Reader question:

Please explain “made it her own” in this: She took over the family business and made it her own.

My comments:

Her family owns the business. The original owners are his parents or perhaps grandparents. Now that she grows up, the family gives her the reins and lets her run the business.

She is so good at it that soon she makes it her own, as if she were the original owner.

Something like that.

To make it one’s own means this: To take something from other people, to change it to suit ourselves and to generally deal with it in a way that makes it seem to belong to us.

In other words, we and that something become a perfect fit.

A singer, for example, sometimes tries to sing a song first popularized by another star, an icon, say, from an earlier era. Then, as it turns out, this singer’s rendering becomes equally popular, in which case we can say that this singer takes a song from the old icon and makes it his or her own.

What’s implied here is that he or she sings the song as beautifully as did the old erstwhile icon. Their new version is as unforgettable as is the time tested tune.

In our top example, we may also infer that she is as good as, or perhaps even better than her parents in running the family business.

In other words, she’s doing a good job and enjoying it. Things are going swimmingly. Everything’s perfect.

All right, here are media examples of “making something our own”:

1. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will be taking a long summer hiatus. The Daily Show has been on Comedy Central since 1996 having three hosts over the course of its run. The most notable term has been Jon Stewart, who took over from Craig Kilborn in January 1999 and reinvented the talk show as a news satire and focusing on political events, winning a record 11 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety Talk Series over his 16-year tenure. Noah took over hosting duties after Stewart left in August 2015, continuing the tradition of the show and has since made it his own style.

Per Deadline, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is now reported to be taking a longer break for the summer, beginning this upcoming Friday on June 18 and returning on September 13. Noah, like many late-night talk show hosts, has transitioned to hosting the show at his residence since the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the lift of advisories and the announcement of returning to studio productions, talk shows have been steadily moving back to their studios, and Noah has teased that there will be surprises when production of The Daily Show returns back to its studio in New York City, as well as its new look. Noah’s full statement can be read below:

As for going back to the studio, I have a few surprises as to what that will look like. I’m working on a few things with the team, and we’re really excited because I want it to be intentional. People always say, ‘When are you going back?’ I’m never going back, I’m only moving forward.’

- The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Taking Hiatus, Returns In September, ScreenRant.com, June 16, 2021.

2. The competition on “American Idol” just got a whole lot wider, with frontrunner Kenedi Anderson’s shocking withdrawal from the competition.

The show’s longtime host Ryan Seacrest announced the news in a clip inserted into Monday’s episode after the 18-year-old high schooler’s performance of “Human” by Christina Perri, which brought judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan to a standing ovation.

“You might have noticed that there was no voting information during Kenedi’s performance just now,” Seacrest said while sitting at a table. “Since we taped these shows in Hawaii earlier, Kenedi has decided to withdraw from our show for personal reasons.”

He added: “We send her well wishes, and needless to say, we have incredible talent on this historic season, with more iconic ‘Idol’ performances coming up for you right now.”

Anderson has been a favorite to win since she auditioned with a soulful rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Applause” that inspired the judges to award her one of three platinum tickets, sending her not only to Hollywood Week, but also past the first round of cuts.
...

Ava Maybee took a big risk by choosing to sing “Tell Me Something Good” by Rufus & Chaka Khan.

But the singer said she was inspired to choose it after a vivid dream.

“I randomly had a dream that I was gonna sing a Chaka Khan song on ‘American Idol,’” she told Rexha.

Richie said Maybee took the classic and made it her own. “That was pretty risky, but you took care of business,” he said.

- ‘American Idol’ shocker: Kenedi Anderson, frontrunner who won platinum ticket, quits show, USAToday.com, April 14, 2022.

3. Despite purportedly working on the “straight news” side of Fox Business’ programming, anchor Maria Bartiromo has been steadily pushing a conspiracy theory in which public health guidance about COVID-19 is just a smoke screen for Democrats to commit voter fraud in the upcoming midterm elections. Bartiromo picked up the term “midterm variant” from Republican politicians – and she’s not alone at the network in spreading the idea, either.

This claim is also tied to the network’s long-running attempts to lie about mail-in voting, after Fox News spread the Trump administration’s discredited claims. Fox painted lurid fantasies about mail-in voting in the run-up to the 2020 election, claiming it leads to fraud, then attempted to invalidate hundreds of thousands of votes in order to support Trump’s effort to subvert the election.

Now, it seems, the network is dusting off its playbook to undermine the upcoming midterm elections. Bartiromo communicated directly with the Trump White House in its efforts to subvert the 2020 election, and she also had discussions with Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich (and now-U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker) about sending supposed election thieves to prison. (Voting technology firm Smartmatic is now suing Fox News for $2.7 billion — and has named Bartiromo as a defendant for her role in promoting the conspiracy theory which said that the company altered the 2020 election result.)

In this latest instance, it appears that Bartiromo picked up the talking point about a “midterm variant” from a different Republican politician — and she has since made it her own.

...

Other Fox hosts are apparently not to be outdone. On the Monday night edition of Fox’s The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham hearkened back to her early role in pushing conspiracy theories against the “scam” expansion of mail-in voting, all the way back in April 2020.

Previously, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) called the omicron variant the “Midterm Election Variant” in a tweet back in December 2021, reiterating his claims during an appearance on Fox News Primetime with host Pete Hegseth. “I mean, they’re looking at the poll numbers that have been plummeting like crazy over the last few months and they’re getting desperate right now,” Jackson claimed. “This unsolicited mail-in balloting worked so well for them in the last election, they need to come up with a reason to be able to do this again. They need to keep the fear level at a certain point so that they can justify this.”

The truth, however, is that it’s Fox that has to keep the “fear level” up surrounding elections. Both on the air and in the courtroom, Fox appears determined to keep lying about the 2020 election – and to keep casting doubt on all the elections to come.

- Maria Bartiromo is spreading a “midterm variant” conspiracy theory she got from a Republican Senate candidate, MediaMatters.org, May 10, 2022.

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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：張欣   編輯：丹妮）