That book is superb.And I'll add one, not on the list, "Sult" (Hunger), by Knut Hamsun:
- "Det var i den tid jeg gikk omkring og sultet i Kristiania, denne forunderlige by som ingen forlater før han har fått merker av den".
Translated (GeorgeEgerton): "It was during the time I wandered about and starved in Christiania: Christiania, this singular city, from which no man departs without carrying away the traces of his sojourn there."
(…)
PS: Christiania was the name of the Norwegian capital Oslo between 1624and 1925. DS.
Sometimes, things are named after who invented it, or the firm which sold it first. Like the vaccum cleaner what was that name again ?
On nthe other hand, sometimes things are named after the region where they come from. Like Cheddar, for example. Or Worcester Sauce. Or Cologne.
Apparently they do, although I had to cheat and ask Wikipedia. Didn't know that. Well, when I was a kid I thought it did come from Hamburg, similar to other foodstuffs that were named after places, like Berliner (a pastry). Then I erroneously thought the name was derived simply from it being a burger with ham (meat) on it. But it seems the term does indeed have German roots and was named after Hamburg, with other burgers being back-formations of the term "hamburger". Huh.I have a stupid question I ask every time I'm in Germany (sadly Germans generally don't have time to respond to stupid questions that stoned Frenchmen ask them) :
So: Does hamburgers comes from Hamburg?
[ Source ]Wikipedia said:The term hamburger originally derives from Hamburg,[1] Germany's second-largest city. In German, Burg means "castle", "fortified settlement" or "fortified refuge" and is a widespread component of place names. The first element of the name is perhaps from Old High German hamma, referring to a bend in a river, or Middle High German hamme, referring to an enclosed area of pastureland.[2] Hamburger in German is the demonym of Hamburg, similar to frankfurter and wiener, names for other meat-based foods and demonyms of the cities of Frankfurt and Vienna (Wien), respectively.
"Once upon a time, there lived a Hobbit."
Thanks, will do.If I were to generalize based on my own false logic, I'd say most Germans don't actually know that either and you can proceed to tell them this fun fact the next time you are stoned in Germany.
If you're referring to the book, that one starts with "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"
pibbur
for marketing purposes, similar to "McDonald's". An originally Scottish name, it just doesn't create any image of Scotland anymore.
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
This great Canadian quote has been dropping because its such an anachronism now.30. The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. —William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
"What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask."
Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion
I've noticed in Shakespeare's plays there's always one character that is the catalyst for causing trouble and that's their sole purpose: Don John in Much Ado about Nothing; Lady MacBeth in MacBeth; Cassius in Julius Caesar; etc.
There are other villains in these plays but Bill likes to have a stock character whose purpose is to stir it up and make the trouble happen.
Not sure I'd go along with that. I think a character like Lady MacBeth has a lot more complexity and significance to the play than being simple catalyst to inject trouble. If Shakespeare did anything, I think it was to dig into what might seem simple, and find the complications and questions within it.
…using a Zimmer frame?
I study abroad and English is my second language. At first it wasn't easy to cope with exams and paper works in the foreign language. I even bought cheap essays from time to time. But my English is getting better over time. I think the best way to learn foreign language is is to go to a foreign country and practice it with native speakers.