Category Archives: Humor

Your Friday Moment of Zen: 'tellectuals

Is it bad that some of this dialogue sounds like something I’ve recently written?

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Victory! (Part Two)

Go back to Part One Go forward to Part Three

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Victory! (Part Three)

Go to Victory! (Part Two)/ Go to Victory! (Part One)

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Translating Film Subtitles 1

One of the few bright spots in Chris Weitz’s screenplay for the Golden Compass were the lines spoken by the villainous Tatars. Just before the final battle begins, Lyra walks up to the line of armed men with their daemon wolves and spits. The ringleader answers by saying to another man, “Дай волчонку полакомиться.” “Set your wolf on that child,” go the subtitles and that’s probably what Weitz wrote for someone to translate. The actual Russian: “Treat your cub to a snack.”…

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Correlations

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On dangers of (re)naming

When I worked in business, I had a client who picked a new name after a merger. The name meant something rather obscene in Portuguese, but, despite relying on Brazilian revenues, the company had already invested too much money in … Continue reading

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A Dirndl? Really?

23D. Seven letters. Tight-bodiced dresses “Dirndls,” Mrs. Cohen and Shortz? Really? One of the most common ways to tease an Eastern European in America is to mention the number of consonants languages like Polish and Ukrainian string in a row. … Continue reading

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Ladies and Gentelmen, we’ve got competition

Chimpanzees living in the West African savannah have been observed fashioning what gives every indication of being pencil-like tools from short, thin sticks and then using them in a manner suggesting to researchers that the chimps are in the early … Continue reading

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Izbas

I was looking up the construction of izbas [pdf with pictures], the rustic Russian loghouses, and came across this joke. Pardon the Russianness. Русские умельцы 11 века могли построить избу, имея при себе только топор, или построить корабль без единого … Continue reading

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A Writer’s Valentine

From Inkygirl, a hilarious Valentine (comic) for writers. I might pass this around to my novella classmates. Or better yet, my intro class students tomorrow.

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