錢鐘書說，老年人戀愛，就像老房子著火，沒得救。英文中有個類似的表達，也可以用來描述失控的狀態，就是垃圾箱著火。

Dumpster fire refers to a person, organization, or situation that is hopelessly and disastrously out of control, or something very difficult that nobody wants to deal with.

“垃圾箱著火”指的是某人、某個機構、或某種情況處于絕望境地，或者處于災難性地失控狀態。也可以指某件事很棘手，沒人想處理。

例句：This project is a complete dumpster fire.

這個項目完全就是垃圾箱火災。

In entertainment or sports, dumpster fire refers to a laughably poor performance usually caused by:

在娛樂或體育領域，“垃圾箱火災”指的是表現差得可笑，通常是因為如下原因：

1. Lack of planning, preparation or talent.

缺少計劃和準備，或缺乏人才

2. Random events that effectively sabotage the effort (i.e., technical problems).

足以破壞掉努力的隨機事件(比如技術問題)

例句：

Dumpster Fire is the kindest thing I can say about Oakland's game against San Diego.

奧克蘭隊對陣圣地亞哥的這場比賽就像一場垃圾箱火災，這已經是最仁慈的說法了。