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
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?
:)
My apologies to Herr Pest and Mathieu; this has been reproduced without their permission. Will get down to the task of asking them, in German and French respectively.
ReplyDeletehehehehehe....hilarious!`
ReplyDeleteespecially the last paragraph.
hehehehehe....hilarious!`
ReplyDeleteespecially the last paragraph.
Merci, Sonu. I'm glad it's making more than one person smile :D
ReplyDeleteWow, What does your dad do? Sounds interesting!
ReplyDelete"May I ask you to tell me whether and under which conditions you would be ready to share the video?"
This would so fit in a scene where a man stands, hat pulled over his head in a dark alleyway, with a phone in his hand as one of those black-and-white yellow cabbies pass by.
I watch a lot of movies don't I? Sigh.
And funny stuff. :)). French is an awesome language though.
And me? See, way down there? in the middle of the ring? I am the clown who does the job he is meant to do, when all others end up being like him inadvertently. :)
@the above comment,
It sure did make two sonus smile :P
he he he he!
ReplyDeletelanguage truly is a circus!
:P
ReplyDeletethanks, you guys.
:P
ReplyDeletethanks, you guys.
uhhh....all my comments are being posted twice.see how much i mean them?:P
ReplyDeletevini,why isnt there a dustbin there so that i can delete the comments?
uhhh....all my comments are being posted twice.see how much i mean them?:P
ReplyDeletevini,why isnt there a dustbin there so that i can delete the comments?
I don't know why, but it is funny :P
ReplyDeleteI don't know why, but it is funny :P
ReplyDeleteThe person who sells the tickets to the show perhaps :P
ReplyDeleteAnd hilarious text message :D
How was the movie ? Did you like it ?
It's an interesting daydream, to imagine yourself as an acrobat. Specially if you're listening to Oasis; they have such a swinging sound. I'm thinking of an ambigram for your clown name, btw :)
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't go for the movie! I had college, JJ fell ill. But then he organised a movie show for the entire class which was really funny - Asterix and Obelix: Mission Kleopatra. It was specially hilarious because the movie had a kissing scene between Cesar and Kleopatra (played by the very sensual Monica Belluci) and this bunch of 10-something kids couldn't stop guffawing and pseud-covering their eyes :P
ReplyDeletehilarious...
ReplyDeletemr. pest.... ha how poor parents trture their kids.
and by this i mean mr. pests parents and many more unfortunate ppl who have superbly hilarious names.
btw my granma was going to name me hiranmayee... thanks to my eyes.
amma intervenes. thank god!!