From Wikipedia:
He was also one of Britain’s first private pilots and gave flying lessons to Amy Johnson. He was a polyglot and before entering the acting profession full time, was an accomplished translator – fluent in French, German, Latin, Italian, Norwegian and Afrikaans.
I am not getting round to blogging a whole list of topics because I have too much else to do. Here is a sop: I was looking at a baking glossary (DE, EN, IT, FR, NL, ES) that Christiane recommended to see if it looked reliable – it does – and I was struck by the French word for sponge (Vorteig), le poolish. I was even more surprised to discover its origin, from the English word Polish. Yet it refers to the sort of sponge made with baker’s yeast (sourdough is levain). Perhaps this ‘via Vienna’ is the answer:
Ce mode de fabrication a son origine en Pologne, et ce sont les boulangers viennois qui l’introduisirent en France pour Marie Antoinette.
(Before she told them to eat cake). I still don’t see where the ‘English’ came from.
Is it well known that she is Gregor Gysi’s aunt?
I was a bit worried about the 13.74 euros for Ganggebühr, but when I phoned up to complain I was told ‘Die Ganggebühr entfällt, wenn Sie in Urlaub waren’.
This blog is closing down for a couple of weeks. All comments have been closed to avoid comment spam.
So yet again I will be missing out Talk like a pirate day on September 19 (later note: no, I didn’t), and probably even St. Jerome’s Day on September 30.
Not much good news today, me hearties, but at least this:
Die von Ingo Klöcker zum Jubiläumsjahr gestaltete Flabeg-Spiegelglasstele in der Adenaueranlage bleibt auch während der Fürther Kirchweih stehen. Das hat OB Thomas Jung angesichts der Kosten von 10 000 Euro für die geplante Versetzung beschlossen. Die Kirchweihbuden müssen nun um das Kunstwerk herum gruppiert werden.
Thank goodness for that, though it’s not for the right reason. I had no idea this nice column commemorating the mirror industry in Fürth was only a temporary amusement.