'Allo, 'Allo ... ?

So, I was watching a movie that had subtitles the other day and it got me thinking about accents.

For instance, in Spain, do they have a character is a TV show who is French but talks Spanish with a French accent ... so we know he's French?  It's like the old war movies where the Germans speak English but with a "German" accent.  "Ve have vays of making you tok ... " sort of thing.  Sorry, I hope this isn't considered racist in any way,  I'm just really curious as to how other country's accents sound in another country's language.  It happens in English-speaking movies and TV, so I can only assume it happens in other countries.  Presumably you can speak Chinese with a Japanese accent?  Or Japanese with a Korean accent?

It reminds me of something my Dutch sister-in-law mentioned when they were visiting South Africa. She said she sometimes heard people say something in Afrikaans and then repeat it in English for her and my (English) brother.  She found it a little confusing at first as she wondered why people kept saying everything twice.  I gather that Afrikaans is based on the Dutch language.

There used to be a TV comedy show in the UK called 'Allo 'Allo about the French resistance during World War II.  The owners of a cafe in France had the usual "French" accent, and the two British soldiers waiting to be rescued were over-the-top British (I say, chaps, what's for tea?  Tally ho! ) There was another British guy who was undercover as a French policeman, but his French was pretty appalling.  So how do you get that across to the audience when everyone is actually speaking English?  Are you still with me on this?  He sometimes used to say the wrong word ... "good moaning" for "good morning" or "wonk" for "work".  That's how you do it.

With English being the language of business around the world, as well as aviation, I think we forget that what happens in English probably also happens in most other languages.  Having moved from the UK to the US, I was surprised that the British seemed to have so many more slang words for every day things.  Maybe it's a question of the size of the country?

Just to show my age here, there was another great TV series in Britain called "Call My Bluff" and it had two teams of three people who each had to give the definition of an unheard of and usually unpronounceable word, and the other team had to decide which of the three words was genuine.  The words they described - both real and imagined - were just incredible, and the convoluted stories the contestants came up with were wonderful.

I love language.  Words.  Scrabble.  Dictionaries.  Crosswords.

And maps.  But that's probably something for another day.




Image: Copyright: andreykuzmin / 123RF Stock Photo

Glass Slippers

I know there are a lot of things going on in the world that we should be thinking about  - terrorism, natural disasters, hunger, war, politics, Brexit … the list is endless.

But.

I was thinking.

Why didn’t Cinderella’s glass slipper disappear at the stroke of midnight?  Seriously.  The carriage turned back into a pumpkin.  Likewise the mice, rats and lizards returned to their natural form.  So did the dress.

But.

Not the glass slippers.  Or should I say one slipper, as that’s the token that the Prince carries around to each house in the land to find the girl he’d danced with at the ball.

Is that one magical piece of footwear, or what?  That’s a very smart Fairy Godmother too, since she must have known the importance of the shoe ahead of time.  Very cunning, these fairytale magicians.

I haven’t done a web search on this particular subject (probably worried about what I might find out there in the big wide yonder …) so I have no idea if the conundrum has ever been solved, or what conspiracy theories are out there.  Or more to the point - is anyone else wasting even a tiny smattering of their day contemplating this matter?

Interestingly, I just looked up Cinderella on the internet and Wikipedia makes for a fascinating read.  Apparently the “Cinders” figure turns up in all sorts of folklore around the world, and the glass slipper is sometimes an anklet, and in Asian stories, there are fish bones and swings involved.  One story has “Cinders” singing and the Prince recognizes her voice above all others.  Another shows “Cinders” planting a hazel tree over her mother’s grave and a dove in the tree gives her what she wishes for, instead of a Fairy Godmother.   In some countries, her name is more like “Ash Pot”, which I suppose is a variation of Cinderella.

I had no idea that a story with this basic plot could be found in so many countries, and how old the story was, as well.  There are some versions from 1634 or older (that’s assuming that everything in Wikipedia is correct … hahahaha!).

