muckefuck: (Default)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2006-08-17 11:38 am

Lost in translation

A bilingual sign informs Welsh-speaking cyclists that they suffer from a bladder inflamation! BBC has the scoop.

Also, in a turn worthy of Hanzi Smatter, the Sax Rohmer short story "The Wrath of Fu Manchu" contains reproductions of three seals--supposedly that of Fu Manchu, that of his organisation Si Fan, and that burned into the should of a traitor to the Si Fan. The first seal is 武 "military" (also a surname), the second is 高 gāo "high" (also a surname), but the real winner is the last: 紙房 zhĭfáng "paper shop". Let that be a warning to traitors everywhere!

[Noted Rohmer apologist [livejournal.com profile] bunj suggests that a careless printer substituted clip art for Rohmer's intended designs. I wonder if the whole thing isn't simply a Si Fan plot to conceal its secrets, making Westerners look foolish in the process.]