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Ma Vie en Rose
Bought the Larousse Advanced French-English English-French Dictionary yesterday. God those things are expensive. I have a very troubled past with the French language. Love/hate. But I’ve gotten to a point where I need to have a French dictionary. Love Who doesn’t love the expats in the 1920s? I mean, I adore those guys. F Scott […]
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The Bo Po Mo Fo, or Zhuyin Grid
PinYin Combo Chart- amazing grid. From Yellow Bridge. ba pa ma fa da ta na la ga ka ha za ca sa zha cha sha Just a snippet of what my instructor wrote on the board that fateful day of 101 Chinese. In chat this morning with my brother-in-law, we got in a protracted conversation […]
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5 Things
Yes, it’s a blog chain mail- meme- but also it’s short and sweet, really. This one is “5 things that you may not know about me”… and since the audience runs the spectrum, from new friends to old friends, friends in Turkey (Merhaba!) and France, (Salut!)- so it’s quite hard to find things that I […]
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Ba-Uh-More
Things I appreciate about Baltimore, at least what I’ve seen of it, which isn’t a lot. These great deciduous woods. And how there’s a reason to look like someone from an LL Bean catalog- I mean, it’s cold there. Really cold. Burn the tip of your nose with freezing wind, cold. The interesting accent: “Li-uh-ih-uh-lee” […]
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YouTube Translations
So I get YouTube “top most viewed” RSS feed in my Bloglines- it’s very entertaining, and keeps you up on the latest silly amateur videos. I am reading this Russian thread “Кто мог бы быть президентом?” – “ktoh- mog boy boyt prezedentum” “who should be (more like can) president” on a movie with Putin quoting […]
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Jade and Chinese Kinship Terms
金縷玉衣- Jin lu yu yi – Jade burial suit, with silk thread I love jade. I just gave my oldest of my niece the name “xiao yu” little Jade. Sounds like a hooker name, but hey, maybe it’s not. I think “silver willow” or “soft ostrich” would be more hooker-sounding. Last night this guy from […]
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Sarcasm
I don’t like sarcasm. I think it is a very easy form of humor, like slapstick. You just need to invert meaning, and voila! You have made a (quasi-humorous) joke. People who are very sarcastic, seem to me that they have a difficulty expressing how they feel. I realize I use it wrong. I tend […]
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Freudian Typos
reason snot. Originally intended on typing: “reasons not”. Real Freudian subtextual meaning: the mucusy after product of making a (probably bad) decision. abou tit. Originally intended on typing: “about it”. Real Freudian meaning: your father’s breast, in Muslim worlds. The “abu” or father figure, has a caring, female, nurturing side. But it’s a kind of […]
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Kiwi-Isms
(more from wife of Kiwi) I started a small list post-trip a few weeks ago. this last trip was a real doozy in terms of kiwi slang. off the top of my head and of course you can confirm with gavino: chooka (spelling?): full. “The place was chooka with soccer fans.” chook: chicken crook: sick, […]
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Nautical Expressions
Cap’t Engine Cleaner emailed me “break the lead” and in researching nautical expressions trying to figure out what she meant, I got hooked. Now I get to test your knowledge: match the words to the definitions: scuttlebutt “no room to swing a cat” “splice the mainbrace” “minding your Ps and Qs” “in the offing” “freeze […]