!
1. This is my oldest sister’s favorite joke. Elena, you wonderfully silly adult-person, this is for you:
“A man is driving his car down a long gravel road. Suddenly, a wide-eyed hare jumps out from behind a bush and our driver is unable to stop before flattening the poor little guy. Distressed, the man begins to cry. A car pulls up behind him and a beautiful woman steps out, pulls a spray can form her purse without a word and sprays the hare from head to toe.The man watches in awe as the hare jumps to it’s feet, hops a short distance from the car and turns back to wave goodbye. It continues hopping, stopping, turning and waving until it disappears into the distance. The man asks, “What on Earth did you spray him with?” and the blonde, reading from the can’s label replies, “Salon Hair Spray; brings life back to dead hairs. Adds bounce and permanent wave instantly!”
2. Talking point: Despite being a lazy, barely-semi-bilingual Canadian who sometimes even struggles with her native English, I think the whole idea of language is pretty neat. I am particularly interested by the way that different languages have words and concepts that we just can’t quite capture in our English lexicon. For instance, in French “Tu me manques” translates loosely to “I miss you” but more literally to “You are missing to me”. To me that gives the impression that the people you love, whom you miss, are essential components of who you are or who you have become. Sweet, no? All in all I’m truly lucky to feel that way about my goofy friends and my big, hilarious family.
That being said, here’s my question for you lovely, diverse worldwide Listservers. You know that feeling when you’re about to finish a particular thought and suddenly someone else, a friend or a stranger, finishes your sentence better than you possibly could have? It’s sort of a neat and momentary connection with another human being. Do you have a word for that in your language?
3. Hi guys! Isn’t this neat. I hope you all are having a nice day. Maybe the sun is shining where you are, or your sandwich is particularly tasty. All I know is, your hair looks great the way you did it today. On this end, I’m a 21-year-old student living and playing in beautiful Vancouver, BC.
Likes; peanut butter and jam pancakes, Calvin and Hobbes comic books, big happy dogs, travels, all of the outdoors everywhere, this band called The National, strangers who smile at you.
Dislikes; the sound of other people chewing. Honestly that might be it.
I sometimes wonder where grown-ups are supposed to make other grown-up friends. At the bar? On the street? I’m not entirely sure. It sure seemed easier when all our moms just organized the playdates for us. Well, I’d sure love to hear from whoever of you has a moment to write back. I’ve always wanted a pen pal, and from what I’ve read you all seem terribly interesting.
Cheers.
Riley Bushell
rileybushell[AT]hotmail.com
Vancouver, BC, Canada
“A man is driving his car down a long gravel road. Suddenly, a wide-eyed hare jumps out from behind a bush and our driver is unable to stop before flattening the poor little guy. Distressed, the man begins to cry. A car pulls up behind him and a beautiful woman steps out, pulls a spray can form her purse without a word and sprays the hare from head to toe.The man watches in awe as the hare jumps to it’s feet, hops a short distance from the car and turns back to wave goodbye. It continues hopping, stopping, turning and waving until it disappears into the distance. The man asks, “What on Earth did you spray him with?” and the blonde, reading from the can’s label replies, “Salon Hair Spray; brings life back to dead hairs. Adds bounce and permanent wave instantly!”
2. Talking point: Despite being a lazy, barely-semi-bilingual Canadian who sometimes even struggles with her native English, I think the whole idea of language is pretty neat. I am particularly interested by the way that different languages have words and concepts that we just can’t quite capture in our English lexicon. For instance, in French “Tu me manques” translates loosely to “I miss you” but more literally to “You are missing to me”. To me that gives the impression that the people you love, whom you miss, are essential components of who you are or who you have become. Sweet, no? All in all I’m truly lucky to feel that way about my goofy friends and my big, hilarious family.
That being said, here’s my question for you lovely, diverse worldwide Listservers. You know that feeling when you’re about to finish a particular thought and suddenly someone else, a friend or a stranger, finishes your sentence better than you possibly could have? It’s sort of a neat and momentary connection with another human being. Do you have a word for that in your language?
3. Hi guys! Isn’t this neat. I hope you all are having a nice day. Maybe the sun is shining where you are, or your sandwich is particularly tasty. All I know is, your hair looks great the way you did it today. On this end, I’m a 21-year-old student living and playing in beautiful Vancouver, BC.
Likes; peanut butter and jam pancakes, Calvin and Hobbes comic books, big happy dogs, travels, all of the outdoors everywhere, this band called The National, strangers who smile at you.
Dislikes; the sound of other people chewing. Honestly that might be it.
I sometimes wonder where grown-ups are supposed to make other grown-up friends. At the bar? On the street? I’m not entirely sure. It sure seemed easier when all our moms just organized the playdates for us. Well, I’d sure love to hear from whoever of you has a moment to write back. I’ve always wanted a pen pal, and from what I’ve read you all seem terribly interesting.
Cheers.
Riley Bushell
rileybushell[AT]hotmail.com
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Comments
Post a Comment