November 21, 2005

• Why studying Russian is like seppuku (Japanese samurai suicide), reason #2,245,355:
  the verb skladivat has the following meanings:
  1. to double up
  2. to put together
  3. to pile up
  4. to furl, which means "to wrap or roll"

  
  

  Okay, so these make sense, kind of.
  But then look at this one:

  
  

  5. to cancel

  
  

  Can we say Non-sequitur?  (by the way, Wikipedia has a funny definition of this word - I was afraid I wasn't using it right - and then a hilarious explanation of the Chewbacca defense, used in South Park.)

  
  

  
  Random, pleasant taxi driver experience
  An Uzbek taxi driver and I had a pleasant conversation last night, IN KOREAN!  He had worked in Korea for 3 years in a factory and therefore spoke Korean pretty much fluently.   

  
  

  "Did you call myself?"

  
  

  We are so starved for entertainment here that every time a certain group of singles gets together, I type up mintues. It's also for the benefit of one of our friends who has abandoned us for the land of the "fat and the free".  So here's an account of a recent dinner:

  
  

  Our waiter was an enthusiastic English speaker who, after we would call him, would say to us, innocently “did you call myself?”  WA was tempted to answer “you no mywife have?”  Every time he’d come by, he’d have a new piece of information for us:
  
  Waiter: (bringing us more bread) I studied English at the Institute.
  Waiter: (bringing Baby Darling a whole new place setting, even though we were finished eating) I studied in England.
  Waiter: (bringing us Baklava) My name is Vadim.
  Waiter: (bringing us the check) I wear Calvin Klein underwear.
  

  • 6:21 am
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