|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 4
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 4 |
hallo, i'm writing from italy and i need your help to translate some expressions:
-what are TRUE ROMANCE MAGAZINES?
-whate are BUNGALOW COLONIES?
-whate are LUNCH-COUNTER PROTESTANTS?
-what are CHITLINS?
thanks a lot
michela
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2 |
chitlins is the shortened (probably Black, certainly southern) form of chitterlings, hog intestines prepared as food. Fried, in fact.
True Romance Magazines are goopy love stories, the print equivalent of soap operas, and they appeal to the same audience that likes gothic romance novels of the heaving bosom sort.
I don't know what bungalow colonies are without some context to go on--guessing, I'd say it was a term for a blue collar suburb.
I don't know what lunch-counter Protestants are without some context. Guessing again, I'd bet it had to do with people whose faith was more evident by their lunch-counter conversation than by their attendance at Sunday worship--in other words, people who are loudly sure what God thinks without checking out their presuppositions with a dose of exposure to what God thinks. But please don't overlook my "guessing" preface.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 4
stranger
|
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 4 |
thank you very much for your kindness in replying so quickly
actually i'm translating a book about a song ('strange fruit')sung by billie holiday and those expressions come from there
thanks again
michela
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
> -what are TRUE ROMANCE MAGAZINES?
-whate are BUNGALOW COLONIES?
-whate are LUNCH-COUNTER PROTESTANTS?
True romance magazines: an oxymoron referring to (usually) cheap, (usually) trashy pulp mags that are the periodical equivalent of oh darn "bodice busters???"
Bungalow colonies are most likely suburbs or subdivisions. This is SWAG (simply wild-assed guess) but for some reason I think it might be from South Africa. No idea why.
Lunch counter protestants -- again a guess: In the US of A back in the 50s, blacks began to protest segragation by staging non-violent sitins at lunch counters which refused to serve members of that race. The one's I remember arose at Woolworth's stores someplace in the South. I'm wondering if this might not be what you're looking for.
chitlins: Bill Clinton's second favorite snack food. I won't tell you the moniker of his favorite.
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
The only guess I can give you is based upon the notion that bungalows have the distinction of being all on one level - of not having an upper floor. In the UK, at least, therefore, they are used primarily by people with mobility problems. Ergo, a bungalow colony may refer to a colony set up for older people. Equally, bungalows may have the connotation of cheap housing. (Then being code for 'low class'). Or, because you need to spread the house out more if you have only one floor to play with - they may be referring to expensive housing!
Isn't idiom wonderful? (Logic is rarely any help in decipherment.) I am reasonably certain that, if the context were the UK, a bungalow colony would be one packed with OAPs. (Look that one up!)
cheer
the sunshine warrior
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I have never heard of LUNCH-COUNTER PROTESTANTS, but I vote with shanks on BUNGALOW COLONIES, Michela. They are very common around the South coast of England, to where many people retire at the age of sixty/sixty-five. (or earlier, these days.) The bungalows referred to tend to be small, often semi-detached, and packed as many to the acre (or 2.8 times as many to the hectare) as is inhumanly possible.
Hence the road sign to the ferry port of Harwich, which reads "HARWICH - for the Continent" has appended to it in spray-paint, (EASTBOURNE - for the incontinent."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
In reply to:
HARWICH - for the Continent" has appended to it in spray-paint, EASTBOURNE - for the incontinent.
Cruel. But very funny, withal.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Cruel. But very funny,
Indeed so - but isn't all humour at least a little bit cruel? We are making fun of the human condition (or, more often, prhaps, the out-of-condition) which must be cruel to those in that condition. What do you think?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
In reply to:
We are making fun of the human condition (or, more often, prhaps, the out-of-condition) which must be cruel to those in that condition.
Hmmmmmm........
What about the old virtues of laughing at oneself, or laughing with, rather than at, someone?
I dunno. It still doesn't seem fair, somehow.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
isn't all humour at least a little bit cruel?
I don't think so. What about when animals do something funny? Music can be funny. Drawings can be funny. When my daughter was an infant, she put her shoe on her hand, and
looked at me and grinned. I don't see how that's making fun of the human condition.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,331
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
824
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
