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| Source: ST, 2 Aug, 2012, page B20 |
Q: If someone fails a dope test, that makes him or her smart, right?
Which brings me to this strange headline, depending on whether you see "cheats" as a verb or as a noun...
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The expression "pros and cons" must be taken as a unity. You can't split it up, as the headline writer for this TODAY article (2 Aug) did...
When you do that, you risk people thinking that "cons" is shorthand for confidence tricksters or convicts, and "pros" is shorthand for prostitutes!
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Lost in translation...
This ST story (2 Aug) is about how an English-language TV documentary on the history of Singapore had at least 10 translation gaffes when it was dubbed in Mandarin for Channel 8. There were, for instance, errors in the names of Deputy PM Teo Chee Hean and the late Mr S. Rajaratnam (a certain opposition leader, who has since died too, had part of his name almost similar to the late PAP stalwart's, so I had to devise a method as a young sub-editor to not misspell the two names).
But the most hilarious part of this story above has to do with some background information it gave on the pitfalls of language translations, ergo:
"This is not the first time gaffes in translations have been made. Ten years ago, the Singapore Tourism Board referred to the Hungry Ghost Festival as the Hungarian Ghost Festival, in a brochure in Chinese."
Hmmm, maybe "Romanian" would have been a better choice if there has to be a gaffe. After all, that's where Dracula came from, and all the movies about this Netherworld fella show him to be always hungry -- for blood, anyway.
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Finally, in Singapore, we're getting so desperate it's now not about Maybe, Baby. It's about guys doing National Night "duty" with their wives on National Day, ie, after all those fireworks have fizzled out, start your own fireworks in your own bedroom, says this (really corny, risque even) "bad rap" ad by Menthos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxU89x78ac
You gotta listen carefully to the really silly lyrics. Here's a commentary that panned the ad:
http://newnation.sg/2012/08/mentos-the-freshmaker-wants-sporeans-to-copulate/
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