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Reader question: Please explain “on the bubble” in this sentence (LakersNation.com, October 22, 2016): “World Peace is entering his 17th NBA season, although he is currently on the bubble of making a roster spot out of Training Camp.” My comments: First of all, World Peace, Like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, is a person. Metta World Peace, that is. Formerly known as Ron Artest, World Peace is a professional basketball player on the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. Yes, World Peace is on the same team as Chinese player Yi Jianlian, who, by the way, is, or was also on the bubble of making the team out of training camp, i.e. making the formal team to play in the regular season which begins, as a matter of fact, tonight, local time (tomorrow in Beijing). Yes, but “on the bubble”? That means World Peace (and Yi, too) is (or was as the story is two days old) on the brink, the thin line separating one group from another. To wit, World Peace either can make the elite group or fall down to the also-run or not-so-good group – to be eliminated from further competition. “On the bubble” is an American idiom which, like many, is easy to remember once you understand exactly what it means. Imagine a pot of water on bubbling point. Right at this moment, the water on top of the bubble has two directions to go, one going up and evaporating, the other going down and joining the rest of water in the pot. | 
