So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Turnip]

Stercus Accidit

Besser eine Blinde auf dem Sofa als eine Taube auf dem Dach.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Besser eine Blinde auf dem Sofa als eine Taube auf dem Dach.

Being a big fan of languages, of German, and of funny idiomatic sayings, I’d love to know the wordplay and hidden message in that one!

p.s. — A friend in Palm Desert, California, just texted me that it is 112F (44.4 C) where she lives.

 

[tonyb]

Besser eine Blinde auf dem Sofa als eine Taube auf dem Dach.

I just love it when you guys talk dirty.

I do worry about the drought and heat in the southwest. Colorado river drying up, great Salt lake disappearing, etc.
when I was growing up in L.A., we used to comment about how future archaeologists would one day marvel that that desert environment had ever been the location of such a megalopolis.

It’s semi-arid here. If you don’t water a lawn, you don’t have a lawn.

The lovely missus and I are looking to xeriscape the front yard, where now there is some grass and some other things that might be considered weeds. At least it’s all green, if various shades thereof.

All the front yard does anyway is buffer the house from the street and sidewalk. Rock and drought-tolerant plants do that every bit as effectively as what’s there now.

We have three ash trees in the backyard, which provide enough shade to significantly reduce the water demand for the lawn (such as it is) back there. Our dog needs a place to romp, and poop, so rock won’t do.

 

[GHT]

Being a big fan of languages, of German, and of funny idiomatic sayings, I’d love to know the wordplay and hidden message in that one!

It translates to: Better a blind woman on the sofa than a deaf man on the roof.
But my guess is that the wordplay is akin to something like: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Is this a real place?? New York?

 

[Fifty150]

Reminds me of Windows on the World

 

[Turnip]

Being a big fan of languages, of German, and of funny idiomatic sayings, I’d love to know the wordplay and hidden message in that one!

p.s. — A friend in Palm Desert, California, just texted me that it is 112F (44.4 C) where she lives.

The original German saying translates „Better the sparrow in the hand than the pigeon on the roof“.

Pigeon = Taube = Bird and deaf woman in German.

Taube:

Taube:

Sparrow translated to Austrian German makes the wordplay even nicer by the way.
Austrian „Spatzi“ = …

 

[Turnip]

It translates to: Better a blind woman on the sofa than a deaf man on the roof.
…

Deaf woman.

Deaf man would translate to Tauber.

Taube

Tauber

 

[Tiki Tom]

Thanks. I will try to use that phrase with my know-it-all daughters who are, unlike me, completely bilingual.

Them, in middle school: “Dad, don’t speak German in public! You are embarrassing us!” We lived in Vienna at the time, and that typical early-teen remark really hurt. I actually fancy that my German is very respectable, certainly conversational. But I do admit that I have a thick American accent. Kids. I still feel The sting of that remark.

Speaking of languages…. For almost a year, now, I have been studying the Hawaiian language using the app “Duolingo“. It’s a fun app. Typically you take one lesson per day for ten or fifteen minutes per lesson. Many other languages are also available. I recommend it… it’s as easy as doing a crossword puzzle or playing a game of scrabble. Regarding the Hawaiian, I’ve gained a bunch of vocabulary and some basic sentence structure. However, in real life, I have yet to meet anyone who actually speaks Hawaiian. I know they are out there, about 1% of the population of Hawaii speaks Hawaiian. Although it is an official state language. Don’t get me started. Hawaii has had the hell colonized out of it. It’s beautiful, but it might as well be New Jersey with palm trees. And I don’t mean that in a good way. But yeah, the language is interesting and they are hoping to revive it and resurrect it from being an almost extinct language. Hebrew is a fascinating example of a language that was successfully brought back from the edge. So it is possible.

 

[Bushman]

I do worry about the drought and heat in the southwest. Colorado river drying up, great Salt lake disappearing, etc.
when I was growing up in L.A., we used to comment about how future archaeologists would one day marvel that that desert environment had ever been the location of such a megalopolis.

I always say, it puzzles me how people will build a city in a desert, then wonder where the water is.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always say, it puzzles me how people will build a city in a desert, then wonder where the water is.

I always thought the very fact that a population exists in Southern California was the very definition of human hubris.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I always thought the very fact that a population exists in Southern California was the very definition of human hubris.

Ah, that´s, where the song comes from!

 

[Zombie_61]

I always thought the very fact that a population exists in Southern California was the very definition of human hubris.

At the very least, I've always thought they should have put far more thought into how to get enough water into the populated areas. But then, these are the same "geniuses" who put pipes underground with a working life expectancy of 75 years, using the mindset that they would all be dead by then and that it would be the next generations' problem when those pipes began to fail. And there is still a sizeable percentage of the population that stands around scratching their heads whenever one of these antique pipes breaks and a) floods a street, or b) creates a sinkhole.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Another example of bad manners in the new low class Britain: emails from staff at often well-established companies that begin ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Afternoon’ without troubling to write the name of the person being addressed. I have experienced this recently with several companies I have worked with for years. Often the email ends with something equally bad mannered like ‘Thanks’ to which the answer should be an equally rude ‘F*** off’. What happened to Yours sincerely or Yours or Best wishes?

