what's the last thing that made you smile?

From the men's sabre final: [link]

I'm pretty sure it's mostly camera angle mixed with a bit of "caught at an odd high-speed moment", but the pose is straight from one of those ridiculously bendy silent-film clowns.

I remember being annoyed when I realized that the animals didn't actually sound like the word for their sound.

You mean like how the cow doesn't go "moo", but more like möö?

Very cute.

Gymnastics fans - did you guys see this piece on overtraining and the US team?

You mean like how the cow doesn't go "moo", but more like möö?

Yes! And a cat doesn't say "meow" but more like rIA-OAWw.

Reading other people's posts here made me smile. There has been a lot of bitter laughter around my office today, but I don't think that counts.

No one in my office except for the guy who just graduated from college knew what an LOLcat was. Even after I showed them, they said they had never seen one! I am shocked! Also, sometimes I talk in LOLcat, and they must think I am crazy, not funny!

I'm sure I posted here at the time, but I couldn't believe our IT person didn't know about the LOLcats! After she was showing me funny pictures of her cat!!

She's right, too! I remember being annoyed when I realized that the animals didn't actually sound like the word for their sound.

They did a funny piece in the Comics Journal once about the conventions of animal noises in different countries.

Because France and Germany and Italy don't transliterate their animal noises into anything like "Bark! Bark!" or "Moo!"

I vaguely remember there being an example of a German cartoon with the cow making the noise: "rumpelknorrr"

Dogs tend to say "Wow wow!" in other countries or "Whuff!"

As if!

cat = miaou
dog = wouah! wouah!
cow = meuh
rooster = cocorico
duck = coin coin

So much more accurate (except the rooster, that is whack).

duck = coin coin

duck = Aflac!

(except the rooster, that is whack).

Now I want to waste the rest of the afternoon on an international rooster-sound tour. Because "cocorico" is whack, yes, but so much less so than "cock-a-doodle-doo". I've never heard a rooster pronounce a single "D", let alone three of them!

This conversation reminds me of a David Sedaris bit that had to do with the Dutch version of Santa Claus. It started out talking about how to get to the heart of a foreign country- first you ask about its gun laws, then the sounds that barnyard animals make, and finally what their take on Santa Claus. In the Netherlands he is accompanied by "Six to Eight Black Men" which is the title of the piece.

It is effing HILARIOUS.