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17167. Macnas - 10/24/2005 4:03:09 PM Too many caviar metaphors are bad for your health.
The sturgeon general says so. 17168. alistairconnor - 10/24/2005 4:33:21 PM That's wonderfully awful Mac...
The problem with stuff that gets me shaking with laughter, is that there's no way in the world I can explain it to my French office mates. So it just reinforces my reputation for weirdness.
(otherwise well-earned I might add) 17169. alistairconnor - 10/24/2005 4:37:34 PM The other thing that cracked me up today, I read in the Guardian sports section. This soccer commentator Rodney Marsh, explaining a bad-taste joke with the coach ended his international career :
Basically, before one match, he said to me "I'll be watching you for the first 45 minutes and if you don't work harder I'll pull you off at halftime." And I said, "Christ, we only get a cup of tea and oranges at Fulham!" And that's the last time I played for England.
It just doesn't survive translation. 17170. Macnas - 10/24/2005 4:40:41 PM Heard that before, still gets a chuckle. 17171. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 5:29:13 PM Ralph's letter
Good job, wonk. 17172. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 5:30:38 PM It scarcely makes its way into American English. I had to read it three times before I understood the double entendre. 17173. judithathome - 10/24/2005 6:33:14 PM Ah....now it's funny. 17174. Max Macks - 10/24/2005 6:49:37 PM lurk 17175. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 7:10:55 PM yeah, I was trying to get the tea and oranges thing to make sense, but it wasn't the tea and oranges that were being jerked, um, around there. 17176. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 7:49:22 PM oh I get it...a little slow, but also unfamiliar with that little phrase.
Like the time after a large restaurant dinner with a brit friend of ours I declared, "I'm stuffed." and he looked appalled. Heck, how did I know what i was saying.
I mean this is the country where they advertise pasties all over the place. 17177. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 7:49:54 PM little did i know about fanny packs either.
17178. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 8:01:14 PM I think I've been a little too oblique. Folks, please note that wonkers letter to the editor to the NYTimes did indeed run today, and is linked in 17171. My congratulations. 17179. PelleNilsson - 10/24/2005 8:09:59 PM I still don't understand it.
Btw, Ralph is a variation of the fine traditional Norse name Rolf. It was a Rolf who colonized Normandie.
On renewed reflection, maybe I do understand, but I'm too shy to ask. 17180. Magoseph - 10/24/2005 8:17:40 PM I still don't understand it
I didn't, but luckily I have a friend in Fort Worth. Even though, it took a while before I got it.
Wonks, congrats on your fine article. 17181. Ms. No - 10/24/2005 8:46:16 PM For the timid:
pull you off = jerk you off
My work here is done. 17182. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 8:50:43 PM congrats wonks! not easy to get a letter to the ed in the nyt!
good job! 17183. judithathome - 10/24/2005 9:30:32 PM Yes, wonks, in the discussion of the joke, I forgot to comgratulate you on your letter. I'm impressed! 17191. Macnas - 10/25/2005 12:36:52 PM Hello Mago. 17212. jayackroyd - 10/25/2005 5:51:09 PM On an entirely different topic, I need some help. My wife is working on the second volume of a series of three novels. The first is called, in English, The Water Mirror, and I recommend it highly. It's by a German author named Kai Meyer, and, while written for kids, is really a great story.
In any case, the second book involves some seamonsters that the author coined a word for, klabauter. This word is similar to a german word for a sea sprite, but this creature is of a more evil disposition.
The translator wants to call it a "goblin" but the author objects to that, saying that would be a hackneyed solution.
I've poked around the internet, but haven't found anything suitable. There are a number of coinages associated with fantasy gameplaying, but none are really suitable. Best would be a name with some basis in some sea mythology.
The creature is of human form with a cold-blooded marine animal's head, not unlike the Creature from a Black Lagoon, although less cheesy looking.
Ideas for a name for these creatures that would work in English would be appreciated.
(Just keeping the german coinage is not acceptable for several reasons. The most aesthetically interesting objection is that it's a hard word to say or remember, even in german [the translator and I apparently share an overwhelming desire to type "klaubauter," which seems much more natural to me].)
I was hoping that Pelle or macnas might have some especially suitable ideas, living as they do in lands with seafaring traditions, and innovative linguists. 17215. judithathome - 10/25/2005 6:11:29 PM AC, Capricorn is half fish, half goat. What about something along those lines....caprishon.
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