Picky, picky. Sometimes one just isn't enough, you know?

tl

It's actually a sore point with me. I just think French is so wasteful. Have you ever stopped to think how many trees are felled and processed to create all that paper to print French books and articles chock full of excess letters that will never be pronounced? Especially in this crisis time for the environment! What the heck is the difference between gateau and gateaux? And why not gatoh? Or, if you allow the accents, gató?

My DDs went to sleep scared last night because they had to turn off their nightlights for Earth Day.

Everyone slams the US for not ratifying the Kyoto treaty and its reluctance to reduce greenhouse emmissions.

The French are getting a free pass here and they just laugh at us with their little nasal chuckles and those silly berets on their heads.

I say enuf is enuf!

I'm not French either.

=-=

I'm Splat.

*

if your insinuating what think you are......

Asterisk,

This song ain't about you.

I gave you a free pass. Actually I think "Asterisk" would make a great American Gladiator name.

I was even going to let Dufresne off until ML forced the issue.

Why does Dufresne have an "s" in it? It's just wrong!

Wasnt Asterisk the name of a comic book character?
oh wait, that was Asterix. There was a magic potion or something, and he came from Gaul. Wasnt Gaul the old name for France???

Current options are:

Beast
Crush
Hellga (it's the double L [and I'm not talking about cup size])
Hurricane
Jet
Justice
Militia
Panther
Phoenix
Rocket
Siren
Steel
Titan
Toa (needs the look - standalone doesn't work)
Venom
Wolf
Zen (okay probably not)

Previous choices:
Malibu
Lace (okay no)
Gemini
Zap
Nitro
Sunny (okay that's a stretch)
Blaze
Bronco
Gold
Laser
Jade
Titan
Diamond
Ice
Thunder
Turbo
Storm
Tower
Viper
Atlas
Cyclone
Elektra
Havoc
Sabre
Sky (???)
Dallas
Hawk
Jazz
Rebel
Tank
Thor

Almost all quite intimidating.

According to Wikipedia:

The asterisk is derived from the need of the printers of family trees in feudal times as a symbol to indicate date of birth. The original shape was six-armed, each arm like a teardrop shooting from the center. For this reason, in some computer circles it is called a splat, perhaps due to the "squashed-bug" appearance of the asterisk on many early line printers.

So Asterisk comes from a time way back when families lived in trees and feuded a lot.

You have a lot of Gaul comparing this to Asterix. As far as the "magic potion" protecting them from the Romans, isn't that just a metaphor for "white flag"?

Yep, Lil Gaul was an older name for France, Belgium, umm I think some parts of Switzerland and Germany. Maybe Holland, too. I would have to look it up. I knew reading all of those extremely dry (but also extremely entertaining when you get to the good parts) ancient history books would come in handy.

Well....not really ANCIENT history....but close enough I suppose ;-)

gallia omnia divisa est en tres partes...

I had to read it in Latin. Well 34 years later it hasn't done me a dern bit of good yet.

Only latin I remember is

Pater est pestis

and post coitum omne animal triste est which all teenage girls learn so they have something to giggle at :MrEEk:

I'm assuming you used those phrases in separate contexts? Used together, they would be quite disturbing.

there was a gap!

Well, monsieur, what do you think about Welsh then? Doesn't it have the longest word in any language? Or do they pronounce all the letters, so it doesn't count? I turned on extra lights for earth day. You, Pio, don't strike me as a "following" type, so what's the REAL reason your girls didn't have their night lights?

tl

I can comment on the Welsh. It is a brethonic language, not celtic, so there are a lot of French-Welsh cognates (examples, eglwys and eglise both mean church) There are tons of letters to our English (Sysnaeg) eyes, but the ll is actually considered one letter. The pronunciation is strictly phonetic and there are no wasted letters. However, there is a nasty thing called a mutation where the first letters of words change depending on the sound of the preceding word. This is to promote euphony, an important concept to the Welsh. It's also an old language, very old, and has (I think) relatively few words.
I can sing in Welsh and I understand a few words but couldn't put a sentence togther beyond saying "Bore da" (good morning) and "Diolch yn fawr y iawn" (Thank you very much.) And no, there is no particularly good reason I learned to sing in Welsh, just happened in to it.

Well, as long as they pronounce ALL the letters in those big, huge words (which probably takes some pretty large "breths"!), I guess it's OK--unlike the French, who scatter superfluous letters about the verbal landscape with frivolous, heedless abandon.:MrEEk:

tl

Love,

Frenchy

Germans have big words too but they actually need all those letters. Germans never waste anything. I have to wonder what the life expectancy of an asthmatic German is though. I bet they die young.

As an outsider who doesn't speak Welsh, I have never accused them of frivolous letter use because, listening to their language spoken, who could ever tell. I always wondered if the Prince of Wales could speak Welsh. You would think it would be a job requirement.

But I do have two words for the Welsh: point size.

I once stayed in a hotel in llangollen,clwyd whose name was so long that its sign had to be continued on the next building. Couldn't they pick a better font?

I have heard that you should never bet with anyone from Wales.

Expressed with a great deal more flair than I've said it to myself in times past, but the general concept has certainly presented itself to me before--generally while looking at those long, guttural words, or, for that matter, hearing them sprecken.

tl