20 August 2010

I don´t think they get it.

So there´s this brand of diet frozen meals called Michelina´s Lean Gourmet.  Remember when we blogged about malamanteaus?  Here´s the link.
I think Michelina´s is trying to make some malamanteaus on the insides of their cardboard boxes, but... I don´t think they get it.  I don´t think they get how these are supposed to work.

Here are some good malamanteaus:

  • spork
  • skort
  • Brangelina
  • blog
  • liger
  • muppet
  • smog
  • televangelist
  • WiFi


Here are some bad ones:


    

I will continue to post these as I find them, because they´re terrible.
The meals are delicious and cheap; their advertising... is low budget.

12 August 2010

Muffaletta

(Answering Jon.)



Muffuletta
pronounced MUFF A LOT UH 
or maybe MOOF A LOT UH

They´re a New Orleans specialty.  They´re delicious. The people at Central Grocery on Decateur claim to be the originators, since 1906.

Italian immigrant, Signor Lupo Salvatore, owner of the Central Grocery, started making the sandwiches for the men who worked the nearby wharves and produce stalls of the French Market. The sign over the covered sidewalk proudly proclaims, home of “The Original Muffuletta.”


The sandwich consists of the round loaf of crusty Italian bread, split and filled with layers of sliced Provolone cheese, Genoa salami and Cappicola ham, topped with Olive Salad: a chopped mixture of green, unstuffed olives, pimientos, celery, garlic, cocktail onions, capers, oregano, parsley, olive oil, red-wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Marie Lupo Tusa, daughter of the The Central Grocery's founder, tells the story of the sandwich's origin in her 1980 cookbook, Marie's Melting Pot:

Most of the farmers who sold their produce there were Sicilian. Every day they used to come of my father's grocery for lunch.
They would order some salami, some ham, a piece of cheese, a little olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or round muffuletta bread. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately. 
The farmers used to sit on crates or barrels and try to eat while precariously balancing their small trays covered with food on their knees. My father suggested that it would be easier for the farmers if he cut the bread and put everything on it like a sandwich; even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. 
He experimented and found that the ticker, braided Italian bread was too hard to bite but the softer round muffuletta was ideal for his sandwich. In very little time, the farmers came to merely ask for a "muffuletta" for their lunch. 


Central Grocery is a big tourist attraction now.  What I really want to know is how the Muffuletta got its name.

Who created the first muffuletta is still a matter of dispute, but food critic and historian Gene Bourg uncovered a likely scenario. He interviewed elderly Sicilians who lived in the French Quarter for many years. "They told me vendors used to sell them on the streets, as did Italian groceries," he says. "The name refers to the shape of the bread. 'Muffuletta' means 'little muffin.' Italian bakers made muffuletta loaves and sold them to Italian delis. The delis then wrapped the sandwiches in the same paper the bread came in, so the sandwich took on the name."

I read that in a 2004 issue of Southern Living.  Makes sense.

According to Mirriam Webster:
Etymology: probably from Italian dial., from Italian muffoletta little muff, diminutive of muffola muff, from French moufle, from Middle French


08 August 2010

Alot

Have I mentioned I like this ALOT?

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html




My name gets mispronounced a lot.

Shee-luh.
Shay-luh.
Chee-luh.
Chay-luh.
Shellondra (no joke--this actually happened--at the UA SHC)
Kee-luh.
Kay-luh.

Even when I started working at my current place of employment, one of my managers called my Shay-luh for about a month.  At one of my previous jobs in college, my boss´ boss (with whom I admittedly did not work with very often) called me Chee-luh for an entire semester when I was in his class even though I had worked in his office for two years.

It´s ok.  I´m used to it.  I´m usually genuinely surprised when someone guesses correctly.  Cheh-luh.  That´s how you say it.  Yes, like a cello but with an a.  Yes, I get that a lot.
When I go to restaurants or places where I have to give my name, I always use Rachel, my middle name, to avoid confusion.

Enough.
Anyway.

My coworker Marvin started jokingly/affectionately calling me Sheh-lay-lee.  I never dreamed this was a real word.  Indeed, it is.  Thought I´d share.


shil·le·lagh   /ʃəˈleɪli, -lə/
Also, shil·la·la, shil·la·lah, shil·le·lah.
–noun (esp. in Ireland)
a cudgel, traditionally of blackthorn or oak.

Origin: 
1670–80;  < Ir Síol Éiligh town in Co. Wicklow; 
the adjoining forest provided wood for the clubs. 
From Irish Gaelic sail (cudgel) + éille  (leash, thong)



I went to Wicklow back in 08.

Girlfriend

So... I just found out Avril Lavigne *groan* recorded the chorus of this Girlfriend song *GROAN* in a bunch of different languages.  It´s just about 24 seconds in each language, but GAH she sounds like she´s purposely trying to pronounce the words as terribly as possible.

My only guess is that this did not go over well considering I never heard about it until now--when I was looking up Shakira translations for the Waka Waka post.

There are two videos I want you to watch.  The first is a short clip of her talking and setting the scene for how terrible this whole project is going to sound.  The second--if you can stomach it--is 25 seconds or so in each language, with subtitles, back to back.





As far as pronunciations go, I think the Mandarin and the Portuguese sound especially terrible.  In the initial video she says she´s going to record  French, Portuguese, German, Hindi, Italian, but in actuality they nixed the Hindi and added Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.

Even though I don´t speak all these languages, it´s pretty obvious someone in charge of this project said, "ok, we want literal, exact translations as much as possible" as opposed to coming up with translations that capture the meaning, if not word for word.

HOWEVER, some translations are straight up WRONG.

  • In Spanish, instead of saying "I know that you like me" she says "I know that I like you."
  • In Italian she says "I don´t love your girlfriend" instead of "I don´t like your girlfriend" (which is a throwback to this post).
  • In Chinese she says "You´re not a secret."
  • In Japanese she uses "that girl" instead of "girlfriend."

I just wonder who they got to do these translations? and what kind of language coaches?  and why they failed in even translating correctly?  Even MTV was able to assemble a ragtag team of foreign language experts to have a panel discussion about this project.*  If MTV could do it, why couldn´t Avril?

I don´t even know what the purpose of this all really was, aside from a way for Avril to have fun... in which case I guess she didn´t really care too much about the accuracy either.  Whatev.

*Watch the video of the panel discussion here.