Look: I am eager to learn stuff I don't know--which requires actively courting and posting smart disagreement.

But as you will understand, I don't like to post things that mischaracterize and are aimed to mislead.

-- Brad Delong

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Everything that appears on this blog is the copyrighted property of somebody. Often, but not always, that somebody is me. For things that are not mine, I either have obtained permission, or claim fair use. Feel free to quote me, but attribute, please. My photos and poetry are dear to my heart, and may not be used without permission. Ditto, my other intellectual property, such as charts and graphs. I'm probably willing to share. Let's talk. Violators will be damned for all eternity to the circle of hell populated by Rosanne Barr, Mrs Miller [look her up], and trombonists who are unable play in tune. You cannot possibly imagine the agony. If you have a question, email me: jazzbumpa@gmail.com. I'll answer when I feel like it. Cheers!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Earthquake in Hungary, and I'm Neither Rushin' nor Lyin'

"Rescue officials say parts of western Hungary and Budapest, the capital city, have been affected by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in the country since 1985."  Fortunately, no casualties were reported.

The very short article conlcudes:  "The quake was centered near the town of Oroszlany, 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of Budapest."

The name "Oroszlany" struck me, because I've known people named Orosz.  The name means, "Russian."  Presumably, some time in antiquity, their ancestors wandered into Hungary from Russia.  Could be.  After all, as someone once told me about history (and uncertain ethnicity) in that part of the world: "The fences were low, and the nights were dark."

Since I'm not familiar with the town, I ran the name through Google translator, and got the result, "Lion."

Lion.  Really.  Just for kicks, I put a space in "Orosz  lany."  The translator then spit out "Russian girl."  Nice, I suppose, but a rather odd name for a town.  My lovely wife (who gets an H/T BTW) is a Polish girl or, to my surprise, "Lengyel lány," for Lengyel is also a family name I recognize.

So, next I tried translating "Lion" from English into Hungarian, and got, "oroszlán."  Close, and a bit coincidentally Lewisian, but no szivar.

Could it be "Lioness" perhaps?  Nope - that's "nőstény oroszlán," and not at all helpful.

At that point, I lost focus, and just started playing with the translator, confirming that I did indeed, know how to count to ten, though my pronunciation is laughable.     

And now, it's time to say,  jó éjszakát.  (To which the childhood retort was, "Well you aint so hot, either!")
.

3 comments:

Jazzbumpa said...

WTH?!?

JzB

BadTux said...

The Tesla message is a spam message to disguise the Google bomb link at the end, Jazz. Feel free to delete it.

- Badtux the Helpful Internet Penguin

Jazzbumpa said...

BT -

Right.

OTOH, it's almost kind of amusing.

Cheers!
JzB