Vista De Nada

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 2/22/01 9:12:08 AM Eastern Standard Time, prez234 at JUNO.COM
writes:

<<  In the film "Multiplicity," Michael Keaton plays a construction worker.
One of the housing  developments is "Vista De Nada," which is "View of
Nothing"...  Would this be a flattering name for a housing development or an
unflattering one??  It occurs to me as well that the response to  "Gracias"
is "De Nada." >>

"Nada" (infinitive "nadar") also means "he swims".  A Spanish riddle goes
"why is the fish the laziest animal in the world?"  Answer: "what does he do?
 Nada"

"View of him swimming" is not a grammatically correct interpretation of
"vista de nada", but neither is "view of you're welcome".

A very far-fetched interpretation is that some historically-minded
cinematographer was sneaking in a tribute to the prionering French
photographer Nadar (whose friend Jules Verne sent him off to the moon).

Realistically either
1) some Californian who did not speak Spanish was trying to come up with a
realistic-sounding name for a California housing development and goofed
2) this was a deliberate but over-subtle piece of satire
3) this was a practical joke by the set carpenters

          - Jim Landau