Some miscellanea today. I did start twittering – see right-hand column – but have not really got into it. It will be useful for posting quick links, but without following and being followed by a large number of translators and/or lawyers, it will not be useful for terminology questions, for instance.

1. Weißwurst
Today (as already tweeted), IPKAT has an entry on the Weißwurst case. It has a photo of a cat – one of the old-style round-faced Siamese type – that has grabbed an uncooked British sausage. Something to shock Germans!

The writer, Marc Mimler, refers to the tradition that the Weißwurst should not hear the bells chime midday. He doesn’t mention the controversy as to whether it is OK to cut the sausage with a knife, or whether it is not better to suck out the contents. Enough said.

The case was also mentioned on the Class 46 Blog by Birgit Clark.

2. Large statue of Christ
As reported, the Fürth Stadtheimatpfleger has problems with the Neue Mitte, the huge shopping centre the town council want to splat across the town. Meanwhile, the Bezirksheimatpflegerin Andrea Kluxen has problems with a planned 55-metre statue of Christ to be erected near Wassertrüdingen near Ansbach. This is the same one that was planned for Bad Reichenhall last year. This recalls Franz Josef Strauss’s daughter Monika Hohlmeier, who is being exported to Franconia as a potential MEP. The Augsburger Allgemeine says:

Die angeblich weltweit größte Christus-Statue solle auf einer Ackerfläche am Ortsrand errichtet werden. Teil des Projekts sei ein «Pilgerhotel» mit 185 Zimmern, Wellness-Bereich und einem Restaurant. Die Baukosten von 20 Millionen Euro wolle eine Stiftung des Hamburger Unternehmers Harry Vossberg übernehmen, erläuterte Babel.

The artist is Angerer der Ältere, who seems to do Tolkieny stuff. Pictures here.

3. Court interpreters in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Times on American Justice in a Foreign Language an article about interpreters and how the courts found a telephone interpreter for a variety of Mixe spoken by only about 7,000 people in Mexico.