蕲阳三哥漂泊美利坚闹的陈年笑话一则: Crack the window

I came to US for the graduate school almost 20 years ago. My doctorate research project was in a State Research and Extension Station which was 30 miles away from the university campus. I needed to go to the research station several times almost every week during the summer season. Usually my academic advisor's technician and I drove there in an old utility truck to work on the project. The technician was from small town America and loved to use colloquial language and slang. One day in the first summer, not long after i came to US , after we finished our work in the station, and tired, hot and thirty, we dragged ourselves into the truck inside which was burning hot like an oven since it had been parked under the Carolinian summer sun for quite a few hours. I had to admit my English was pretty limited at that time for i had only been here a few months. He cranked up the old truck and headed toward the highway with me on the passenger seat sweating like crazy. He asked, "San-ge, can you crack the window?" I stared at him, puzzled and thinking to myself: why was he asking me to break the window? I replied, "Are you sure?" He said, "yeah". Then I mumbled to myself, "OK". So I started to fumble through the toolbox under my feet. Now It was his turn to look baffled, asking, "San-ge, what are you looking for?". "Oh, i am looking for a hammer to break the window," I responded nervously. Jaw-dropped, eyes wide-opened like teacup saucers, he was flabbergasted, "My goodness, oh, no, I meant to open the window so that we can get some fresh air and a breeze from outside." Oh, man, at that instant, I was so embarrassed that i wished there were a hole I could hide myself in!