I've been planning to compose a post about two events-to-be later in my year, but I realize most visitors are only peripherally interested in news-bulletin-type posts. Okay, so I'll just blurt it out, very quickly and then you can get to the funnies: my play HARVEST (do I hear a groan from those folks who saw the Delhi production?) is going to be performed in the US in two entirely separate productions. The first will be in Philadelphia (dir. Erin B. Mee) in September, and the second in Berkeley (dir. Sudipto Chatterjee), in November. The Philadelphia show will move to New York's LaMama, in January 2006. This is all very cool news. I have been containing my gladness rather well all these weeks, but am finally starting to freak (oh very slightly) around the edges, as I'm forced to think of practical issues such as tickets and travel.
Okay, and now we can get on with the jokes.
I found this list in my private joke archive -- yes, folks, there are some nerds so atrociously far gone that we will save our jokes for a rainy ... um ... well, okay for a day when the modem's not working.
These are from a NEW YORK magazine contest.
Contestants had to change ONE letter in a familiar non-English phrase and redefine it...
HARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS? - Can you drive a French motorcycle?
IDIOS AMIGOS - We're wild and crazy guys!
VENI, VIPI, VICI - I came, I'm a very important person, I conquered
J'Y SUIS, J'Y PESTES - I can stay for the weekend
COGITO EGGO SUM - I think, therefore I am a waffle
RIGOR MORRIS - The cat is dead
RESPONDEZ S'IL VOUS PLAID - Honk if you're Scots
QUE SERA SERF - Life is feudal
LE ROI EST MORT. JIVE LE ROI - The King is dead. No kidding.
POSH MORTEM - Death styles of the rich and famous
PRO BOZO PUBLICO - Support your local clown
MONAGE A TROIS - I am three years old
FELIX NAVIDAD - Our cat has a boat
HASTE CUISINE - Fast French Food
VENI, VIDI, VICE - I came, I saw, I partied
QUIP PRO QUO - A fast retort
ALOHA OY - Farewell; from such a pain you should never know
MAZEL TON - Lots of luck
APRES MOE LE DELUGE - Larry and Curly get wet
PORTE-KOCHERE - Sacramental wine
ICH LIEBE RICH - I'm really crazy about having dough
FUI GENERIS - What's mine is mine
VISA LA FRANCE - Don't leave chateau without it
AMICUS PURIAE - Platonic friend
L'ETAT, C'EST MOE - All the world's a stooge
(my offering for the evening)
CARPEL DIEM - Enjoying the pain in my wrist
3 comments:
Salut
Funny isn't it - almost all the phrases are French! I guess despite what the Americans want to think - they have been influenced a LOT by the French :-)
Hope to see your play when I visit NYC next year. :-)
Hi Pramod -- yes, I noticed how many of the foreign phrases were French -- is it coz, d'you think, many of those phrases are no longer consciously foreign for English speakers?? Maybe also it reveals the bias of the list-maker -- and the list-posters too, I guess. Consider this: if the list-maker had been Indian, it would very likely have been completely different -- it might have contained one or two phrases from Indian languages, for instance. However, had it been like that, it would have circulated within an Indian rather than an international network. Franglish has wider international currency than Hinglish/Hingli/Engdish.
As for HARVEST at NYC's LaMama Theatre -- you'll have to be there in January!(unless it has a long and luxurious run, of course) I'll definitely post news about it and the Berkeley production here, so you can follow its progress. The LaMama production will premiere in Philadelphia in September. I plan to be there and will report on it.
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