Thursday
Nov302006
Eichhörnchen
Thursday, November 30, 2006 at 11:10AM
Happy birthday to my friend Luisa!
In yesterday's Blathering, I complained about workmen trodding on my head. I was highly amused by a drawing that Brooke posted in my message board along with the comment: "Renovators? Or the SQUIRREL LIBERATION FRONT?"
Drawing courtesy Brooke Lunderville.
Speaking of Evil Squirrels...
My friend Erica is on her way to Germany to help celebrate the nuptials of Katy Dröge and Steve Macdonald, and a discussion has arisen in her LJ about useful German phrases since she says she only knows how to say "Excuse me" in the language.
I volunteered helpful phrases from my Lonely Planet German phrasebook such as:
"Ich kann es nicht essen aus philosophischen Gründen."
-- I can't eat it for philosophical reasons.
"Ich habe meine eigene Spritze."
-- I have my own syringe.
"Kann ich meinem Kind hier die Brust geben?"
-- Can I breastfeed here?
"Bevor wir uns näher kennen lernen, muss ich etwas klarstellen. Ich bin Buchhalterin."
-- Before this goes any further, I must be upfront. I'm an accountant.
Whereupon Christine helpfully posted the following:
"Ist das ein Eichhörnchen in deiner Tasche oder freust du dich nur, mich zu sehen?"
= Could you help me, I'm looking for the restrooms, please.
Which prompted PhilP to accuse Christine of evil intentions: "I don't recognize a couple of the words, but I'm pretty sure it really translates 'Is that a squirrel in your pants, or are you happy to see me?'"
When Urban Tapestry was invited over to Germany to perform at Filkcontinental last year, Christine tried convincing us that "Eichhörnchen" was a German swear word.
We soon discovered that it actually meant "squirrel." By then, of course, Allison, Jodi and I had already invested considerable time in learning how to pronounce it properly; it remains one of the only German words Jodi will admit she knows. To us, the word sounds almost like a cute sneeze (especially when Jodi says it). Our German friend Katy Dröge has pointed out, however, that the English word "squirrel" is odd-sounding as well, twisting up one's tongue in its pronunciation. And y'know, she's right.
I was curious enough to do a bit of research on the origins of the word "squirrel." From A Brief History of the Squirrel: "The squirrel's common name can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, where Aristotle used the word skiouros, skia meaning shade, while oura means tail. Thus the meaning "he who sits in the shadow of his tail" was recorded. Centuries later the French created a noun esquirel to describe this animal. From this the present word squirrel was derived."
Anyway, here are some other useful phrases that Christine posted, fyi:
"Kann ich meinem Eichhörnchen hier die Brust geben?"
"Ich habe mein eigenes Eichhörnchen."
Above: Azuki Bean Kit Kat.
While perusing this Vox blog, I discovered a food blog called Slashfood. Holy cow. This is SO much my kind of blog. I mean geez, check out this 20-sided pecan pie!
And did you know that there are 150 varieties of Kit Kats made around the world?!?!?
I followed a link from that entry to this Wikipedia entry on Kit Kats, and discovered to my gustatorial greed that these flavours include dark chocolate, bitter, white chocolate, white with Hokkaido Milk (a limited edition in Japan), mint, apple, banana, blueberry, cherry, double berry, fruit parfait, grape, lemon, lemon cheesecake, white lemon and yogurt, honeycomb, luscious lime, mango, Hokkaido Yubari Melon, orange, blood orange, passion fruit, pineapple, summer pine, strawberries and cream, strawberry & yogurt, almond tofu, azuki, cafe latte with Hokkaido milk, cappuccino, caramac, waguri chestnut, Christmas pudding, white winter cinnamon, coffee, green tea, Halloween, hazelnut, white with maple syrup, milkshake, chocolate mocha, pumpkin...plus many, many more.
Above: Green Tea Kit Kat
Tragically, almost all of these were released as limited editions in various countries and are thus not readily available.
Ah, what I'd give for a time travel machine and a transporter.
