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D/H saw that one and was amazed just how careful the rescuers were.

Love both news articles about the feline rescues.

I can sometimes be really slow, but I don't get the is/isn't, was/wasn't/?/? (fez, rooster?or a gamecock?).

Carole

If I told you the bird was a pheasant... (fez'nt -- as in the way it's said here)?

Serinde wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:31 pm If I told you the bird was a pheasant... (fez'nt -- as in the way it's said here)?

Thank you. Now I am smiling too

Carole

The England/UK version of English is a completely mad language. But it seems to work. After a fashion.

I just recently baffled a German who said 'Call me when you've completed the job.' He was totally stumped by my response of 'And what would you like me to call you?'. He got the idea there was a joke in the comment but couldn't see what on earth it could be. It appears English isn't just the words, but can be a way of thinking about language too.

Regards,

Richard.

Can happen in French translation too!

A man in the village sent instructions to a delivery firm using Google Translate.
His instructions were that the driver should "bear right at the junction"
The translation came out as the French for Bear which is L'ours. The poor driver was quite confused as to how A Bear would stay put in one place long enough.

Which reminds me of a clip I saw some time ago of a man driving allowing following the spoken satnav instructions. When the voice says "bear right" he looks to the right and there is a socking great bear

Also reminds me of the best stage direction ever, Shakespeare's "Exit, pursued by a bear".

Richard, as a translator I learnt long ago that no language is just words . But your particular example reminded me of a scene in Carry On Up The Khyber (does anyone still watch the Carry On films?) which is set in colonial-era India, and one character who has just infuriated his wife tells her (in the manner of asking for a taxi) "Tell the servant to call me an elephant", to which she replies "He needn't bother, I will. You're an elephant!"

We adore the 'Carry On..' films, and Khyber is one of my favourites. We watch every weekend when one is on.

Nuts, the lot of them.

Regards,

Richard.

Oh Dear!

Priceless!!

This was a bit of a faux pas my wife Tracy made yesterday.

First a bit of background.
Tracy was a church warden until end of January and is one of the worship leaders at her local church. They are in an interregnum period where the previous vicar left to go to her home town to be near her family, and no new vicar has yet been appointed. So, the church services are being done by a team of lay ministers (Tracy is one). Also, in the pandemic, to reduce the risk to the mostly elderly congregation, they decided to go online and broadcast the services straight to Facebook from the Church. The hope was that the church setting would be nicer. Anyway, before the broadcast, the organist (Nigel) discovered that lack of use & maintenance (and possibly mice) has meant that the fan for the church organ failed after 30 seconds with a flash & a bang. So no nice church organ accompaniment to the broadcast.

Anyway..
At the end of the broadcast Tracy did the usual notices and as a little addendum said quite innocently 'And I hope the little problem with Nigel's organ will be fixed before next week." To which Nigel & the other person in the church sniggered loud enough to be heard on the broadcast. Tracy had no idea what she'd said until it was explained to her after the end of the broadcast.. She also put the broadcast on the wrong Facebook page (her personal one) and all sorts of people she didn't want to see it have... She's been ribbed from as far afield as California, Australia, Germany and Spain, not just from our local congregation.

Regards,

Richard.

Oh Dear!!
for Tracy.

My friend's husband made a similar remark about his work at Salisbury cathedral....but it's far too risque to repeat here!

BTW I like Jo's 'smile' about Diets

for Tracy. Such easy "mistakes" to make. Could happen to me I'm sure (and has both in terms of making a faux pas and posting something in the wrong place). I'm sure the jibes are made with affection.

Carole

Very embarrassing now, a funny story to tell in a year's time (for her, I mean - for us it's funny already )

Mabel Figworthy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:51 pm Very embarrassing now, a funny story to tell in a year's time (for her, I mean - for us it's funny already )

Exactly this. And in all innocence.

My DH tells the story of one of his 6th-form teachers, who was so exasperated with a noisy classroom, he crossly said, "Whenever I open my mouth, some fool speaks!" It didn't help.

One April Fool joke which I remember was played on our English teacher caught her out totally!

She was writing on the blackboard and one of the pupils called out " Miss, you've put that full stop upside down" !!
Teacher turned around fast to check!!