The God Translation

Ever since Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion came out (a controversial, thought-provoking, brilliant read, by the way) I've been wondering what the German title might turn out to be. Now I know: Der Gotteswahn (see page 16 of this preview catalogue) Not a bad title I guess. And one that didn't pop up when I myself was thinking about a possible translation.

Not likely to be in any hotel room near you any time soon. Regrettably.

English, Anyone?

As i was trying to clean my coffeepad machine and was reading the instructions on the Detergente Speciale i realised that apart from one or two lines on the packet (Born in Italy Since 1961, how reassuring), they were in Italian only. I sort of guessed what they meant and was only slightly worried when the machine made some weird noises. It went really well in the end, and even though even the button to switch to the English version of their website has no effect whatsoever, the Italians seem to know a lot not only about coffee but also about cleaning coffee machines ...

Fittingly, while i tasted a cup from my newly-polished coffee maker, i saw this hillarious video about being stuck in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language (courtesy of my partner-in-blogging eddy) which i am shamelessly putting on my site also...

See for yourselves:

Ode To My Mother Tongue

(or: when intellectuals talk football)

I have just come across an interview about football with the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, and i am impressed and also irritated by the plethora of terms and phrases he comes up with to describe that game. Just a sample:

• Torschützenorgasmen
• nationale Erregungsgemeinschaften
• atavistisch (to my knowledge one of his favourite words)
• anthropologische Versuchsanordnung
• protoartilleristische Jagderfolgsgefühle
• dieses mysteriöse weibliche Universal der Handtasche (ok, not football-related but too cool to miss)
• "Ich bin nicht der Maskottchentyp" (no, just iconic?)
• permanente Überbelichtung (oh really?, i thought ...)
• Hermaphroditisierung

What a great read, and really prominent among all the ramblings that we are being inundated with in the run-up to the World Cup.