Extremely random drivel spewing from my mind

I was staring at a blank blog screen, and absentmindedly I clicked "publish post". Yup, that's right. I published nothingness. A half a second later I edited it to this thing you are reading here. Proof that nothingness has substance afterall...although it may be debatable whether this drivel can be termed "substance"?

This buffalo with curly hair got a haircut today. It actually looks good. My family says it's pretty and I think so, too. I worked on my eyebrows this morning, so I definitely have the 1950's "Hausfrau" look. Just wish I had the 1950's tiny waisted figure to go with it. Oh yeah, everyone wore girdles back then, under their full-skirted gingham dresses, heels and pearls. Shudder. Never mind.

The kids have been amusing. All I have to do to make them happy is fix pizza for dinner. Lasagna last night, pizza tonight. mama mia! Italiano! I don't really know any italian although I understand a bit of it and decipher a bit of it in print. Lived in the erstwhile italian neighborhood in Basel, Switzerland growing up. (From what I hear it's become "Little Turkey" in the intervening quarter century. But back then it was little italy.) and besides, Italian, French and German are the three official languages of Switzerland, German being dominant. Yeah, a country roughly the size of Kentucky with three official languages. French spoken along the western french border, Italian in the southern alps along the italian border and German in the areas bordering Germany and Austria (well, Lichtenstein, actually, bu nobody takes that country seriously except for the stamp printers and collectors). Oh, and don't forget Romansch...which is the closest linguistic kin to Latin in existence today. Found in some small alpine pockets of obsurity.

I remember watching a kids bedtime show on our little black and white TV when I was little, called "De Dtag isch Vergannge" (The day is done). First it was shown is presumably Swiss German (since the title is in Swiss) and then it came on the Romansch. I always watched it in both languages, but never learned any Romansch.

I also rememer watchig Roots, the TV series made from the book by Alex Haley on our little black and white TV. I think that series is WHY my parents bought the TV in the first place. Turns out our reception was so awful that they arranged for us to visit some friends with a better TV and better reception, so we would go over to our babysitter's house (an American family, ex patriates stick together) and watch Roots once a week on a color TV. It made quite an impression. Of course it was dubbed into German. I'd like to get my hands on the series now and watch it again. I'm sure I"ll cry.

Oh, and the Muppet Show. We got that on German TV, too. It was a hoot, watching this American show, dubbed into German. One time there was such a terrible pun, and we got it since we spoke english, but it so TOTALLY failed in translation: Scooter kept bringing bouquets of flowers for Kermit the frog saying "Flowers for Kermit, Flowers for Kermit"..until Kermit was completely innundated with Flowers. Near the end of the show, Scooter comes again with the same spiel, only this time, it's a bag of flour that gets dumped on Kermit's head of course. Well, in english this works, and is funny in a very juvenile sort of way. But in German, "blumen" and "mehl" are just two totally different things. We got more amusement out of the failed translation than any American EVER got from the original joke, I'm sure.

Comments

Meg said…
It was so bad in the 1950s that you even wore a girdle if you alread *had* a wasp waist. Talk about "up tight"....

A very interesting post, actually, in a "morning coffee" kind of way -- the kind of chitchat you'd make over morning coffee. I need to get my butt in gear over on my own blog.
Dollymama said…
That was a fun post!