Wednesday, January 28, 2009

 

Help! America needs umlauts!

I Googled my book to see if it has been released (not quite yet) and found out that it is being sold through some... unusual places. For example:

1) For example, check out Sorbok. Apparently, the price is "kr146.-" What country is this?

2) Then there is the American Idol Junkie Shop. You can find "Jesus on Death Row" in the "ethics" section. And no, I'm not making this up. First of all, why is it available through American Idol? And why, oh why, would the American Idol shop have an "ethics" section? Has our culture sunk so low that we are looking to American Idol for ethics?

3) If kr145 seemed a little steep, it is available for only kr120 over at Studia. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that it is listed in the "Fagkategorier." (I'm pretty sure that "kr" is short for "kroner," but I can't remember which country uses the kroner).

4) Or, if you prefer, you can pick it up for just "R$17,34" at Precomania. Though don't do both-- I'm pretty sure that if you put "precomania" and "fagkategorier" in the same search, you will end up on the watch list and get stopped at the airport.

5) Possibly you have discovered that your pockets aren't bulging with kroners. You can always pick up the book at the website of a Christian music radio station in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

6) What? You are in Japan? No problem! At this site, I learned that my name in Japanese is "著."

Comments:
I think the Kroner is Danish? It's one of those Scandinavian countries--for the Studia website and the first one.

One of the better Germanic-language speakers (Lane??) on this blog will know how to translate "fagkategoriker". But yeah, it's one of those many many funny-sounding Germanic words.

(Like one day when I lived in Zurich, one of the newspapers had a headline that said "Tater tot" and it means something died, not like, the deep-friend potato balls . . . Tater is supposed to have an umlaut . . . but I had a good laugh at it.)

So I'm sure "fagkategoriker" has nothing to do with gay guys, but it does sound funny!
 
Not that there is anything wrong with being in the Fagkategorier.
 
Absolutely nothing wrong with it, Anonymous! I agree completely.
 
"deep-friend potato balls"

-When Mr. Potato Head uses his very sad eyes.
 
I really didn't need to know what part of Mr. Potato Head constitutes "the tots." That's like finding out what part of a chicken is the nugget. Eew.
 
oops, I meant "deep FRIED potato balls," not deep-FRIEND potato balls . . . yáll southerners know what I mean!

I really didn't mean to divert the conversation like this . . .
 
The Baylor Book Store should have a book signing.
 
Jessica-

The answer to which part of the chicken is the nugget is, unfortunately, not very much of it. There is more corn in a chicken nugget than anything else.
 
Omelets? You should be able to get an omelet at any Denny's or similar restaurant. What's the problem? Are you people in Texas too simple to know how to make a basic egg meal....

Oh.... Umlauts.

Never Mind.
 
at first I though he meant epaulets. But he did not.
 
.no is the TLO for Norway, and I'm unsure of what the Norse currency is, but yes, Kroner is Danish. It means "crown," and it's going to have cognates in most Scandinavian countries, excluding the Finns.

Context clues tells me that "fag-" in Scandinavian languages means something like subject. In German, this is "subjekt." However, subject-category doesn't make sense, and so I'm going to continue to believe that searching for "fagkategoriker" and "precomania" is going to get me blacklisted, if I am not already.

And your name in Japanese is not 著. That's pronounced "cho" and means "book by." Your name in Japanese is "Maaku" (pronounced "MAH-khu") and is spelled マーク. Of course, for a book, they wouldn't attempt to Japan-ize your name and would just spell it "Mark," but I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting it pronounced the way we do. For instance, my name is gets pronounced (and spelled!) "Rein." However, because my parents were not-creative enough to name me "road," there is a Japanese equivalent, michi, 道, but while this is the same character in awesome words like "judo" and "kendo," "Michi" is a girl's name and so I must be content to be known as レイン.
 
WOW. Does that guy work for the UN or something???? hahaha WOW!!! I am IMPRESSED!!!!!
 
More fun trivia: umlaut is German for "the other sound," and refers to the phenomenon of pronouncing a vowel in a specific way to indicate a difference in meaning or conjugation.

And as to why I know this, that is a long and complicated story that involves my orientation session at UT, clepping out of Spanish I-III, German ancestry, my judo coach's desire for me to stop mispronouncing the names of techniques, and The Lord of the Rings. I really can't simplify the story any more than that.
 
Kr is Danish currency according to my past work in derivatives.

As for the 'word' I can ask a Danish friend if you must have a translation.

On the other hand my imagination takes me to the word 'fag' and the word 'kategoriker'. Fag can mean cigarette. So perhaps the the book is being sold in the 'smoking gun' category. At least in the movies many people on death row ask for a final smoke.
 
Congrats on having your book offered in the Smoking Section of the website!
 
I don't come here often enough, and so sometimes scroll back and find gems like this one. Very nice...

P.S. The "kroner" is used in Denmark, but also in Norway and in Sweden. They're different currencies with different exchange rates (I learned this summer that young Swedes go to Norway to work in cafes to make money because the exchange rate is so good: oh those poor, poor Swedes), just with the same name. (Which, as Lane pointed out, means "crowns.")
 
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