Each time this has happened recently I have sent back the email with a letter of complaint to most senior chap at said company, saying that I will take my business elsewhere if it happens again. I don’t know if it is a ‘gender’ thing as it seems to be females (usually young and part-time, with worthless university qualifications) who do this. I only employ men (mostly foreign) and so I wouldn’t know.

Is this just a new Brexitland thing or does it happen in other countries?

 

[GHT]

Speaking of languages…. For almost a year, now, I have been studying the Hawaiian language using the app “Duolingo“. It’s a fun app. Typically you take one lesson per day for ten or fifteen minutes per lesson. Many other languages are also available. I recommend it.

How's your Welsh?
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a large village and community on Anglesey, an island in Wales. In a 2018 study, it had a population of 2,999 residents.

It is famous for having for the longest place name in Europe and the second-longest official one-word place name in the world, right after the hill Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu located in Pōrangahau, New Zealand.

 

[Zombie_61]

Another example of bad manners in the new low class Britain: emails from staff at often well-established companies that begin ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Afternoon’ without troubling to write the name of the person being addressed. I have experienced this recently with several companies I have worked with for years. Often the email ends with something equally bad mannered like ‘Thanks’ to which the answer should be an equally rude ‘F*** off’. What happened to Yours sincerely or Yours or Best wishes?

Each time this has happened recently I have sent back the email with a letter of complaint to most senior chap at said company, saying that I will take my business elsewhere if it happens again. I don’t know if it is a ‘gender’ thing as it seems to be females (usually young and part-time, with worthless university qualifications) who do this. I only employ men (mostly foreign) and so I wouldn’t know.

Is this just a new Brexitland thing or does it happen in other countries?

The "relaxed" attitude involved in pretty much everything these days is not restricted to the UK. If it's just a one-time "bait" e-mail or text I just delete it and go about my day because if you reply they know they have a valid e-mail address/phone number. But if it becomes repetitive my usual response is along the lines of "F*** off" as you wrote above.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Something else that is trivial that annoys me —-and I didn’t even know about it until very recently: Apparently young people these days are in the habit of always carrying a quart-sized metal water bottle with them at all times. In the case of my niece and nephew, these water bottles are covered with stickers that advertise how “out there” they are. (Goes without saying that plastic bottles are a crime against the environment.) Anyway, the point of these water bottles is that staying hydrated and drinking enough water advertises how sporty a person is. But here is the trivial thing that bothers me: they Feel compelled to bring these ugly bottles with them to the dinner table and sip from them during the meal. Glasses are apparently not good enough. Trivial, I know.

Speaking of what a dinosaur I am, I took my wife aside and discreetly asked her if it would be alright if I asked her nephew to take his baseball cap off during dinner. The look of horror on her face told me that I was going too far. (BTW, these two are 28 and 31, respectively. It’s not like they are kids.) I’m open to the suggestion that I’m hopelessly out of touch with the times.

 

[Fifty150]

asked her nephew to take his baseball cap off

You may as well ask him to dress for dinner. Request that he wear a dinner jacket. Make your house "black tie".

As I discovered in real life, nobody really knows what it means when invitations read "semi formal", "black tie", "formal", or "white tie". Because people in general no longer care to follow those rules of etiquette. Which makes sense to me. A lot of us have no desire to follow rules of clothing which are only observed by The Royal Family. I can count zero men I know, who own a tuxedo. Which means, I can count zero men I know, who have a tail coat and a top hat. I was the only person I knew, who knew how to tie a bow tie.

I am okay with it. My grandparents generation first broke the rules. They stopped dressing for travel. Now, you see those old guys with cabana shirts, tucked into high waisted shorts, and knee high white socks; on cruise ships, at resorts, and everywhere they want to go dressed like that. My generation wore jeans and t-shirts. The generation after mine, easily fell into the culture of wearing khakis and polo shirts to weddings.

 

[Turnip]

I recently joined a marriage party and knowing that usually drinks I don’t like basing on very trivial booze I wouldn’t voluntarily drink get served at such occasions I had a nice little 6oz hip flask of single malt with me. Some young folks stared at me like I was an alien with burning clothes when I took it out first time.
Maybe that might be worth a try next time at your end.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Something else that is trivial that annoys me —-and I didn’t even know about it until very recently: Apparently young people these days are in the habit of always carrying a quart-sized metal water bottle with them at all times. In the case of my niece and nephew, these water bottles are covered with stickers that advertise how “out there” they are. (Goes without saying that plastic bottles are a crime against the environment.) Anyway, the point of these water bottles is that staying hydrated and drinking enough water advertises how sporty a person is. But here is the trivial thing that bothers me: they Feel compelled to bring these ugly bottles with them to the dinner table and sip from them during the meal. Glasses are apparently not good enough. Trivial, I know.

Speaking of what a dinosaur I am, I took my wife aside and discreetly asked her if it would be alright if I asked her nephew to take his baseball cap off during dinner. The look of horror on her face told me that I was going too far. (BTW, these two are 28 and 31, respectively. It’s not like they are kids.) I’m open to the suggestion that I’m hopelessly out of touch with the times.

At least he was wearing his baseball cap the right way round I presume?