when your car has a lot of wear and tear? You have to invest a little to keep it running. You have to replace parts, stay on top of your regular maintenance. And that’s what I think these popular tourist destinations have to do, too. Invest a little of what they earn from tourism and put it back into the tourist infrastructure in their cities.

I’ve had this computer that I’m using for three years—and it’s had a lot of wear and tear. I take it to the office every day, take it on airplanes, plug it in, unplug it, set it up, hook a lot of stuff up to it, install software on it. I’ve dropped it once or twice. It’s had a lot of wear and tear, and after three years, it’s starting to show. Your favorite jeans or the shoes you wear to work, after a while, might show some wear and tear—with a comfortable pair of shoes, that’s not always a bad thing though right? Don’t some things get more comfortable with a little wear and tear?

Before we go, I want to correct mistake I made in a previous episode. In the episode about Jamal Khashoggi, I said that Istanbul was the capital of Turkey. As Homer would say on The Simpsons, “D’oh!” The capital of Turkey is Ankara, not Istanbul. But do you want to know something funny? I recorded two episodes at a time—one on Jamal Khashoggi and the other on Canada legalizing marijuana. And in that other episode, I originally wrote that Toronto was the capital of Canada—but as I was recording it, I caught myself and corrected it in the recording. But the funny thing is that in two episodes in a row, on the same day, I made the same mistake. Next I’ll probably say Sao Paolo is the capital of Brazil or that Sydney is the capital of Australia, right?

That’s all for today. Thanks for being with us for 99 episodes! JR and I will be back for episode number one hundred on Monday. Like I said before, that one will be about the results of Brazil’s presidential election. By the time you’re hearing this, you’ll know the results, but on Monday, you’ll be able to hear about it in English. So don’t forget to join us on Monday; have a great weekend!