过节餐桌不谈政治
我们主持感恩节晚宴的姐姐刚刚给所有客人发了一条手机短信：“感恩节聚会，请勿谈政治。”
She’s trying to head off heated discussions because, two weeks post-election, people still haven’t cooled off. You think you know people, but you don’t know whom they voted for. And when you find out, you’re mad at them.
她在试图阻止激烈讨论的发生，因为大选结束两周后，人们还是无法平静。你以为你了解对方，但却不知道他们把票投给了谁。而当你发现真相后，你会对他们非常生气。
We’ll be able to *abide by the no-politics request because we’ve been avoiding sensitive subjects at family gatherings for years. We don’t ask Cousin Louise if she finally got her promotion. We don’t ask our sister’s friends if their son is still living in their basement.
我们会遵守“不谈政治”的要求，因为多年来我们家庭聚会时一直是避免敏感话题的。我们不会问露易丝表妹最终是否获得了晋升，也不会问姐姐的朋友他们的儿子是否还住在家里的地下室里。
Apparently, we’re not alone in avoiding the big, touchy questions. It’s a big enough problem that it warranted a solution because you can buy a T-shirt that reads, “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. I haven’t declared a major yet. I’ll let you know when I get a job.”
显而易见，在避免谈及这种重大、敏感的问题上我们并不是孤身一人。这是一个相当重大的问题，严重到需要一个解决办法。因为你都可以买到那种T恤衫，上面写着"不，我没有男朋友""我还没选定专业""当我找到工作时我会告诉你的"。
We’ve ordered five of these shirts for our college-age children and their friends who are tired of answering the same old questions from relatives who mean well but can’t help asking.
我们已经预定了5件这样的T恤衫给我们到了上大学年纪的孩子们和他们的朋友们。因为他们厌倦了一遍又一遍回答亲戚们的这些老套问题，这些亲戚是出于好心，只是管不住嘴。
We’ve read the T-shirt so we know enough not to ask our niece if she has a new boyfriend, but we might dance around the subject and ask her if she knows about the Coffee Meets Bagel dating app.
我们见过T恤衫上的文字，所以我们会明智地不问我们的侄女是否有男友，但我们也许会旁敲侧击，问她是否知道一款叫作“咖啡遇上百吉饼”的相亲应用。
We wouldn’t ask the young people if they’ve heard anything back from their on-campus job interviews. That’s too much pressure. However, we could tell them that we read an interesting article about Information Security Analysts. It pays well, you only need a bachelor’s degree and the field is expected to grow by 30 percent in the next five years.
我们不会问年轻人，校园工作招聘面试是否有回音，那样会给他们太大压力。但我们可以告诉他们，我们读过一篇关于信息安全分析师的有趣文章。这种工作报酬不错，只需学士学位，并且未来五年这一行业将会有30%的增长。
When our dinner host said “no politics,” we tried to think of other safe topics to talk about, but we realized that any topic could be a minefield. A simple “Did you watch the game last Sunday?” will likely bring out armchair quarterbacks and people who will tell you that they know how to manage the clock better than the coach.
当我们的晚宴主人说“勿谈政治”时，我们试着去想一些其他可以谈论的安全话题，但我们意识到任何话题都可能成为“雷区”。一句简单的“你看了上周日的比赛了吗?”都可能招来摇椅里的四分卫的夸夸其谈，还有人会告诉你，他们比教练更懂怎么掐表。
If we comment that, “We’ve been so lucky with this warm November weather,” it could be an invitation to those around the table who want to remind us that this warm weather is due to the deadly effects of global warming.
如果我们说“我们真是太幸运了，能碰上这样一个温暖的11月”，那么这句话可能成为餐桌上的“导火索”，有人会提醒我们，这样温暖的天气是由全球变暖的致命影响造成的。
You know what’s safe? Keeping our mouths filled with delicious food so we can’t talk. “Pass the bowl of stuffing please, we want just a little bit more.”
你知道什么最保险吗?用美味的食物堵住我们的嘴，这样我们就说不了话了。“请把那个肉馅碗递过来，我们想再要点儿。”
We want to make sure that we’ll still fit into our pantsuits.
我们要确保裤子不会被撑开。
