I love this story. A group of pissed-off Lesbians -- that is, people of Lesbos -- have filed suit in Greek civil court against a gay rights group, trying to force it to quit using the word "lesbian" in its title:
"My sister can't say she is a Lesbian," said Dimitris Lambrou. "Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos," he said.The three plaintiffs are seeking to have the group barred from using "lesbian" in its name and filed a lawsuit on April 10. The other two plaintiffs are women.
[snip]
Lambrou said the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades. "But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years," said Lambrou, who publishes a small magazine on ancient Greek religion and technology that frequently criticizes the Christian Church.
The agony of a man whose sister can't say she's a Lesbian! Dadgum, they've been lesbians for a thousand years, and Ellen DeGeneres has only been out of the closet for what, 15?
This story, with those priceless quotes, should provide endless rounds of vulgar snickering. Scott Lahti, you're on deck!
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Roland, Roland, Roland
Keep those Doges a-roulant
Rawhide!
(The Petite Bourgeoisie were originally a sub-clan of the Bulgars found in the Pirin Mountains.)
Franklin, yes - my reference to Bulgarians was strictly in jest. But actually the difference between the Bulgarian and Macedonian languages is fairly minor. I'm not sure whether all dialects are mutually intelligible when spoken but the grammars are strikingly similar - especially in that they have both lost the elaborate Slavic case system. At any rate, maybe erroneously, I think of the language difference as similar to that of Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian for what was once Serbo-Croatian. That said, Québécois is decidedly not French. ;-)
rombald, I wish I'd thought of your bugger/bougre/Bulgar phrase. Excellent! Mais moi? pas français? mon orgueil est gravement blessé. ;-)
Franklin: ROTFL!
Being the son of a Croat and a Serb -- and having read the excellent 1950 edition of the US State Dept's S-C/English language text -- I would agree that the differences between Macedonian and Bulgarian are of similar scope. All of the "national" languages in that region are heavily influenced by the non-Slavic neighboring languages. There are greater differences in regional Bulgarian between Thrace (Greek and Turkish) and the north (Romanian) than between standard Bulgarian and Macedonian. Their main interface is in the border region of the Pirin Mountains, and the source of some of my favorite music.
I remember being facetiously cautioned to be careful if I ever visited Quebec, because the French I learned in school left me with a distinctly Parisian accent. Better that I mispronounce words and sound like an American. ;-)
Everything I really need to know about French, I learned from playing . ;-D Roullez!
... I learned from playing Mille Bornes. Bad html tag, bad!
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