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LFCA Latest Issue: Friday, September 25, 2009.

Latest Post on BlogHer: Parenting after Infertility.

My Status: Fed Josh's almonds to the squirrels. They needed them very badly.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The 66th Circle Time: The Show and Tell Weekly Thread

Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid's dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.

Let's begin.

Early in our relationship, Josh and I were in a used bookstore and we each purchased each other a book to read. I bought Josh Adam's Diary by Knut Faldbakken. For some inexplicable reason, this book has been by the front door for the past three years or so amongst the gardening equipment. This isn't the reason I'm telling you this story.

In college, I got special permission to take a high-level Scandinavian literature class. It was all graduate students and seniors and a nineteen-year-old me. The course work was really over my head. This was one of the books we read in class. One of the main characters was called Payk and it seemed like there was a joke surrounding this name, but I didn't get it because I didn't speak Norwegian and I was reading the book in translation, unlike some of the graduate students.

I called up a friend in Norway and asked him why this would be amusing. I kept saying aloud that the boy's name is Payk (pronouncing in "p'ache"--like ache, with a p in front of it), never spelling it, and my friend said, "well, I've heard Falkbakken is pretty racy. He probably created a name that is close to 'pikk' which means 'cock'."

I took this information to class.

And I made sure I spoke first in class in order to work in this brilliant assessment of his name. "And, of course," I said confidently, "Falkbakken continues the sexual themes of the book by working the word 'pikk' into the text in the form of Payk's name."

And there was silence.

And there were uncomfortable looks exchanged and a few people laughed and the teacher gently said, "the main character's name is pronounced "Pay Koa"--the two letters "p" and "k" with the Norwegian pronunciation of those letters. Because his name is actually Per Kristian. So PK or Pay-koa (also written Payk) is merely short for Per Kristian. And it would help if you didn't use words like that in my seminar again."

Classy!

What are you showing today?

Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog's name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.


Other People Standing at the Head of the Class:

1. Becoming Whole
2. Bottoms Off
3. The Road Less Travelled
4. The Infertile Sushi- loving Princess
5. May I Say Something?
6. luna
7. Infertili- T & A
8. Weebles Wobblog
9. Bear and Comedian
10. Building Heavenly Bridges
11. Once A Mother
12. Mrs Spock
13. Delenn
14. Not A Fertile Myrtle
15. Baby Smiling In Back Seat
16. My Fertility Journey with PCOS
17. Dragondreamer's Lair
18. Hobbit- ish Thoughts & Ramblings
19. A
20. Birch and Maple
21. Life, Family and the Pursuit of Sanity
22. Mrs M
23. Wise Guy
24. Baby Making Journey
25. In Due Time
26. Getting There
27. Chelle
28. My Pathway to Motherhood
29. Our Someday Family
30. The Happy Hours
31. In One Ear
32. Parenthood for Me




Want to bring something to Show and Tell?
  • If you would like to join circle time and show something to the class, simply post each Wednesday night (or any time between Wednesday morning and Friday night), hopefully including a picture if possible, and telling us about your item. It can be anything--a photo from a trip, a picture of the dress you bought this week, a random image from an old yearbook showing a person you miss. It doesn't need to contain a picture if you can't get a picture--you can simply tell a story about a single item. The list opens every Wednesday night and closes on Friday night.
  • You must mention Show and Tell and include a link back to this post in your post so people can find the rest of the class. This spreads new readership around through the list. This is now required.
  • Label your post "Show and Tell" each week and then come back here and add the permalink for the post via the Mr. Linky feature (not your blog's main url--use the permalink for your specific Show and Tell post).
  • Oh, and then the point is that you click through all of your classmates and see what they are showing this week. And everyone loves a good "ooooh" and "aaaah" and to be queen (or king) of the playground for five minutes so leave them a comment if you can.
  • Did you post a link and now it's missing?: I reserve the right to delete any links that are not leading to a Show and Tell post or are the blogging equivalent of a spitball.

35 comments:

a Tonggu Momma said...

I don't know if I should do a show-and-tell this week. It may not be racy enough. Heh.

Anonymous said...

I think I would have died, just died, right there on the spot.

How brave you are for telling us this even now.

Wow. Hee, hee. Pikk rhymes with...

loribeth said...

Oh. My. Word. Mel, you are priceless. (rolling on the floor laughing...)

luna said...

that is hilarious!

HC said...

