The noun flám - drinking binge - and the verb flámovat are derived directly from Flám - a Flemish person (we usually call those Vlám nowadays, just to be safe).This is probably connected to this painting entitled Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in the Countryside* which occupies pride of place in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
It also bears repeating that the Spanish Flamenco dance is actually named after the Flemish, revealing an unexpected element of gaiety and disinhibition in their national character.--------------------------------------------------------
The lesson subsequently descends to the level of crude national calumnies:We also have the idiom pít jako Dán - to drink like a Dane, meaning simply to drink a lot.*Czechs are a fine one to talk, is all I can say.
* Léon Frédéric is also known as a painter of feral babies.
** Or in the adjectival form, ožralý jako Dán or opilý jako Dán.
14 comments:
I think we can use these terms as historical evidence that the Czechs did not have trade relationships with Wisconsin.
Are you suggesting there is something wrong with those Brussels sprouts, S.C.?
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Egads... they all look like that banjo player in Deliverance!
See that kid on the far left end? Got his shirt buttoned wrong, pants too short, standing like a non-physically-aptituded dork gazing off into some private world of motorcycles, surfboards, bonghits and boobs?
Yep. That's mikey, circa 1959...
Is there any real estate available in your private world mikey? Cause it sounds like a nice place.
OT- Smut must answer an email so that a bet can be settled.
E-mail replied to.
On the subject of fetal alcohol syndrome:
"Indeed, the teenagers we tested, although they could all read and write numbers and perform simple calculations, provided truly nonsensical numerical responses in cognitive estimation tasks. The size of a large kitchen knife? Six feet and a half, said one of them. The duration of a drive from San Francisco to New York? An hour. Curiously, although their numerical answers were often quite wrong, the patients almost always selected appropriate units of measurement. Sometimes they even seemed to know the answers, yet they still selected an inappropriate number. When asked to estimate the height of the tallest tree in the world, one patient correctly reported 'redwood', then generously granted it precisely 23 feet and 2 inches!"
Estimates of the length of a dollar bill ranged from 2 inches to 5 feet. Length of an average man's spine, from 1 inch to 24 feet.
That might have been a problem once but it is now possible for a person to repeatedly mis-estimate numbers by an entire order of magnitude, and not notice it, and still remain employed as the Business & Economy Editor of the Atlantic.
Feral surfers forced inland, this will happen to your offspring. As for measurement...one surfer's 6 foot is another's 10, just sayin.
I think we can use these terms as historical evidence that the Czechs did not have trade relationships with Wisconsin.
nicely played, sir.
something wrong with those Brussels sprouts
I honestly believed them to be mangos.
This explains a great deal. I will not try that salad recipe again.
And there I was in the Bohemian Beer Garden in Queens telling people "I'm as wasted as a Walloon".
Gadzooks, I'm so embarassed.
I honestly believed them to be mangos.
Haha! Why is it that I expect it to be spelled "mangoes"?
Perhaps it's an incipient case of Quayle's Disease.
P.S. Something I learned today:
Potential for contact dermatitis
Mango peel contains urushiol, the chemical in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people.[11] Cross-reactions between mango contact allergens and urushiol have been observed.[12] Those with a history of poison ivy or poison oak contact dermatitis may be most at risk for such an allergic reaction.[13] Urushiol is also present in mango leaves and stems. During mango's primary ripening season, it is the most common source of plant dermatitis in Hawaii.[14]
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I noticed that all the cool kids are hanging out over at Von's allergy thread talking about mango(e)s and pecan nuts. I could have mentioned pistachios but didn't.
Great Belin, I missed the obvious joke... a Fflam never misses a joke!
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