Friday, March 19, 2010

#60

Word selection and usage is so interesting to this princess. There is a fond remembrance of how swiftly and deftly she attempted to advance her high school theater career when she oh-so-politically-and-correctly asked the director if any of the plays would interfere with the basketball games she played. Yeah..."smooth move ex-lax!". Good thing PR wasn't on her career list of things to do.


Speaking of careers, even princessdom has it's boring days so a perusal of potential professions was in order. Speaking of PR as well, there was hope for interesting possibilities on the word selection and usage front.


Helen Ziegler & Associates definitely didn't disappoint in their maneuvers to entice registered nurses to work in Saudi Arabia. In addressing the personal safety issue, they stated that the Western compounds where North American and European nurses live had "occasional terrorist attacks" but "violence is far less than one would find in a city of comparable size in the United States or Canada". Somehow still stuck on the phrase "occasional terrorist attacks", but others may be feeling the warm, fuzzy thoughts of personal safety due to Ziegler's relativity theory.


Speaking of relativity, don't relatives, and humans in general say the darndest things? Here's a comment posing as a compliment: "You're not as fat as you used to be". Gee thanks.


It appears interesting word choices aren't limited to individuals and web content. A couple of minor political parties were called "Locofocos" and "Coodies". Was health care reform in their party platforms?

Ah, yes the beautiful word choices make life so interesting. N'est-ce pas?

Monday, March 8, 2010

#59

"I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything." Cecilia in The Purple Rose of Cairo.


Her fictional man surely had a great pick-up line to entice her into romance. If popular protagonists were able to leap off the page or screen, what would their lines be? Here are some possibilities:

Superman: "They don't call me the Man of Steel for nothing!"

Captain Kirk: "I will boldy go where no man has gone before."

Hamlet: "To be or not to be - that is the question, but it's not the ONLY question. What are you doing Saturday night?"

Pandora: "Wanna play with my box?"

Medusa: "Whaddya think of my killer looks?"

Batman: "Come check out my pole in the Bat Cave"

Moby Dick: "Enough said. Oh wait, I'm a whale..."

A text from Peter Pan: "Hey baby. I can make you fly ;)"

Aphrodite: "I'm not too shabby on the half shell. I am the goddess of love and horniness after all....just sayin' "

Winnie the Pooh: "How about a taste 'o honey, honey? Oh wait, I'm a teddy bear..."

Big Brother: "I like to watch."

Harry Potter: "I can do wonderful things with my wand."

Tigger:  "I'm bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!!!! Oh wait, I'm a tiger who's really a plushie in a little boy's bedroom...."

Thing (Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four): "Why do you think they call me Thing? Do the descriptions "superhuman endurance" and "stone-like flesh" mean anything to you?"

Human Torch (Johnny Storm of The Fantastic Four): "I'm hot"

Eeyore: "I'm an ass. Don't bother."

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

#58

"Lost in translation" is an interesting phrase . But what about comedy in translation? Here are two possibilities:


"Diderot dîne sur les dents d'un dindon". This French tongue twister means "Diderot dines on the teeth of a turkey". Yum! Or was that "Diderot dîne sur le dos d'un dindon"? Diderot dines on the back of a turkey. This seems implausible as a turkey could never hold the weight of both Diderot and the dining table plus silver and glassware!! Something got lost before translation.


"Ben jo" is the Japanese word for toilet and sounds like the English word "banjo" so don't go singing "For I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee" in Tokyo unless you're into funny looks.


Language isn't the only thing that gets lost in translation. Fashion does after so many years - just think of the mullet. Actually, let's not.


Hair wasn't the only regrettable thing in the '80s. Somehow neon green, yellow, orange, and magenta replaced the warmth in the color wheel. It was as if  '60s psychedelia got horribly sick! Why did so many princesses try to discover if they were an "autumn", "spring", "summer", or "winter" when fashion upchuck was splattered everywhere?


It's definitely a good thing '80s fashion got lost, period, never mind any mention of translating it! Certain things need to be left undecipherable. Though many princesses wonder, "What were we thinking?"


So words, fashion, foreign languages, and the '80s can be oh so confusing to the best of us. It's so easy to get lost without even beginning translation!