Maybe now I’ve posted this to the Blog, I’ll venture out into the brain of Google and waste a few minutes solving the problem, then I can go back to thinking about Brexit, runaway trucks, etc. 

Or maybe not.

Cow Fart Bags?

Seriously, California ... ??

I just read that, in September 2016, the Governor of California signed a bill regulating greenhouse gas emissions related to dairy farming.  He's talking about methane ... cow farts.

The State is giving money to help some of the dairy farmers buy "digesters" which convert methane from manure into energy that can be sold back to the utility companies.  Dairy farmers aren't too happy about all this as there's not enough money to provide the technology to everyone, but they will still be required to reduce the amount of manure produced.  The best way to do that, apparently, is to give the cows more expensive food ... better quality in, better quality out, I suppose.

I agree that the idea of reducing greenhouse gases is a good one, but surely this Bill will have so many unintended consequences, the least of which is price rises and job losses.  It's predicted that farmers will just sell up in California, and start farming in other States, which really doesn't help the initial problem ... the cows will still fart and poop, whether they're in California or Wisconsin, thereby making absolutely no difference to the climate (unless you're downwind, of course!).

A year or so ago, scientists in Argentina figured out that this particular cow byproduct can be useful to be converted to energy, and have invented a backpack to collect the ... er ... gas.  A tube is stuck in the cow's rumen and the gas is then stored in the inflatable bag.  The methane gas goes through various processes to make it suitable to use as electricity, and thereby keeping it out of the atmosphere.  This is all in the R and D stage, and there are definitely some ethics questions arising too, but it's one solution to the problem of what to do with the south bound end of a north bound cow.

I'm not sure if this is just putting a band-aid on the problem, rather than solving it.  Is the solution to eat less meat?  I'm sure that comes with its own set of problems regarding land needed for cultivation of crops, and the vast amounts of water and chemicals used by the agricultural industry.  I think we should all go back to having a kitchen garden, or the apartment equivalent, and more community gardens .. although that brings it's own problems too.  There is a local garden near where I live and I noticed that people were mainly growing flowers.  I found out that they don't grow many veggies because people come in overnight and steal the vegetables.  Do you put a high fence and locked gate around the gardens?  Should we be pleased that thieves are getting their five-a-day?  There are so many solutions to the original problem, but each brings with it a new set of problems. A debate for another day!



Photo courtesy of Ecouterre at ecouterre.com

The World's Oldest Bell Foundry

I hate reading this kind of news - I believe that any society needs a healthy combination of history and tradition, mixed with the new and contemporary, but sometimes instead of running side by side, one replaces the other.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry that made both Big Ben and the Liberty Bell is closing.  The Guiness Book of World Records lists the company as the oldest manufacturing firm in Britain, formed in 1570, during the reign of Elizabeth I.  It moved to its current location in Whitechapel over 300 years ago.

Big Ben is the name of the bell in the Elizabeth Tower (formerly St Stephen's Tower) at the Houses of Parliament.  The foundry cast Big Ben - the hour bell of Augustus Pugin's Great Clock of Westminster - which weighs 13.5 tons and is 7 ft high and has a diameter of 10 ft.

According to records, transporting Big Ben the few miles from the foundry to the Houses of Parliament was a major event.  Traffic was stopped as the bell, mounted on a trolley drawn by sixteen brightly beribboned horses, made its way over London Bridge to Westminster.  The bells first rang out across London on May 31st 1859.

Unfortunately, new churches aren't being built, but Britons love the sound of church bells, so work continues on replacements and maintenance of the older bells.  The company has diversified in recent years, making traditional doorbells for those restoring older properties, as well as small table bells being ordered by American fans of Downton Abbey, so they can ring for tea.

Although Big Ben was cast in 1858, the foundry had previously cast the original Liberty Bell in 1742, as well as the bells for St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney and the National Cathedral in Washington DC, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London.



For more details - and some great photos - check out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3993440/Owners-famous-Whitechapel-Bell-Foundry-Big-Ben-cast-reveal-close-retirement-ending-connection-East-End-dating-250-years.html