LOL. I am dying just reading about it. You are one brave girl!

Mrs. Gamgee said...

Fabulous! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does stuff like that.

When I was in Germany many many years ago (almost 20 years ago actually) as an exchange student, my German was still very academic and not so coloquial. All of my friends used the word 'geil' in the same context as we use the words cool or awesome. One day at dinner with my rather formal host parents I used it in the context that I THOUGHT was correct, referring to a movie that I had seen the evening before.

Imagine my chagrin when, after my host father went apoplectic and exchange partner explained in hushed tones that particular word had another, less socially acceptable meaning.

You see, 'geil' means horny. And I had just referred to a movie that I had seen and really enjoyed was a horny movie.

jill said...

What a story! I would have been mortified! haha

Cara said...

You have the BEST, I mean the BEST stories. I can just about imagine your face -- the shock and sincerity all rolled into one.

HAHAHAH

Lori Lavender Luz said...

If anyone could carry that out with aplomb, it's you.

Minta said...

I'd have just died. That is too much.

MrsSpock said...

Oops! Talk about looking like a Pikk...;)

Big Mama T said...

Oh lordy... I think I would've gone to that class in disguise from then on, lol.

Flying Monkeys said...

LOL! Awesome!

Megan said...

From someone who puts her foot in her mouth often, I feel your pain.

Baby Smiling In Back Seat said...

As an undergraduate my husband took a graduate philosophy seminar focusing on a single author, and he was the only non-doctoral student. No one else I know has ever even heard of this philosopher. He was over his head, but he can fake it well. (And he is fluent in the philosopher's native language, though I think they read a lot of it in English.)

Now when someone comes to our house and looks at the Philosophy shelf of our library (yes we have a library and yes there's a Philosophy shelf), they wonder why there are all of the normal classics (Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Descartes...) and one unbelievably obscure guy.

Sunny said...

*snicker*

That's one way to make sure no one tries to copy off your work. :)

areyoukiddingme said...

Ugh...that makes me cringe because I know just how you feel.

Orodemniades said...

I would have died.

Heh

Kristin said...

I would have turned a thousand shades of red and crawled under the table to hide. You are seriously brave for sharing the story.

..al said...

ROFL!

How red in the face did you go?

Oh! That's a funny story for a lifetime!

Loved it!

ME! said...

That is hysterical.
Along the same lines: I worked on an Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona. They were teaching me some of the native words. One day I mentioned that kids generally call me La..or La La. They all start laughing. I am thinking I am saying something just witty (of course)

A really sick patient walked through the door and we attended them- without me finding out why they were laughing.

As we were treating this patient I said to one of the other nurses "So you guys going to start calling me La now or what?" (they pick up on all nicknames)

The patient's eyes bugged out, the other nurse about fell out from shock, a patient on the other side of the curtain started hysterically laughing.

Apache translation of La=Penis.

The nickname didn't stick. Thank goodness.

battynurse said...

That is really funny. I think I would have been wishing the floor would just open up.

Kir said...

LOL..that's a great story. :)

Chelle said...

That is hilarious! It sounds like something I would do. I bet every person in that class remembers your comment fondly. lol!

Kristina said...

I have read you for a while...I just wanted to let you know about my blog as well. Yes, another infertile-myrtle. Thanks for your openess and what you do for all of us!!

ME! said...

I don't know where else to put this- FYI on the TV show "The Doctors" today (Thursday)they have an RE on there answering questions.

annacyclopedia said...

That story is almost as awesome as the fact that you are able to tell it with what I assume is a sense of humour at your earnestness, and not only the sinking, cringing feeling of remembering your teacher's response. Just one more reason that you rule, Lolly.

Jen said...

I would have died. Um, thanks for sharing lol

Anonymous said...

Ouch. That's why I never spoke in class.

tbonegrl said...

Oh! I laughed out loud! Thanks for sharing! And thanks for mentioning me in the LFCA!

ME! said...

Okay- number three comment on the same damn post. I am pathetic. Happy ICLW!!!

Meim said...

NU-UH!! HAHAHAHAHA!

Once A Mother said...

haha thats a great story! Hey I give you an A for effort for trying to find a deeper subtext for the character's name.

Wishing 4 One said...

O.M.G. I know you just died. Your stories are the best, keep em coming. Happy ICLW too, can't believe its August already, um where did 2009 go?

Anonymous said...

Oh my...

Bea