1.12.2013

ONLY

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: "I hit him in the eve vesterdav."
The word is "ONLY". The Message:
ONLY I hit him in the eve vesterdav. (No one else did.)
I ONLY hit him in the eye vesterdav. (Did not slap him.)
I hit ONLY him in the eye vesterday. (I did not hit others.)
I hit him ONLY in the eve vesterdav. (I did not hit outside the eye.)
I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)
I hit him in the ONLY eve vesterdav. (He doesn't have another eye.)
I hit him in the eye ONLY vesterdav. (Not todav.)
I hit him in the eve yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for todav.)

1.09.2013

Cair bem / dar-se bem / fazer bem

cair bem = becoming (adj): Death looks becoming on you (cair bem). That shirt's very becoming on you.
dar-se bem = fare well (v+adj): Audiences have fixed expectations of big-canvas movies, and those who try to subvert them do not fare well.= não se dão bem (se dar bem / dar-se bem)
fazer bem = do well (v+adj): A little planning ahead does you well (fazer bem)

PICKUP LINES

cantadas (pickup lines) - Bad pickup lines:
“Can I have your phone number? I seem to have lost mine.”
“Do you believe in love at first sight or should I walk past again?”
Read more:
http://uk.askmen.com/top_10/dating_top_ten/35b_dating_list.html#ixzz2HTSNdVgL

1.02.2013

"Fiscal cliff" heard round the world:

 how the term translates across the globe
Argentina:              abismo fiscal
Brazil:                      abismo fiscal (Portugal: "penhasco fiscal")
Denmark                 Afgrundens rand /Økonomisk afgrund / den Finansielle afgrund og "Afgrunden".
England                   in British English it is "WTF are those idiots in the US doing now"
France                     le fiscal cliff / mur de la dette (literally debt wall or “mur budgétaire", or literally, budgetary wall
Germany                 Fiskalklippe / sparbombe (actually, this sounds even scarier than a cliff)
Indonesia                jurang fiskal (which in Indonesian actually translates as "fiscal abyss"
Ireland                    fiscal baby step ("You think that is a fiscal cliff, you should see what we went over in 2008" )
Italy:                        abisso fiscale
Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia     fiskalna litica
Norway                   budsjettstupet  (budget ravine)
Portugal:                 Penhasco fiscal
Spain:                      precipicio fiscal
Sweden                   stupet (the idea of a ravine also holds sway) / finansiella stupet / budgetstupet
Thailand                  หน้าผาทางการคลัง". It pronounces "Nah-pah-tarng-karn-klang"
The Netherlands    Belastingkloof  / begrotingsravijn / begrotingsafgrond / fiscale kloof
Turkey                     mali uçurum (Turkish) (i.e.: capital flight... literally, money running away)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/fiscal-cliff-blog/2012/dec/27/fiscal-cliff-translated-around-the-world

Feliz Ano Novo! Happy New Year!

2012 was a marvelous year. Hopefully 2013 will be twice as good for all of us!