Flyke; Pink sheep: General Chang Chicken

James A. Landau JJJRLandau at AOL.COM
Mon Jul 8 00:13:09 UTC 2002


In a message dated 07/07/2002 10:05:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

>   Greetings from Berlin and a crazy keyboard that switched the Y and Z, for
> example.

This is the standard German keyboard---my father told me about encountering
them back in World War II.  One might think the Germans redesigned it because
a "QWERTZ" keyboard sounded properly Teutonic, but in fact the letter "y" is
used in German only for foreign words whereas the letter "z" is quite common.
 Hence the Germans swapped the letters "y" and "z" for their convenience.

An even "crazier", but actually quite sane, keyboard is the one used on the
Enigma crypto machine the Germans misused in World War II.  The Enigma
encyphered only the twenty-six letters of the "Roman" (actually English)
alphabet, so it only had 26 keys, and the "y" and '"z" were reversed from the
American QWERTY standard.  However, there being no semicolon key, the
typist's right pinkie would be hanging in mid-air, so the Germans moved the
"p" key down from the top row to give that finger something to rest on.

Perhaps that change for the convenience of the pinkie was the origin of "pink
sheep"?


>  GENERAL CHANG--From Dave Barry in the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE,
> July 6-7,  >  2002, pg. 20, col. 6:
>     Who is General Chang?  And isn't it kind of a weird honor to associate
a
> military leader with a member of the poultry family not generally known for
> its courage?  Would you want to be a soldier following General Chang into
> battle with the phrase "General Chang's chicken!" resonating in your mind?

<begin quote>

Subj:         Hollandaise Sauce (1828)
Date:   04/17/2002 5:30:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:   Bapopik at AOL.COM

    <parsnip>

(General Tso's Chicken):  Thanks for that article.  I hadn't forgotten about
Shun Lee Palace.  As I posted, there's someone who's collected thousands of
Chinese menus.  When I check out the collection, the menus will decide the
issue.

<end quote>

Dave Barry (you should sue to make him change his name) is a complete and
utter rectum, who decided that the way to copy Fart Buchwald's success was to
copy Buchwald's arrogance.  The only thing I will grant him is his suggested
Christmas presents a few years ago, which who included industrial-size
toilet-paper rolls (the kind used at the New Jersey Turnpike rest stops) from
Ojserkis Paper and Janitor Supplies of Pleasantville, New Jersey.  The
Ojserkis (the "j" is silent) family, whom I am acquainted with, made a chunk
of money off this free advertisement.

         - Jim Landau



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