On Thursday, I showed a picture of Bild asking whether the Queen is going to apologize about Dresden when she comes to Germany tomorrow.

An inserted picture of enemy planes was headed ‘War bombs over Dresden’, but BILDblog, quoting Tagesspiegel, says this actually shows American bombers over Normandy. The British bombed Dresden at night, and this is a daylight shot.

Meanwhile, the Fürther / Nürnberger Nachrichten on Saturday had an article by Henrik Bebber about the British papers claiming Germany wanted the Queen to apologize about Dresden. There was no mention that Bild started this. But I think it did, didn’t it? I mean, the Sun et al are far from innocent in German-bashing, and they probably do more than German papers do against the British, but Bild knew that and was provoking it this time round.

LATER NOTE: I was wrong again here – see comments.

This is a pair of scissors. Or is it? Yes, I don’t see why not – it has two parts that are joined (like nutcrackers, bermudas, steps, scales, goggles and so on). I smuggled it out of and into Germany a few months ago – when I came back in, the X-Ray machine started beeping, but no-one could find anything in the depths of my handbag, a normal situation. Later it came to light. (There’s also a dead gnat in the picture, in honour of the date).

But can the decision to call it ‘a scissors’ determine one’s talent for translating?

Trevor takes a very ecumenical view of the matter at kaleboel.

Robin Stocks reports that Eurlex and CELEX have combined to form a new portal. (Deutsch)

In the talking bear, the mysterious talking bear has just begun his or her account of things (with one comment by the equally mysterious David, who addresses the blogger as Mis). Perhaps it is a he called Michoslaw and perhaps he is in Krakow.

Some translators argue about whether a non-native speaker can translate into a language, but the net is cast wider here:

bq. The other problem is choosing the language to translate to. There’s no point in “selling” a language that no-one’s going to want. The issue of determining which language to choose, however, comes and goes in trends.

bq. Kazakh, darling? Oh, that’s so passé!

bq. I’ve always liked to think that English as a global language will always come in handy, and as I speak Polish fluently as well as having a good knowledge of Russian and French (the latter being not so useful out here), finding work is much more of a problem than I though it would be.

I’m not sure I understand the ‘as’ there. The more languages you speak, the harder it is to find work. Probably the harder to make up your mind which to translate into.

Perhaps one should stick to languages like Serbo-Croat or Czechoslovakian that one day offer a choice (give or take a change of alphabet).

The Moscow Times reports on a translators’ club that meets once a month in Moscow.

bq. Meeting once a month at the Nikolai Ostrovsky Museum, the club is free for all comers. Regulars range from university students to Zoya Zarubina, an interpreter to Josef Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the wartime Tehran and Yalta conferences. Each get-together begins with a lecture followed by wine and socializing. Also available are the club’s magazine, Mosty, and books published by the organizer, R. Valent, which specializes in translation manuals. …

bq. The Translators’ Club next meets Nov. 24 at 5 p.m. at 14 Tverskaya Ulitsa. See www.rvalent.ru for details.

(Via Taccuino di traduzione and the Literary Saloon)

Schon am 15. 9 beschrieb Law-Blog die europäische Aktiengesellschaft (SE).

The European Company or Societas Europeae (this adding yet another language) is an optional Europe-wide company form. FAQ here.