Conference thebay::joyoflex

    That reminds me of a few odd phrases I encountered during a recent
    trip to Great Britain:

    -------------------------

    In Heathrow airport is a sign prohibiting

	"electrical passenger carrying vehicles"

    	(I went through that gate since I was neither electrical nor
    	was I carrying any vehicles.)
    
    -------------------------

    A couple of interesting signs on the rest room stalls.  (These were
    "official" signs - not graffiti.)

	"sorry, not in use"

	(I wondered why they would be sorry no one was using it until
    	I realized that I couldn't use it either - then *I* was sorry.)

	"disabled toilet"

	(I first thought this was another blow for my kidneys but was
    	happy to see that it was fully functional - and how spacious!)
    	

    -------------------------

    And, driving through an apparently nasty area of town...

    	"dead slow children playing"

	(I didn't see any, thank goodness.)

    A malappropriate reference to the "upper" house of the English
    Parliament: 
    
    			The Louse of Hordes
    

    
    I was in Paris a few weeks ago (the week they had all those bombings)
    and noticed the fashion for "things American" to be much more
    popular than it was last year.   Sweatshirts with "Americain" logos
    are very popular and I saw lots of interesting examples.  They 
    almost always have some mistake which makes their true origin 
    obvious.   Quite a few are "university" sweatshirts - usually with
    something spelled wrong.  A few (as nearly as I can remember):
    
    		The Classic     (this is a popular phrase)
        	West Coast
    		University
    		  U S A
    

    		The Classic
    		  EAGLE
    		MOUNTAIN EXPEDITION
    	       [picture of snowy peak]    
    		APPALACHIAN
    		NEVADA
    
    If I had more time it would have been fun to get a collection of
    the funnier examples.

    		But again, who are we to talk when we buy
    		"Haagen Dazs"  ice cream by the ton!
    		Talk about contrived - I don't think those two 
    		words could even *possibly* exist in any nordic 
    		language!  

    		{flame off}
    
    MP    

Those sweatshirts are called "ucla shirts" in Swedish.  "ucla" is
pronounced "uk-la", in case you wondered.


"Haagen Dazs" is an invented word that was intended to sound
vaguely Danish.  The other pseudo-Scandinavian brand, "Frusen
Gl�dj�" is more-or-less real Swedish: the words mean "frozen
joy."  Unfortunately, real Swedish ice cream is pretty awful
compared with, say, Toscannini's.

    Haagen Dazs is a purely american product manufactured in NJ somewhere.
                                                   
                  /
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                  ) ///
                 /
    

    re: .4, .5 
    
    That's just my point.  The irony in the Haagen Dazs name is that
    besides being a bit of chicanery dreamed up soley for marketing
    something not in the least bit "exotic" as such, it was made up by 
    people too ignorant to consider whether their creation could even
    *plausibly* exist in some nordic language!  And it worked!
    It makes one wonder whether the folks who made up the name were
    just ignorant or got some perverse kick out of taking such blatant
    advantage of the ignorance of the American public.
    
    Ah well.  See you at Steve's :-)
    MP

    Re: .6
    
    > ...taking some blatant advantage of the ignorance of the American
    > public.
    
    Isn't that the primary tactic of the Madison Avenue types?
     

    Thanks, folks.  I always considered Hagen-whatever to be second
    rate stuff, and wondered how the heck someone thought it good enough
    to import.  Sets my mind at eaze...

On the other hand, there is Ben and Gerrys...

Larry

    Ben and Gerrys; that's an honest name for a product; especially
    if it is made by Ben and Gerry.  Did you know that the real name
    of Ralph Lauren, the fashion designer, is Ralph Lipshitz?  Sad
    to say, but few people would go out of their way for an original
    Lipshitz.  "Ralph Lauren" has a vaguely continental sound to it
    - especially to American ears and is therefore more acceptable.
    It isn't dishonest.  It is only unfortunate that the phony is more
    acceptable than the real.
    
    Bernie

Don't forget, the real names of Bartles and Jaymes
are Ernest and Julio...

Bruce

    Ernest and Julio are masters of this.
    
    Remember Madria-Madria sangr�a?  There was a Mexican-dressed woman
    saying, "my uncle produces this wine in the old family tradition",
    or something silly like that, with a Tommy Chong accent.
    
    Her name (I'm not kidding) was Ophelia Gallo.

>    to say, but few people would go out of their way for an original
>    Lipshitz.  

    I would!  Lipshitz was a great Soviet futurist/vorticist sculptor!

    
    MATT

    re: .13
    
    Very good.  That was Jaques Lipshitz.  He would have been upset,
    however, to be described as a Soviet sculptor.  He was from Latvia;
    he emmigrated to Paris early in the century and then to America
    at about the time of the occupation in the '40s.  He lived and worked
    in New York until his death a few years ago.  He is usually described
    as a cubist; what do you mean by "futurist/vorticist"?
    
    Bernie

    My knowledge of Lipshitz is years old, and the cobwebs have gotten
    dusty in those recesses of my mind.  Your description sounds
    more correct.  At least I still remember liking the look of his 
    pieces....
    
    
    MATT (a Modern Studies major in a former life, now merely an 
          occasional fan of JOYOFLEX)

    Re .0
    > ..., but in Oxford, England.  On one of the main
    > streets there is a building that houses two adjacent public toilets.
    > One of the doors is labeled, not surprisingly, Men.  The other:
    > Disabled.
    
    Surely, like "chairmen" and "mankind", the Men label is generic
    and applies equally to both sexes.