Conference thebay::joyoflex

Well, along the same lines, there's Reading/reading. I'm sure there
are some that don't have to do with place names (this question comes
up in TRIVIA.NOT every year or so), but the only other one I can
think of offhand is another place name: Opal, Wyoming, which is
pronounced "o-PAL'" as in "Oh, pal o' mine".

-b

I recently went to the supermarket and saw a sign that said:

		HAM
	      POLISH
	     $2.99 lb.

For several minutes, I wondered why anyone would want to do that do that to a
ham.

Re .1

Now that you mention it, I remember seeing a sign for "NO READING, MASS".

The library at the town of North Reading features a sign:

	NO READING LIBRARY

I knew they were all maniacal drivers up there, but I didn't know they were 
illiterate as well.  Perhaps they can't read traffic signs???

...diane

New style traffic signs are for illiterates anyway.  Pictographs.  Ugh.
(Or are those things called 'idiographs'?  I could never learn the distinction.)

Dave C.

Those pictograph traffic signs are supposed to be universally used and 
understood, eventually. Folks from Montreal visiting Boston might not know
what "No Parking" means, and rather than put "Non-parkez-vous-ici," or 
whatever. It might also be useful for little kids or dyslexics who have 
trouble reading.

beck

Traffic lights -- you can't go wrong with red, yellow and green, 
except, of course, in Massachusetts, where we frequently find red 
and yellow running at the same time, and flashing greens (and god 
only knows what they mean).

I'm glad I started this note so that I could enter a reply about traffic
signals.

Red + Yellow means that pedestrians may cross the intersection any which way.

Flashing Green means a dormant crosswalk that at any minute might change to
the previously-described condition.

Some red-green color-blind people have problems with some traffic lights.

In Massachusetts (not my native land), traffic lights are always referred to
for some reason as a collective plural: a "set of lights".

Note that the idiom "for some reason" in the previous sentence means just the
opposite (a similar idiom is the word "certain" to mean "uncertain").

Re:  #6,  those signs were borrowed from Europe, where travelling by car can
often take you across language borders in very little time, thereby making
it easier for the Europeans to know what to do while driving in a country where
they may not be able to read the language.  Typical arrogant American showing
his or her weaknesses!

re .9

Sometimes a "set of lights" is referred to in the singular:  a light.
"Go down the street a mile and turn right at the first light."

re .10 (re .6)

It seems to me that you have to be "in the same headset" as the one who
designed the pictograph in order to read it.  I'm red-green color-blind.
I have no trouble with luminous traffic signals, but the red circle and
stripe are intense to me than the right- or left-arrow over which they are
placed.  To me, it looks like a directive to turn right (e.g.), rather
than a restriction against turning right!

My favorite pictographic traffic sign is a triangle on top of which is a
silhouette of a truck.  "Watch out for sliding trucks"?  It's not at all
obvious that it means, "Truckers, test brakes."

If I were going to drive in Montreal, I'd learn enough French to read the
traffic signs.

Hey, Dean, let's move this to Soapbox.

Dave C.

Re .11 (re .10 (re .6))

I hope you were in the same "mindset" as the pictograph's designers.
If you shared a "headset" you'd be quite cramped with all those little ball
bearings allowing the cyclist to turn the handlebar smoothly!

It's nice to see how well we stick to the topic of the original note.

re .11

Dave, is that what that sign means?  I always thought it meant something
sensible like "Trucks must park on cheese wedges."

Ahem.  On the original subject of this note:

    		job

    I used to live on the road that housed the University of Reading
    Institute for the Teaching of Reading.
    
    I now *think* I know what they do there!
    
    John

	The worst example I know of is in Irish, where "Francach" 
means a French person.  In lower case, however, the meaning is rather 
different: "francach" means "a rat".

    Re .16
    
    Are you perhaps trying to suggest something?
    
    Rien - Valbonne, France
    

    Ever eat a lima bean in Lima Peru....

    Rien, your name means nothing!  :`)
    

    Yes, it never fails to amuse the French when I tell them my first
    name...
    

It never fails to amuse the americans when persons of this name tell
their name.

    Re .16:
>   The worst example I know of is in Irish, where "Francach" means a
>   French person.  In lower case, however, the meaning is rather
>   different: "francach" means "a rat".

    Well, it certainly sheds a whole new light on an illustration that
    appeared in the first French text book that I ever had my nose pushed
    into. There was a picture of a French peasant walking along behind
    his donkey, and saying to  himself:
    
    	"Je suis que je suis -- je ne suis pas que je suis".

    re: .-1
    
    OK, I'll bight.  What does the following mean:
    
    >    	"Je suis que je suis -- je ne suis pas que je suis".

