Reader question:
Please explain “wind” in this sentence: They’ve been dating for six months before the press ever got wind of it.
My comments:
Got the smell of it in the wind, figuratively speaking.
Fox hunters get excited, for example, when their hounds start barking because the hounds get the scent or smell of a potential prey in the wind. The scent of a fox, for instance is carried here by the wind even though animal is still some distance off.
Humans don’t have as keen a sense of smell as dogs, but the experienced outdoors men have similar abilities thanks to experience. They can feel that rain is coming, for example. How do they know? You ask them and they’ll say it’s in the wind.
They can feel the moisture in the wind perhaps.
Thanks to experience.
Anyways, to get wind of something is to get the first hint or, if you will, the smell of something coming.
In our example, “they” (two celebrities, no doubt) have been great at keeping their romantic relationship out of the press. They’ve been dating for a good six months, i.e. a long time before the press, particularly the tabloid press with their army of notorious paparazzi, ever got wind of it.
Paparazzi?
Those are photographers who follow famous people around in order to take photographs of them – hopefully for a hefty profit if they can sell the photographs to the tabloid press, or small-sized newspapers that thrive on publishing such photographs.
The more sensational the photographs are, the better.
Oh, we’re straying.
Back to our example. The couple in question are lucky, having been able to keep their budding romance out of the earshot of the press. Now that the press has got wind of it, they must be prepared to have paparazzi following them everywhere they go.
That is beyond our concern, of course. Here, we’re satisfied to have gotten another nice little expression under our belt.
To get wind of something, in sum-up, is to discover or become aware of something, usually through indirect sources. For example, the press in our example may have got wind of the couple falling in love through the grapevine.
Grapevine?
That’s similar to the rumor mill.
Rumor mill?
Which churns out hearsay.
Hearsay?
Pure gossip, all right?
All right, here are recent media examples of getting or catching wind of this and that:
1. Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has reflected on the secrecy required for pulling off the AUKUS deal where Australia backed out of a deal to acquire diesel submarines from France in favour of American nuclear submarines.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson ahead of his planned tour of Australia to promote his book ‘Unleashed’, the former UK PM and Mayor of London revealed why France was told at the last minute that Australia would renege on the deal.
The Morrison government infamously scrapped a $90 billion deal for 12 French-designed submarines, incensing President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Macron suggested Australia’s former Prime Minister Scott Morrison lied to him when asked about the deal at the 2021 G20 summit and noted it was “detrimental” to the reputation of Australia.
Mr Johnson reflected on the secrecy required of the AUKUS members to protect the deal.
“There was a period in which we were very worried that the deal would get out and Emmanuel would be furious,” Mr Johnson said.
The former UK prime minister continued to shed light on Mr Morrison’s daunting task of breaking the news to Mr Macron – something which would sully the pair’s relationship.
“The relationships between France and the UK – as with France and with the UK and Australia – are incredibly strong and actually, there were many, many things where Emmanuel and I agreed,” Mr Johnson said.
“But the problem with AUKUS … it was for Scott, it was for Australia to let Emmanuel down.
“It wasn’t my secret to share with him, as it were. It was something that Australia needed to sort out, but I couldn’t see any other way of organising it.”
To pull off the deal, Mr Johnson said, Australia needed to first confirm it could actually access the US nuclear technology all while making sure France did not catch wind of the deal.
“In order to give the technology to Australia, the UK clearly had to get the acquiescence of the United States because the technology ultimately comes from the US. And the US is very vigilant in guarding those secrets,” Mr Johnson told Markson.
“Before we could go ahead and do the AUKUS deal and before Australia could let Emmanuel Macron down, we had to make sure that we had our ducks in a row.
“We had to make sure that Joe Biden, the President of the United States, was willing to share that technology not just with the UK but also with Australia.”
- Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson lifts the lid on the secrecy needed to keep AUKUS deal from Emmanuel Macron, SkyNews.com, October 31, 2024.
2. Phil Collins officially retired on 26 March 2022, following a 50-year career of touring and recording both solo and with Genesis. And in October 2022, Phil shared his story to his son Nic Collins, with a full camera crew in attendance.
