DCML digest #706

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Sat Oct 20 15:46:00 CEST 2001


I checked, and I *have* that new KALLE ANKA over in the heap on the floor
in the corner. I didn't realize it had one of my stories in it. Thanks for
the tip.
Yes, that's my original Russian text in the balloon. I figured it would be
since Stephan Dios is the translator there and he would have warned me if a
mucky-muck had decided to delete my text. I obtained that Russian through
Elli Kotovirta in Finland, a country so near Russia that it actually
*touches* it, can you imagine?! She consulted a... it's been so long ago...
it was a Russian college professor, or perhaps even a diplomat? The first
word means "HALT!" Then the next two words mean "PREPARE TO BE BOARDED OR
WE OPEN FIRE!" I questioned how so much could be contained in two words,
but I was assured that the meaning of that Russian command was quite
definite. I was told that this is *very authentic* Russian for a 1950's
destroyer commander -- so authentic that someone who studies Russian
probably would not be familiar with this dialect or slang.
Lots of trouble to go to for a detail that probably not a *single* reader
will understand or ever imagine is authentic, eh? That's the fun of it...
my little private jokes. But if another Russian college professor gets
ahold of that issue, I assume he would be rather shocked and amused, and
that's also my intent. It's fun to entertain the masses, but it's also fun
to entertain the individual reader. When my flat-rate pay is not based on
popularity or readership, I can have that option and it doesn't cost me a
cent. Very liberating!





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