Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2000/02

From: "Rien Stein" <rstein@-----.nl>
Subj: [kl] gaff
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 16:55:50 -0500

At Wed, 02 Feb 2000 01:59:49 GMT Tony Pay wrote

>>

By the way, if you look up 'gaff' in the dictionary, you get:

1: a spear used in taking fish
2: the spar along the top of a fore-and-aft sail

If you look up 'gaffe', you get

a social blunder
<<

I looked it up in my best English - Dutch diccionary. It gave the meanings
you gave for the word "gaff", but also translations that in English would
have meanings similar to "sheer nonsense". "gaffe" was tramslated as a
stupidity. When I cited Kennedy's saying "I am a Berliner" - pretty heavily
sounding like an American, I had to read his text at the time, before I knew
what he said - I did not mean to start an argument on it, I am sure all he
meant, was that in his heart he felt compassion with the Western part of
that city. Political tension was rising at that time, 1962, if I remember
well, and many were afraid the Russians would try to start a blockade of
Western Berlin, like they had done in 1948.

Hope my memory is correct

And if my English is not good enough to be clear, please excuse me: it is a
language I learned at the age of nine from my grandfather, a polyglot, but
born a German, who lived in Germany till he was 56 years old, and then fled
to the Netherlands.

Rien

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