Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Meine Jacke
I took one or two semesters of German at Temple University while studying there in the 1980s. Unlike my French and Italian in high school, I recall very little of the language I'm sure I learned in college.
One phrase that stuck with me was "meine Jacke".
The professor would act out whatever he was teaching us and I found it quite amusing when he said, "meine Jacke" while he gracefully stroked the lapels of his blazer.
It reminded me of how my father, once, during a heated game of Password, used the hand motion of playing with yo-yo and saying the word, "bob". (The password was "yo yo".) It caused a great ruckus, this illegal use of pantomime. The game quickly fell apart as the highly competitive McGlinchey family exchanged accusations of cheating and foul play.
My kids find it amusing, and a little odd, that the key phrase I remember is "meine Jacke." I find it useful. I actually get to use it a lot when I can't find "meine Jacke."
Labels: animals, college, creature, drawings, German, jacke, sketches, Temple, yak
Monday, March 17, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Confused Grocery Store Customer
Was at the local grocery store last week and the self-service check-out registers were all down during a major Sunday rush. While I was disappointed and frustrated with my single gallon of milk in the "15 or less" line, this guy was walking around just sort of talking loudly to himself about the inconvenience.
We get accustomed to certain routines and sometimes fail to adapt to change. This fellow walked around, unable to commit to a regular checkout line as if his internal programming failed to understand what he was supposed to do. He uttered error messages, perhaps hoping to get the attention of the systems administrator for his mind.
By the time i had checked out he was standing, muttering, staring into the convenience refrigerator of milk at the end of an aisle.