I guess that it means what it means. I'd suspect that "the longest day" in this context does not have the same meaning as "der längste Tag". Languages can be a headache; the classic example is the Chevy Nova automobile is the non-complimentary "No Va" in Spanish.

--Bill

Which story is an urban myth, and not a particularly plausible one from the point of view of Spanish -- where nova has exactly the same meaning as it does in English, i.e. an exploding white dwarf, appearing as a brief but bright star in the sky. One might as well suggest that the name was badly chosen, even in English, because it suggests that the car will fade from view in a matter of days, or that it will explode!

See further http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

A name like "Nova" isn't going to help you in Spanish-speaking countries.. Imagine a car called the "Nogo" in America. Sure, rationally you realize that in whatever country it comes from it means something else, but come on, it's still called the "Nogo". And if the car isn't that great in the first place, it's just more fuel for the fire..

We're getting, er, somewhat off the subject, but just remember that the SENTENCE "No va" in Spanish means, "It doesn't run"... Don't tell me that didn't have an effect on sales. (Of course, for the same reason, I'm still trying to figure out how Grey Poupon sells so well in America.)

That's still not as bad as when Coca-Cola tried to market its product in China. They found a Chinese phrase that sounded like "Coca-Cola," but after they had the campaign in place, they discovered that the phrase chosen actually translated out to "Bite the wax tadpole."

-the other Doug

Yes, we're definitely getting off topic here!

Actually, in Spanish, "Nova" doesn't sound as "No va", because in "Nova" the accent is put on the O, while in "No va" the accent is put on the A. There are a lot of bussiness here using the name Nova... even a credit card, NovaCash...

What was really embarrasing here in Latin America was the launch of the Mitsubishi Pajero. "Pajero" here, is a common word for describing someone who abuses of masturbation... not a good omen for a car! so it was quickly renamed as "Mitsubishi Montero"...

Ricardo

Off topic or not... Poupon... Good one, Bruce!

Phil

According to Newsweek, the theocrats who run Iran were terrified of the idea that Dole might win the 1996 election -- not so much because of his policies but because "dole" is Farsi for "penis", and if he won they'd have to print that regularly in their newspaper headlines.

This is not quite an urban legend, in that it has a grain of truth to it; "Dole" in Farsi could be spelled dal-lam, and dal-vav-lam, and one of the pronunciations of the latter (approximately "dool") could raise a smile. (Naturally, Farsi newspapers opted for the first spelling.)
However, "dool" is not the really objectionable Farsi word for "penis"; it's a very childish sort of slang, sort of like "weewee" or "winkle" in English, and is only used about children. It's laughable but not offensive. So the part of the legend about "the theocrats... were terrified" is not plausible. In fact, they would probably enjoy having an American President with a name that is easily mocked. Consider how much mileage the two Bushes got out of "sad damn". Not that I'd really want to make fun of other people's names, if my name were "Bush".

The "bite the wax tadpole" story is another urban myth, btw.

I do have to admit, during last year's Presidential campaign, I *did* see a few bumper stickers featuring the simple, two-word sentence, "Lick Bush." At that point, I probably came the closest it's possible for me to come to feeling sorry for the guy...



-the other Doug

This particular case may be an urban myth, but transcribing foreign names into chinese can have hilarious results, since the only way to do it is to pick characters that sound somewhat like the word You are trying to transcribe, regardless of their meaning.

Fitzroy Maclean claims in his book "Eastern Approaches" that the chinese transcription of his name "Ma-Keling" means "The horse that corrupts the morals".

Incidentally this thread is an excellent illustration of a well-known rule of psychology:

"If it is possible in any way, no matter how far-fetched, to interpret something to have a sexual meaning, this is how everybody without exceptions will interpret it"

tty

Yeah but the thing is anything can be interpreted to have sexual meaning. I think, though, that this is just the most obvious example of seeing what you want to see, since most people seem more interested in sex than anything else. In reality, the universe is simply infinite and people tend to see what they think they should see. If something extremely different comes along, they will eventually see it as extremely different, after a while. And.. the only reason anything is extremely different is because somebody points it out, and that person is inarguably looking for attention, and the only reason to get attention? Why, to try to achieve sexual gratification, of course. Once people are old and their genitalia ceases working as well, they tend to not do much of anything. Some people are horny forever, though, it seems.

Particle/wave duality is an obviously observable example of this, and what is a wave, anyway? Or a particle? Nobody can really say, at some point you just assume something exists as-is.

The real question is why anything exists at all, but I submit that that is only a mystery due to the rather simple brains into which we have forced ourselves in an effort to make infinity a bit more easily analyzed. I would also submit that existing as an infinite being in an infinite universe would get dull rather quickly, since you could do everything instantaneously (and thus you would instantaneously shove yourself into multiple brains that took much [infinite?] time to finish.. unless you liked having nothing new to do for all eternity).

I humbly suggest that admin move the non topic parts we've sen lately over to the "Community Chit Chat" section please.

Home for the really REALLY off topic stuff

That's fine but whatever you do, don't move the Lipovitan D posts. They got us national press in Japan.