    Chris

    Re .23:
    
    I think it is:  "I am what I am -- I am not what I am.".
    
    
    				-- edp

    Re .25:
                                        
    But doesn't that mean it could be any of the following?
    
         I am what I am -- I am not what I am.
         I am what I am -- I am not what I follow.
         I am what I am -- I do not follow what I am.
         I am what I am -- I do not follow what I follow.
         I am what I follow -- I am not what I am.
         I am what I follow -- I am not what I follow.
         I am what I follow -- I do not follow what I am.
         I am what I follow -- I do not follow what I follow.
         I follow what I am -- I am not what I am.
         I follow what I am -- I am not what I follow.
         I follow what I am -- I do not follow what I am.
         I follow what I am -- I do not follow what I follow.
         I follow what I follow -- I am not what I am.
         I follow what I follow -- I am not what I follow.
         I follow what I follow -- I do not follow what I am.
         I follow what I follow -- I do not follow what I follow.
    
    
    				-- edp

    RE:.26
    
    Yes it could means any of them. The context however (a peasant following
    his donkey) restricts the number of valid choices. The correct
    phrase is: "Je suis ce que je suis; je ne suis pas ce que
    je suis".
    
    This kind of homography could lead to interesting exercises
    for translation machines.
    "I follow a pig", for example, translates to "Je suis un cochon".
    Now translating "Je suis un cochon" into English gives either
    "I follow a pig" or "I'm a pig".
    
    Another case would be Descartes' famous 
      	 	Cogito ergo sum

    in French 
    		Je pense donc je suis
    
    which mechanically translates to English as :

        	I think thus I follow.

    	roger
    

    Re: .26:  looks like a bad case of two to the fourth :-)
    

    I've seen "I think therefore I am" in French as either "Je pense donc
    je suis" or "Je pense alors je suis."
    
    	Jon 

    Sorry to dredge up a dead topic (as some of you know, I'm good at
    that.)  But to revert to the topic of the basenote, and as long
    as people were talking about French anyway, there is always "Nice"
    versus "nice."
    
    I would imagine that Nice would be nice to visit....
    
                                                           -John.

>    I would imagine that Nice would be nice to visit....


.... did Nancy ever visit Nancy?

Arie

  Shouldn't that end with:

    And I am, too.

  JP

Re .33

Yes, it should, but it doesn't.  The T-shirt is printed the way it is
quoted in .32.

Dave C.

    Was a hamburger invented by a Hamburger (resident of Hamburg, not
    Vic)?
    
    Lee

    Re: .29
    
    I saw it as : "Je panse, donc j'essuye".
    
    
    Pierre.

    re .36 etc:
    
    The Descartes maxim works in Latin (Cogito ergo sum) but not in
    translation into any language that calls for a personal pronoun
    to indicate the speaker (or thinker): if you start out by saying
    `I' or `Je' the statement of being is otiose (because the being [n]
    called `I' or `Je' must be being [v] in order to do the thinking).
    Nicht?
    
    re .35
    
    I think the hamburger was named after the city rather than the
    resident; it was typical of Hamburg (and has nothing to do with ham -
    people latched onto the `ham' part and happily prefixed `burger' with
    all sorts of comestibles [beefburger, cheeseburger, eggburger and
    so on] - but that's language for you). 
    
    Similarly, frankfurter (which I believe was originally shorthand for
    `frankfurter [adj] sausage') derives from the name of the town rather
    than the resident of that town.
    
    
    b

    Re: hamburger & frankfurter
    
    Is there a similar derivation for "bologna" (aka baloney)?
    The city that seems an extreme likely source is Bologna, Italy.

    
    
    Similarly, "Wiener" the sausage, derives from the city of Wien,
    or Vienna.
    
    ... and my favourite, although it's not English, is a "Berliner",
    a wonderfully unhealthy jammy cake, from the city of the same name.
    I still have fond memories of John F Kennedy satnding up on that
    platform, and solemnly announcing to the world....
    		" I.. am.. a doughnut !"
    
    Funny stuff, language.
    
    Ian

    Re .38
    
    I'm pretty sure it's Bologna, though I'd be prepared to believe
    (on decent authority) that baloney's something to do with Poland.
    
    Re .39
    
    I didn't know that (although I knew that Wiener Schnitzel was named
    after Vienna). Meat products do seem to have a way of getting named
    after places.

    There is also a type of sausage/salami called Genoa...

    BTW, is there a city called Salam(mumble)?

    d

Re .41 (by HSSWS1::DUANE)

>   BTW, is there a city called Salam(mumble)?

There was an ancient city called Salamis.

Dave C.

    English and english!!!!!