Above: Yubari Melon Kit Kat.
Livejournal comments
In yesterday's Blathering, I complained about workmen trodding on my head. I was highly amused by a drawing that Brooke posted in my message board along with the comment: "Renovators? Or the SQUIRREL LIBERATION FRONT?"
Drawing courtesy Brooke Lunderville.
Speaking of Evil Squirrels...
My friend Erica is on her way to Germany to help celebrate the nuptials of Katy Dröge and Steve Macdonald, and a discussion has arisen in her LJ about useful German phrases since she says she only knows how to say "Excuse me" in the language.
 |
I volunteered helpful phrases from my Lonely Planet German phrasebook such as:
"Ich kann es nicht essen aus philosophischen Gründen."
-- I can't eat it for philosophical reasons.
"Ich habe meine eigene Spritze."
-- I have my own syringe.
"Kann ich meinem Kind hier die Brust geben?"
-- Can I breastfeed here?
"Bevor wir uns näher kennen lernen, muss ich etwas klarstellen. Ich bin Buchhalterin."
-- Before this goes any further, I must be upfront. I'm an accountant.
 |
Whereupon Christine helpfully posted the following:
"Ist das ein Eichhörnchen in deiner Tasche oder freust du dich nur, mich zu sehen?"
= Could you help me, I'm looking for the restrooms, please.
Which prompted PhilP to accuse Christine of evil intentions: "I don't recognize a couple of the words, but I'm pretty sure it really translates 'Is that a squirrel in your pants, or are you happy to see me?'"
When Urban Tapestry was invited over to Germany to perform at Filkcontinental last year, Christine tried convincing us that "Eichhörnchen" was a German swear word.
 |
We soon discovered that it actually meant "squirrel." By then, of course, Allison, Jodi and I had already invested considerable time in learning how to pronounce it properly; it remains one of the only German words Jodi will admit she knows. To us, the word sounds almost like a cute sneeze (especially when Jodi says it). Our German friend Katy Dröge has pointed out, however, that the English word "squirrel" is odd-sounding as well, twisting up one's tongue in its pronunciation. And y'know, she's right.
I was curious enough to do a bit of research on the origins of the word "squirrel." From A Brief History of the Squirrel: "The squirrel's common name can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, where Aristotle used the word skiouros, skia meaning shade, while oura means tail. Thus the meaning "he who sits in the shadow of his tail" was recorded. Centuries later the French created a noun esquirel to describe this animal. From this the present word squirrel was derived."
Anyway, here are some other useful phrases that Christine posted, fyi:
"Kann ich meinem Eichhörnchen hier die Brust geben?"
"Ich habe mein eigenes Eichhörnchen."
Above: Azuki Bean Kit Kat.
Link O' The Day
While perusing this Vox blog, I discovered a food blog called Slashfood. Holy cow. This is SO much my kind of blog. I mean geez, check out this 20-sided pecan pie!
And did you know that there are 150 varieties of Kit Kats made around the world?!?!?
I followed a link from that entry to this Wikipedia entry on Kit Kats, and discovered to my gustatorial greed that these flavours include dark chocolate, bitter, white chocolate, white with Hokkaido Milk (a limited edition in Japan), mint, apple, banana, blueberry, cherry, double berry, fruit parfait, grape, lemon, lemon cheesecake, white lemon and yogurt, honeycomb, luscious lime, mango, Hokkaido Yubari Melon, orange, blood orange, passion fruit, pineapple, summer pine, strawberries and cream, strawberry & yogurt, almond tofu, azuki, cafe latte with Hokkaido milk, cappuccino, caramac, waguri chestnut, Christmas pudding, white winter cinnamon, coffee, green tea, Halloween, hazelnut, white with maple syrup, milkshake, chocolate mocha, pumpkin...plus many, many more.
Above: Green Tea Kit Kat
Tragically, almost all of these were released as limited editions in various countries and are thus not readily available.
Ah, what I'd give for a time travel machine and a transporter.
Above: Yubari Melon Kit Kat.
Reader Comments