Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bai Skin of Mai Teeft

Mom Says:

Just as Agent Octavian was snapping pictures of the drums of soap and boxes of pound notes, the workers came back from their break. Octavian slipped back under the conveyor belt, but his fine black plume of a tail lagged behind the rest of him and was seen even as it disappeared into darkness.

Once again, the excited voices sounded like two cats coughing up hairballs:

“Doch! Hab' ich 'ne Katze gesehen?”

“Hier! Sei nicht so doof!”

“Na ja, es war aber ein Hollenmaus!”

Octavian quickly referred to the Lingwatron, which whirred quietly. While it worked, he noticed, imprinted on the back, “Made in China,” which, he thought, probably explained quite a lot. Finally, it gave him a translation:

“Hey! Was that a cat I just saw?”

“Here? Don't be an idiot!”

“Then it was one hell of a mouse!”

Not entirely accurate? Undoubtedly. But it gave him a brilliant idea…

6 comments:

Nancy said...

There should be an umlaut on the o in Hollenmaus. Your friend, Lingwatron

Unknown said...

Dir Ont Nansee,

Mom an me kept lookin fer the umlout an it kept hidin, so we finalee givd up.

Sorree. If yu kin tel me wher to find it, I will put it in. Or, akshul, I'l get Mom to put it in, cuz she's betterer at typin.

MUSASHI

PJS said...

Check this with Lingwatron, but I think the equivalent of using the umlaut is adding an 'e' to the vowel in question: Hoellenmaus.

Nancy said...

Dear Musashi,

I know where to find the umlaut in Word but I am not sure, elsewhere. Pamela is correct that another option is to place an E after the vowel in question. But I think it's perfectly all right to leave it just as it is.

Good luck with your super special spy stuff.

Unknown said...

Dan, yu gyz noz stuff. That is so cool!

PJS said...

That's why we get paid The Big (unlaundered) Bucks. Right.