My sister is a reasonably intelligent person. But sometimes, she says something that floors me in laughter of a magnitude only written about in Viking sagas. So here goes…
She and I were talking, and the topic was, at the moment, the Dutch. I spoke of how much I admired their progressive government, and so on, and she asks me:
“Where do the Dutch live?”
Now, I didn’t laugh at that; it’s pretty hard to make the Dutch = Netherlands connection if you’ve never really learned about it. But, in a mischevious, fun-loving mood, I allowed her a few guesses. One of her guesses was:
“Dutchland?”
Now, every time she does something dumb, I say those two syllables, and she cringes in embarrassment.
One time, I asked my friend where Motown was. He burst out in riotous laughter; I actually thought Motown was an actual nickname for an actual place! My mother tells me that Motown’s a part of some city, like Brooklyn is a part of New York, but I really don’t believe her.
Well, since it’s a new thread and all, I thought I’d throw in a similar story, only it’s me being dumb, or rather speaking without thinking, and it follows me to this day.
My friend Stacy had some ‘carnivorous’ fish that we had to feed other fish to. Mr. Jarbaby (then Jarbabyboyfriend), my friend Steve, my friend Dave and I all watched as Stacy threw these innocent little goldfish into the tank.
The guys all thought it was great. I was appalled by it. It was so sad, because the fish all gathered in the corner and just sort of sat there and waited to be eaten. It made me so flustered and sad that I just opened my mouth, pointing to the fish and said,
“Look! Look how him shakes!” :rolleyes:
Now, whenever I’m all worked up or emotional, Mr. Jarbaby will pull out that grammatical gem.
