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Today was pleasantly low-key. I went to St. Bart's, made palm crosses for tomorrow, drank a little coffee and chatted with the organ repair crew. Then it was off to a friend's birthday party, with a brief stop to buy him a gift. Heh. J is a thoughtful, studious sort of fellow so I was thinking of buying him a book...something in the theology or history section. I know a pleasant little used book shop just off Spadina, so I took the Dundas car west from St. B's and figured I'd catch the Spadina car north. As I got off at Spadina, however, the Perfect Gift caught my eye. There it was, proudly displayed among the assorted plastic crap, er, treasures that spill out of Spadina's many variety stores. As far from studious, or even thoughtful, as you can get...a cheap, knockoff Transformer! I can't find this toy online, which is a real pity because nobody is going to believe that I found the "Absolute Being Deer" robot. The name alone is hilarious, but it gets better. The thing changes from a truck into a robot into a...deer? No! A giraffe! A giraffe that is, I guess, absolutely being a deer. Without the translation gaffe it was just another cheap toy. With the translation it became an existential plastic puzzle. How can one absolutely be a deer, especially when one is a robot giraffe? I tried to find other robots from the same line. "Madness Ox" looked like fun but had clearly been snapped up. They did have "Pole Lion," which confuses me since I don't think lions are indigenous to Poland. "Metal Grey" was another confusing name...grey metal what? The picture was not instructive. The Asian penchant for funny translations is endlessly amusing...at least it is to language geeks like me. Of course my own rendition of Korean is probably just as funny to the guy who runs the corner store. He's very encouraging, but I'm sure that when I try to say, "No, I don't need a plastic bag," I'm actually saying, "Noodles, I am a small cheeseburger running." |
