Fwd: one-handed quote search

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Wed, 17 Aug 2005 01:18:11 -0400,  "Douglas G. Wilson"  
_douglas at NB.NET_ (mailto:douglas at NB.NET)   writes

>><<... que j'avais plus de trente  ans
>>avant que j'eusse jeté les yeux sur aucun de ces dangereux livres  qu'une
>>belle dame de par le monde trouve incommodes, en ce qu'on ne  peut les lire
>>que d'une main.>>
>
>Translation of  that last part (from Google Print):
>
><<... that I was more than thirty years old before I so  much as glanced at
>one of those dangerous books which one lovely woman of  the world finds
>inconvenient, so she says, because they can only be read  with one hand.>>




A good horrible example of what happens when you trust a machine  translation.
 
"so she says" does not appear in the French original.
"one lovely woman" is a word-for-word translation and therefore  incorrect.  
Better would be "a lovely woman."  
 
My translation is "these dangerous books that any worldly woman would find  
inconvenient because they can only be read held in one hand".  
 
I agree that the implication is that the other hand is busy performing  
masturbation.
 
Other topics:
 
>It's the adj./n. ["pussy"] relating to weakness and cowardice that I'm  
asking about.
 
I admit that I was somewhat off-topic by giving a usage  of the  noun sense 
referring to genitalia, but I figured the possible antedating might  be worth 
citing.
 
It is interesting that while "pussy" means you-know-what, "puss" means the  
face.
 
Incidentally, today I overheard a white man in his early 20's use "pussy"  
meaning "cowardice" in a conversation with two middle-aged African-American  
women.
 
>The Pope I believe at one time tried to excommunicate Richard The  Lionheart 
because his >armies used crossbows which the Pope stated were  unchristian. 
The Lionheart was not >excommunicated as he pointed out it was  being used 
against non-christians. I am not sure >of the veracity of that  story.
 
I believe the above story is backwards.  Richard the Lionhearted was  KILLED 
by a crossbow bolt.  According to the story as I heard it, the  
mortally-wounded Richard forgave the crossbowman, a Genoese mercenary, but after  Richard's 
death one of his subordinates had the crossbowman executed.
 
     - James A. Landau