Oh dear.
bq. COUNSEL: Mr. Smith, where were you born?
WITNESS: Sweden. I was born there, but I moved from there when I was. . .
COUNSEL: LIVING IN FINLAND?
OPPOSING COUNSEL: Objection! Witness isnt Finnish.
THE COURT: Overruled.
Crooked Timber links to this cartoon.
Why are these people wearing red and yellow sweaters?
(Via Serendipity)
The Nuremberg Toy Fair has begun. I noticed it was approaching when I came back to Germany on a plane full of sales staff last Monday. Now the Sonntagsblitz has a photo of a toy popemobile. The photo is by Daut and unfortunately I can’t trace it online. It may be a one-off production.
All I found online was an account of a race on a Carrera racetrack between a toy popemobile and a Wartburg (geddit – Luther!).
Along the same lines, here’s how to convert your Smart.
From The Times, January 27 2006:
bq. FORTHCOMING MARRIAGES
…
CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS
MR R.P.ADDISON
AND MR S.F.SMITH
A Civil Partnership took place on January 26, at Sutton Registry Office, between Raymond Addison and Stephen Smith, of Carshalton Beeches, Surrey.
Just a note on terminology.
American Express apparently sent a credit card application form to Stephan Lochner care of Cologne Cathedral, 555 years after the artist’s death. The dean/provost managed to wheedle a donation out of them.
bq. Köln Auch wenn der Brief gute 555 Jahre zu spät kam Norbert Feldhoff freute sich trotzdem. Der Probst des Kölner Doms musste der Kreditkartenfirma American Express allerdings bedauernd mitteilen, dass sie sich die Werbung für einen gewissen Stephan Lochner hätten sparen können.
Der mittelalterliche Maler war bereits im Jahre 1451 verstorben. Er hatte unter anderem den berühmten Altar der Kölner Stadtpatrone im Dom geschaffen.
Lochner’s St. Jerome with credit card – the translator in the modern age (main picture from Wikimedia Commons).
The Language Legend is now only a legend (at least for a while). Julie Blake started her weblog for teaching purposes and reported on it at a conference last week.
She wrote about using blogs for teaching in the English Teaching Online newsletter:
bq. Like all A Level teachers, I wanted my students to read more widely around the subject – to improve their subject knowledge, to inspire them beyond the confines of the classroom, and to better inform their A2 research project choices. Books didn’t do it for them, but I knew that reading stuff on websites came so naturally that it almost didn’t count as homework. Thus was The Language Legend born, a blog which follows stories in the news that are connected to A Level English Language topics. Twice a week a post outlines the story and gives a link to the relevant source article. Simple, but it works, and with a mini discussion forum and a bit where I make linkylove to my faves, I like to think it’s evolving into something useful for both teachers and students. But more than anything, I can tell you this: maintaining it has been the best bit of professional development ever, because with an audience eagerly awaiting the next post, I have to read around the subject too!