Blogging Is Hard

(Source)

Yeah, okay kid I get it...

Not sure where this is going today but I had to include the picture. The look on the kid's face is priceless. I am guessing that the person who set the photo up has probably never split logs in their entire life. While it is a cool photo, it just looks wrong and I would guess is a "pose job." (Those who have wielded an ax, you Vikings can all sit down, I'm not talking about that kind of ax-work, will know what I mean. While I am no lumberjack, I have chopped wood and split logs. Not a lot but enough to know I'd rather not do that for a living.)

Anyhoo...

Those who have been paying attention may have noticed that there have been a number of Juvat posts over the past few days. He's a good wingman that fellow, lead (moi) might be out of commission but the blog marches on thanks to Juvat and Tuna (when he and Mrs Tuna aren't enjoying themselves on a cruise ship). Not to throw stones at Tuna mind you, he comes and goes like a ninja. Just when I don't expect it, I'll see a draft post of his in the queue. Always interesting but not scheduled. I told him when he (and later Juvat) signed on that he could post when he felt like it or not at all. Because (drum roll please)...

Blogging is hard.

Juvat's recent vacation occurred with fortuitous timing for Yours Truly. To wit, he had stuff he wanted to post about (while it was still fresh in his memory) and I was hors de combat, or perhaps more accurately, hors d'action. I'll leave looking those phrases up to the reader, suffice to say, the last word in both phrases is the same in English, which reminds me of a story.

The Story (that I was reminded of in the previous paragraph.)

One Monday long ago in the Federal Republic of Germany, a German buddy of mine related to me what he had been doing over the weekend. Though his English was very good, he didn't know all of the right words auf Englisch. The converse was true for me, sort of, as in, while my German was pretty fair, there were a lot of words auf Deutsch that I just didn't know.

Apparently my buddy (whose first name translated to "Thunder Bear" but in some old Teutonic dialect - which Google just doesn't have, and yes, I checked - but who we just called "Benny") had been working on a project in his back yard which involved a substance which he did not know the name of in English. As he related the tale, we came to this...

Well, it's a clear substance. You can see through it like glass, but it's not glass, it's called... I'm sorry, I don't know what it's called in English.

What is it called in German? (I asked, knowing that there was a good chance that what it was called in German might also be the same in English.)

Plexiglas.

Ah, plexiglass. Same in English.

And yes, we both had a good laugh over that. Perhaps you had to be there.

Note to the readers, yes, it's the same word only spelled differently and pronounced differently. The "a" in the German is more like the "a" in "bass" (the fish not the instrument).

So language, always interesting. Well, to me, at any rate. While I find languages to be very interesting, linguists are rather a boring lot, at least the ones who write articles about language for Wikipedia are, again, at any rate.

But I digress...

No, not really. That was the whole point of today's post. While blogging can be hard, it isn't always hard. Sometimes you just need to Cry "Havoc" and let slip the bounds of reason. (With apologies to the Bard.)

In other words, sometimes I just start writing and let The Muse take me where she will. Sometimes it's a seedy bar in some foreign town...

Now that was a digression, of which we shall not speak.

In other words, yes, I'm feeling much better, thank you for asking.

ICSFTH...