|
|
|
good news in Cyrillic
Saturday, February 27 2016
There came a knock on the door during our Saturday morning coffee, and when I answered it, I found two sharply-dressed young adults who were obviously Jehovahs Witnesses. The boxy-headed male spoke up first, asking (oddly) if there were any Russians in the area. Without mentioning the Jehovahs Witnesses, he said this was because he wanted to distribute a flyer that he held. There it was, the dreamy-looking stock photo people of a Jehovahs Witnesses publication, though rendered entirely unreadable by being printed in a Cyrillic font. His accent was Russian, so this made sense in a way, but why did he then hand me the Cyrillic flyer? Evidently it didn't matter that I couldn't read it, because all he cared about was a URL, jw.org. Perhaps the Cyrillic shielded him and his female colleague from the instant negative reaction resulting from the words "Jehovahs Witness," and some helpful fraction of people don't immediately know what "jw" stands for in jw.org. In any case, I played along, graciously accepting the flyer and thanking the young woman when she said nice things about the beauty of the house and its smoking chimney. The two continued off on foot, stopping for a moment to ponder my solar contraption on the roof. Having gone back into the house, I ran out seconds later to call Ramona back from the enthusiastic welcome she was belatedly giving the Jehovas Witnesses. At that point she had her nose up the skirt of the female half of that evangelical contingent.
As they were leaving, Gretchen expressed some concern about them possibly slipping and falling on the lingering ice sheet in our driveway and then suing us. "There is not a jury in Ulster County who would convict us," I assured her. (I know, "convict" isn't the correct word; "find us liable" would have been more accurate.)
The Cyrillic flyer I received today. <<ты будешь со мной в раю>> means "You will be with me in paradise."
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?160227 feedback
previous | next |
