Le Zirkus!

Dad got a mail from a certain Herr Wolfgang Pest about a video he'd seen on the AIAA website. This is a reproduction:

Dear Prof. Pant,

in Airship Journal of December 2007, a review of the AIAA conference in Belfast appeared and there was mentioned that you showed a video there of a burning hydrogen-filled balloon which - no surprise to science-biased people - did not explode. We considered ourselves to perform such an experiment in order to counteract the "Hindenburg syndrome", however, if we might have a copy of your video, we could save that effort.

May I ask you to tell me whether and under which conditions you would be ready to share the video?

Thank you in advance,

Sincerely,

Wolfgang Pest

Initiative Zukunft in Brand e.V.

Chairman

P.S. Charles Luffman was so friendly to give me your e-mail address.

What I find even funnier was the way Dad began his reply.

Dear Mr. Pest,
May I begin by saying just how interesting your name sounds..

Nah, I'm just goofing this time. In another case of being transformed in translation was a message sent by my French teacher, Mathieu. JJ and I were supposed to meet him and go for a French movie at Kalina University. And zees ees wat appened:

Hello it's mathieu tomorow the apointememt is at 9:45 am to the main gate, the begin of the movie is at 10:45am to the kalina university. regards its not my cell number.


I have come to the conclusion that language is like a big circus, with nouns, verbs, adjectives, punctuation, syllable stresses and other such distresses all swinging and jumping around like acrobats and jokers. It's all one big Grand Show, and everybody's an active audience. Where are you?
:)

The Sad But True Tale Of Old MacArthur - II

Old MacArthur had plenty o' time
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

So he drafted something called Article 9
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

He was classically conditioned
To do as he listened

And he loved sushi anyway.


Old MacArthur held the Japs in his sway
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

He could see their strict chopsticks thawing away
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

He gave them a Constitution
And a parliamentary institution

They were sick of General Sadao's baton anyway.


Old MacArthur was the new Oriental hero
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

Till North and South Korea had a row
(Ee-eye-eye-oh)

One was Red, the other was the Dollar
Mackie was shit-scared 'bout his own collar

These Communist dominoes were encroaching anyway.


Old MacArthur had itchy, rifle-quick hands
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

But Truman wouldn't give in to his trigger-happy demands
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

Mackie appealed to the American people
But Truman hung his ass from the Presidential steeple

He never liked the word SCAP anyway.


Old MacArthur was replaced with Ridgeway
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

The Japs watched with incredulity and dismay
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

They learnt their first Democratic lesson
Never mess with a Whitehouse summon

They knew militarism was unfashionable anyway.

(To be updated later)

Old MacArthur fussed and fumed
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

While Japan's cherry blossoms bloomed
(Ee-eye-ee-eye-oh)

Their GDP leapt and leapt some more
They soon began keeping international score

The white man was unburdened for the day.

Sweet Tooth

Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way.

Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.

Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he looks like Robert Redford.

Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.

Quitting on time

Can I skip the footstep
And go for a run?

Can I close my eyes
And open them when I please?

Can I unbeep the digital
And unwind the analog?

Can I miss tomorrow
And have the fortnight?