What's in a car's name?

Several European states have held, or are holding, key political elections amid fears of another euro crisis. People are not in a good mood, perhaps at the borders too...

Five Germans in an Audi Quattro (like the one above) arrive at the Italian border.

"Avanti!" The Italian customs officer says. He then tells them, "It'sa illegala to putta 5 people in a Quattro."

"Vot do you mean it ez illegal?" asks the German driver.

"Quattro meansa four, no?" replies the Italian official.

"Quattro is just ze name of zefokken automobile," the German says, trying very hard to stay calm. "Look at ze dam papers... ze car ez designed to karry 5 persons."

"You can'ta pulla thata one on me!" replies the Italian customs officer. "Quattro meansa four. You have five-a people ina your car and you are therefore breaking the law."

The German driver now replies angrily: "You dummkorf idiot! Call your zupervisor over. I vant to speak to someone viz more intelligence!"

"Impossibile," responds the Italian officer, puffing up. "He can'ta come. He'sa busy witha 2 guys over there-ah in thata Fiat Uno."

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In the joke above, uno in Italian is one.

Yesterday, in recalling my own driving test experience, I forgot to elaborate on why the Ann Siang Hill test route was especially "jiak lat" (tough). The tester would without warning slap his thigh at any time. He was not swatting at mosquitoes. That gesture was a command for the already highly-strung "testee" to immediately apply the emergency braking stop, ie to pull up the handbrake -- without allowing the engine to die. Try that on a steep slope in a manual-shift car!

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One more. These pictures and the headline (from yesterday's New Paper on Sunday) basically tell the story:

It's bizarre. The wife is being mauled by two cheetahs and the husband is still taking pics, instead of helping her. Here's an online account, from The Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/scottish-woman-mauled-by-cheetahs-at-south-african-game-park/article2424072/?from=sec431

I don't know if the victim of the attack, Ms Violet D'Mello, was angry at her husband. When interviewed, she said very sweetly: “There was no time for anything. My husband was just clicking away. I don't think it even registered that the attack was actually happening when he was taking the pictures. It all happened within seconds.”

Meanwhile, the Telegraph's story today (7 May) reported that the cheetahs had, three years ago, attacked another woman:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/9250110/Cheetahs-which-mauled-British-woman-in-South-Africa-had-attacked-another-tourist.html