<---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 1996 01:00:08 -0700 (MST)
Reply-To: folklore@lists.Colorado.EDU
From: preston michael <preston@spot.Colorado.EDU>
To: folklore@lists.Colorado.EDU
Subject: FW: Humor: How'd you spell that again? (fwd)
Names! Cursed and wonderful things. We all have 'em. Some of us may
wonder why our parents did to us what they did. Fortunately, no one in
the class is named "Ima Hogg" or "Merry Christmas." Some people are, you
know. And names across language-boundaries can produce results that no
parent could forsee. (See below.)
We see the same thing with people who immigrate to English-speaking
countries. When I was in Prep school, one of my school-mates was named
"George Ason." He had cousins named "Mason." It seems that their
grandfather's name was "Asonovitch," which sounded sufficiently like "a son
of a bitch" that his sons legally changed their names.
I wonder how many people named Schitz changed that name to Smith!
Read on!
:)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 96 07:45:58 UT
From: MADELEINE SMITH <LAFILLE@msn.com>
To: preston@spot.Colorado.EDU
Subject: FW: Humor: How'd you spell that again?
----------
From: Elizabeth DuBois
Sent: Friday, March 29, 1996 11:17 AM
To: Madeleine Smith; 'parzival@pacificrim.net'; MADELEINE SMITH
Subject: FW: Humor: How'd you spell that again?
This is funny!
> : )
>----------
>From: Cindy Turbow
>Sent: Thursday, March 28, 1996 4:19 PM
>To: Amy Jones; Augie Catalano; Carl Stevens (US West); Charles
>Pilgrim; Elizabeth DuBois; Frank Maslowski; Gordon Gazaway; Jay
>Womeldorf; Jeanne McKinnon; Jennifer Todd; Jonathan Lewis; Kathy Lee
>(Volt Computer) (Xenix); Pam Kudla; Randy Minor (US West); Richard
>Condon (US West); Sharon Burks; Sharon Edwards; Sheila Henderson; Wayne
>Passeau (US West); '"Claire M. Austin" <103523.207@compuserve.com>';
>'"G & C Teahan" <Kapuna@msn.com>'; 'Ann M. Heath
><jose5150@ix.netcom.com>'; 'd_vogel@emulex.com'; 'Geoffrey Lowe'
>Subject: FW: Humor: How'd you spell that again?
>
>
>
>>----------
>><<Froms gone>>
>>
>>Tehran (Reuter) - For the past few weeks, the behind the doors
>>discussion
>>at many Iranian newspaper and magazine publishing outfits seems to be
>>revolving not around political, social and economic issues, but the
>>spelling of Bob Dole's name instead. It turns out that the proper
>>spelling
>>of the Republican Party's likely nominee, Dole, is exactly the same as
>>that
>>of the word penis in Persian. ``At first it might seem funny to some
>>people, but it's creating a serious issue for us. How can we write
>>headlines using that word?,'' said Majid Fanni, a prepress specialist
>>at a
>>Tehran service bureau.
>>
>>Professor Hassan Khadem, a Persian literature lecturer at New York
>>University added ``It's actually not a real problem. In Persian,
>>certain
>>vowels are optional. [Therefore] they could write his name a couple of
>>different ways to avoid the ambiguity. But for an exact pronunciation,
>>'Dowl' as opposed to 'Dol', well, they'd have to spell it that way.''
>>Fanni
>>explained ``It's not easy. In print, especially for headlines, we
>>don't
>>use [optional] vowel symbols. Because of that, his name can be read in
>>that way.''
>>
>>International organizations are quite familiar and cognizant of these
>>types
>>of issues. General Motors for example, spends over 300,000 dollars a
>>year
>>just researching car names to make sure they are not trade marked, as
>>well
>>as being acceptable in foreign countries.
>>
>>Ali Zarkoob, a grade school teacher in Western Tehran said ``I'm sure
>>kids
>>will find it very funny. The humor magazines will probably go crazy
>>over
>>it too.'' A columnist for Tehran's Hamshahri daily who requested to
>>remain
>>anonymous stated ``It's a real problem that no one wants to face.
>>Think
>>about it. What should we write if he wins? 'Clinton loses
>>Presidency'?
>>That's not right. 'Penis wins US Presidency' isn't exactly acceptable
>>either.''
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
<---- End Forwarded Message ---->