So while reading a Harry Potter book in German, I took several seconds to correctly read the word Muggelangelegenheiten. This word, meaning "Muggle Affairs", contains the following possible German phrases which have nothing to do with the real meaning: Mugge, Gel, Elan, Lang, Lange legen, Angel and Gen. The words translate as follows: gig, gel, elan, long, to lay for a long time, fishing, and genetic, which is enough to form the plot summary of a short novel.
Language experts think that constructions such as
Muggel-Angelegenheiten or MuggelAngelegenheiten are ugly. Maybe I should stop reading Harry Potter books and get a job.
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A letter to the editor of the Guardian had me laughing this morning. I think the credit goes back to the Marx Brothers.
Jonathan Powell on Tony Blair (Weekend, March 15): "He would get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and write in his underpants." No wonder it took him a long time to learn how to use a computer.
Bryan Morgan
Worksop, Nottinghamshire
In fact, having looked at the link, the original extended quote is even better
Blair felt he needed to pen his own words - in longhand. "He would get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and write in his underpants, then we'd have to dash downstairs and give it to the Garden Girls [the No 10 secretaries] to type it up... it was complete misery for the rest of us."
2 comments:
The Marx brothers were truly genius. Anyone who enjoys Animal Crackers and Duck Soup should really read Harpo Marx's biography - available from all good Kryptikmo libraries. It was my introduction to the Algonquin roundtable, and the delights of Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley. While there's been a kickback against Woolcott, Kaufmann, Bankhead, etc. they are some of the funniest people I can imagine. Which is a very un-Algonquin sentiment.
I have a lot to catch up on, I see.
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