The next person to post in this thread...

[Jizzelbin]

No, I went on a vacation when I was working in France once....I'd like to most visit again Genova, with the lovely hills and the park and all those burly men working on the docks...wait...what?

TNP is thinking that if one is to flee a country it would be better to head north or south. And has specific ideas in mind, such as, Mexico, Canada (pace, pero me disfruta le dice!), Sweden, Cuba, Niger, Argentina, España.

[Elendil's Heir]

Probably north, to Canada, since my non-English language skills are pretty bad (what little I can remember of high school Spanish, and then the even less French, German and Russian I've picked up over the years).

TNP has a language other than English in mind that he or she would love, by the wave of a magic wand, to become skilled in overnight.

[Jizzelbin]

Sure. I think Finnish is a very particular language, but it not being an Indo-European language, it's kind of gruesome to learn these very strange words with no cognates. My Spanish is getting better....more like Spanglish, but it's enough to communicate for my purposes now. It would be nice to have it beamed down into my thick skull directly, but since we don't do AI fantasies and neurolinks at my place, that will not happen in my lifetime nor that of anyone here. It's easier to know Latin very well first for Spanish and Italian, and French is too bizarre to be useful.

TNP will choose: "Oye cómo va, mi ritmo / Bueno pa' gaza, mulat'" Versus the classic "Pedro stole my car believe t!" (the latter is amusing to "sing" when performing.. even though it was an old joke fifty years ago. .in fact it was the singer and organist Gregg Rolie who came up with the latin beat for the tune and permitted Carlos to do his thing,

[Elendil's Heir]

I really have no preference, but if I must choose, I'll go with the first.

TNP knew that JRR Tolkien based one of his Elvish languages, in part, on Finnish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya

[Jizzelbin]

Yeah, I probably heard that somewhere or other. Not sure. Never read any Tolkien and only saw the known deviant Peter Jackson movies with the Rifftrax commentaries. That is interesting to recall, however, and I have no reason to doubt EH's word on that.

TNP can probably tell the difference between a spring at 7.5 lbs and at 12 or 13 lbs. just by how far it launches into the distance of one's room (although recoil and magazine springs are never to be seen again....it is ape law). Damned handguns...they can put somebody's eye out with those things, ferchrissakes!

[Elendil's Heir]

That was certainly a recurring theme in A Christmas Story.

TNP has seen that movie in the past three years.

[Jizzelbin]

No, I've never actually seen that. Something about a boy and a BB gun and licking a frozen flagpole and stuff, I think is the one.

TNP could very happily go the rest of his or life without ever seeing another christmas-themed movie. Exceptions could be allowed....maybe *Die Hard* or some "very special" adult entertainment training films.

[Elendil's Heir]

Well, first off, as all right-thinking people know, Die Hard isn't actually a Christmas movie (it's set at that time, yes, but is much too violent and non-Christmasy to be accurately called one), and secondly, nah, I don't mind a Christmas movie now and then.

TNP has licked a frozen flagpole in the past three years.

[Jizzelbin]

Sir, I don't think you really want to know what I've been licking in the past few years. But it hasn't been no flagpole.

TNP is kind of pleased to learn that the Seattle Seahawks won out against the confusing, but still evil and tainted other team from over there. In the Superbowl...or Stupidbowl....however one wishes to call it.

[Elendil's Heir]

I had no particular favorite, but my dad was rooting for the Seahawks, so I'm glad for him. If the Browns or the Steelers aren't playing, I really don't give a damn.

TNP has been to an NFL game in the past two years.

[Jizzelbin]

No. Never, in fact. Perception is: too loud, too expensive, too many assnecks breathing my oxygen at pretty much any mass event like that. I prefer to read the play-by-play in real time and try to imagine what's going on behind each decision/play, and might see some highlights on leTube eventually.

TNP thinks scholars should get off their lazy, endowed-chair-seeking asses and produce an annotated version of the Finnish national(ist) epic, the Kalevala, preferably in biface Finnish and English (or some other modern Western European language that isn't Polish or Hungarian or another Nordic language). They do it for Joyce, dammit!