That’s a fascinating question. I don’t know about Russian, but an American teacher working in Japan told me many years ago that Japanese school children are taught to read and write English, but not necessarily how to speak it. As a result, probably any Japanese postal worker would be able to forward letters addressed in Latin script, at least if the language is English.
Given the paucity of foreign language training in America, however, I doubt that a letter addressed in Cyrillic or in Japanese characters would have as easy a go. Interpreters are probably available in big city P.O.'s, but smaller ones are likely handicapped.
I’ve often wondered the same thing about mail addressed in English but written in an illegible hand.
teheh…I actually know the answer to this one. Buttermilk is the stuff left over after you make butter. It’s the liquid that’s left in the butter churner after you take the lump of butter that forms out.
what about the ethics of routine, non-religious circumcision for infants? as far as I know, the US is one of the only countries that routinely circumcises infant males for non-religious reasons. Why is that? Even the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that the possible benefits of the practice aren’t enough to recomend RIC (routine infant circumcision).
mulletsunite, yep. Sucks. You’d have to think that after 3,000,000-plus posts that practically everything has been at least mentioned. Unfortunately, the inablity to get at those topics except by extensive searching leads to resurrections galore.
Some things are just interesting to rehash, while other poor topics like RIC (routine infant circumcision) go lacking.
Maybe a new thread about things you wish your folks hadn’t done for you might include that as an ice-breaker.
I can see how the mullet thing could be gender specific, though some of the gnarliest mullets I have seen have beem femullets! that, and I’m trying to grow my fairly short hair longer, and am afraid it’s going to look mullet-y before it gets there…ahh, the prices we pay…
does anybody know where the saying “since hector was a pup” came from? as in, “I haven’t seen my first boyfriend since hector was a pup!”, meaning “in a long time”…who is this mysterious hector, and why is he so special? food for thought…i often wonder where these sayings come from…
My take on Hector of “dead as Hector” fame is the one in the Trojan War. I happened to play Hector in a play Tiger At The Gates in which Sondra Locke (yep, Eastwood’s ex-GF) was Helen. This was back in the late 60’s.
Some other of those “been a long time since” things I like to use are:
Since God was a corporal
Since God was in the Marines
But I guess the Hector reference I know of is how dead he was. I mean, they dragged the boy around the town behind a chariot just to demonstrate he was seriously dead. None of this Glenn Close in the bathtub stuff.
Guess again. I’ve got a friend who’s so smart that he glows in the dark (or is it from the plutonium in his desk drawer?) He works for NASA doing something along the lines of artificial intelligence and was part of the team that built the Mars rover a few years ago.
Can he program a robot to roll off a space vehicle, take pictures and phone home with the results? Absolutely. Can he program a VCR? Heck no! Can he plug in a phone line splitter and run a line to the next room for a modem? Uh-uh.
