Portsmouth, translating … Living the cliché … FRVCTVS 18th of March, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 01:25

Two things that made me laugh yesterday—firstly, from a British soldier via the Umm Qasr Wikipedia article, in response to a comparison of the city with Southampton:

“There’s no beer, no prostitutes and people are shooting at us. It’s more like Portsmouth.” 

Secondly, from Narasimhan Raghavan, on translating and quoting prices for it:

‘Some clients may try this ploy: “This is a job after your heart and it is actually an art. Trying to haggle is just cheapening this art, don’t you think so?” Allow no one to pull the wool over your eyes. The client is solely interested in reducing his costs. To such clients I gently say, “Sir, you are a sensitive soul and it does credit to you, I am content to be an admirer of mammon”.’ 

I did, finally, the expat St. Patrick’s day thing and went drinking yesterday evening, and I really enjoyed it. From which I take that conscientiously avoiding being a cliché for the sake of avoiding being a cliché is not a terribly good idea. Who knew?

Word of the day: Мева means “fruit” in Tajik, „das Obst“, plural „Obst“ means it in German, and la fruta  means it in Spanish. I note the contrast in gender in the latter with French, and also that el fruto  exists in Spanish, as you would expect given the Latin word.