New documentary Phil Collins: Drummer First is a fascinating and highly illuminating take on Collin’s life and career, put together with Nic Collins and released by Drumeo on their YouTube channel.
Collins Junior proves to be the perfect conduit for Collins senior’s story, being sufficiently trusted and familiar with his dad’s foibles to coax out all the details from a man who – frankly – as rock royalty and who has more than earned his accolades, could just say no.
Instead he – and countless musical contemporaries – tell a great story, packed with highlights and insight.
We learn about Collins’ career as a young actor and his first steps into music. “My dad particularly was very proud of me being in the West End in Oliver, which was a huge show, and I was the Artful Dodger,” he explains. “So he had bragging rights on that. And suddenly I was going to join a pop band. I decided that’s what I wanted to do, and I became a ‘professional auditioner’. I just answered the back page of Melody Maker and when I went for auditions, the auditions were good, but I never seemed to get anything.
“Peter Gabriel said, as soon as he saw me sit down on a drum stool, he knew that I was the drummer, and I got a call to say I got the job. But all went slowly downhill from there,” he jokes.
…
But before solo success there was the small matter of taking the step from behind the kit to the front of the stage – a journey Collins didn’t plan on making. But when Peter Gabriel unexpectedly quit Genesis they were forced to make big changes.
“We were halfway through a tour of America, [Gabriel] told our manager, and I think Tony Banks got wind of it. From then on, we knew that Pete could leave at any time, but we had a 150-show tour to do.”
And that – incredibly – could have meant continuing without a vocalist: “I was the one that said, when Peter left, ‘Right, let’s do it instrumentally,” says Collins. “And everybody jeered and told me to shut up and get back in my box. But, you know, I can see they were right.
“It was not in my mind to become the singer. But nobody else wanted the job. We had a long search for a singer that didn’t amount to much. I used to sing all the songs at the auditions, to the guys that were coming to audition. And I started to, in general, sound a bit better than they did…”
“From the first show, the fans loved him because he was part of the band already. It wasn’t like a new guy had to come in and had to win over the crowd,” explains Nic.
- Phil Collins opens up in epic new career retrospective documentary, MusicRadar.com, December 19, 2024.
3. What should we make of claims in Vanity Fair that podcast staff needed “long term therapy” or took extended breaks from work after working with the Duchess of Sussex?
A lengthy 8,000 word cover story in the latest edition of the high profile US magazine portrays Meghan, 43, as a ruthless boss who treats those who fail to impress her with contempt.
One person is quoted as saying that this manifested as “undermining”, adding: “It’s talking behind your back. It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, Mean Girls-teenager.” Another says: “I left because I couldn’t live with myself any more,” adding: “You don’t tell the couple ‘no’.”
A third reports: “She’s constantly playing checkers – I’m not even going to say chess – but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board.
“And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment.”
According to Vanity Fair, one former employee who was excited to begin working with the couple on media projects did not believe reports that Meghan had bullied palace aides.
After working with her, this person realised, “Oh, any given Tuesday, this happened,” it is alleged.
Suffice to say, this is not the first time I have heard that both Meghan and Harry, 40, were tricky to work for. As I reported in the aftermath of Megxit in 2020 – palace staff had taken to nicknaming them “Duchess Difficult” and “The Hostage”.
As an aide warned me at the time in no uncertain terms: “She’s not just difficult, she’s dangerous”.
It was in the autumn of 2018 – around six months after Harry and Meghan’s fairytale wedding – when I first got wind of the happy couple’s diva-ish behaviour.
The discovery that the Princess of Wales had been left in tears following a bridesmaids dress fitting for her daughter, Princess Charlotte appeared to be just the tip of the iceberg. Tantrums had also allegedly been thrown about tiaras, the aroma inside St George’s Chapel – and, as I later discovered, Kate wearing Meghan’s favourite designer’s dresses.
Although Meghan would later dispute the bridesmaid dress tears story during her March 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey – claiming it was Kate who had made her cry – the fallout with her sister-in-law appeared to be emblematic of something bigger.
- What I was reporting about the Duchess of Sussex seven years ago appears as relevant as ever, by Camilla Tominey, Telegraph.co.uk, January 18, 2025.
本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。
About the author:
Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.
（作者：张欣）
