Learn from Cartoons (III)

Cartoon: Something for a Rainy Day


This cartoon by Dave Brown from The Independent is inspired by Paris Street; Rainy Day,
a large oil painting by French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The piece depicts the Place de Dublin,
an intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. One of Caillebotte's
 best known works, it debuted at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 and is currently
owned by the Art Institute of Chicago. (source: Wikipedia)
In Dave Brown's version, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel are shown up to their chests in water. Cameron, who is holding a euro
 umbrella, remarks, "Um ... perhaps it's time we put on our wellies!"
IDIOM
If you save something for a rainy day, you keep an amount of money for a time in the
future when it might be needed. • She has a couple of thousand pounds kept aside which 
she's saving for a rainy day.
VOCABULARY
Wellies are large rubber boots that you wear outside when the ground is wet and dirty.  
Wellies is an informal term for Wellington boots, a type of boot worn and popularised by
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
COMMENTARY
At their meeting earlier this week, Angela Merkel has turned down David Cameron’s
request for an “immediate plan” to solve the eurozone crisis, calling him “impatient”.
Merkel called for Europe to take a gradual path towards political union, frustrating the
appeals of many of her colleagues for quick, bold moves to fight the continent's raging
financial crisis. In the cartoon, the rain is a metaphor for the crisis, and, of course, it's
much too late to be putting wellies on. The cartoonist is suggesting that Europe should
have taken decisive action earlier to save the euro.