i’m not sure why, but dating seems to be an integral part of dendrochronology. ;-)

a few days ago, two english-speaking friends family, a friend and i drove back up from bolzano towards innsbruck, and not too long after we crossed the austrian border¹, we got pulled over by a police car – including emergency vehicle lighting and a hand stuck out of the window in front of us, pointing to the exit we should take.

here’s the short dialogue that emerged:

police officer: sind sie gerade aus dem (raststätten-)parkplatz mit vollgas herausgefahren und haben uns geschnitten?
(roughly: did you just cut in front of us when you left the car park at full speed?)

larry: erm… do you speak english?

police officer: yes, (speaking more loudly:) YOU DRIVE OUT PARK PLACE?

that was about the time i used my german language skills to ask what was going on and explain that we weren’t the ones they were looking for.

as larry later put it, the officer probably thought that the question was “can you say some english words in no particular order, please?”

while the austrian branch of spar supermarkets is the country’s first grocery store that (1) lets you do self-checkout, (2) gives cashback and – most importantly – (3) accepts credit cards, ikea apparently tries to further decrease accommodation costs by dealing with the cause, not the symptoms:

i’m not kidding: this was taken in an ikea restroom just two days ago.

some more southpark movie references that i recently came across:

in southpark season 8 ep 7 “goobacks”, the terms used to classify a time portal are in reference to three very popular movies. here’s what the news reporter has to say:

“alan, i’m standing at the time portal, which scientists say follows “terminator rules”. that is, it’s one way only and you can’t go back.
this is in contrast to, say, “back to the future rules”, where back and forth is possible, and of course “time writer rules”, which are just plain silly.”

[more...]

the first 15 seconds of this clip had me laughing out loud, litterally:

i wonder how many english-speaking viewers heard “australians” the first time they saw it…

apart from its most popular meaning, chili is also the tunisian name for a dry wind (de) coming from the sahara desert.

salat is not just the german word for lettuce. it’s also the name of the daily prayers of muslims.

in greek mythology, ajax the great was the son of the king of salamis.

and …my two favorites: boobies are groups of birds. as are tits.
 

next time you use any of these words, please make sure you’re not completely misunderstood. ;-)

would you consider buying a condoms that are called “fun explosion”?
would you buy any condom with the name “explosion” in it?
which would you prefer – fun explosion or family package condoms?
 
i’m not kidding: durex fun explosion

(saw it in the grocery store the other day)