Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (08/30/89)
Really-From: ide!lofdahl@Sun.COM (Corey Lofdahl) in reply to Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu> Sorry Doug, but I have this russian friend, and in a failed attempt at using an actual real live russian phrase to impress her with my bilingualness, I called her "Babooshka". Let me just say that the quizical look on her face convinced me more than any argument that indeed the correct interpretation is "Grandmother" or "scarf worn on the head". Of course this is the word of one born in the great workers paradise versus those who have proven themselves worthy of hawking candies with just a hint of retcyn. Take your pick. --Corey Q: What is retcyn anyway? A: 1) activated partially hydroginated cottonseed oil 2) copper glucanate Hmmmmm Good!
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (09/13/89)
Really-From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Well, I asked my Russian coworker about the word "babushka" and she
said that in Russian, the word means "grandmother" and nothing more.
She says that it never is used to mean either "scarf worn on the head"
or as a term of endearment. She also said that she has heard it often
used both these ways by Americans. (In fact, if you look in an
English dictionary, the definition of "babushka" is "a usually
triangularly folded kerchief for the head".)
In any case, there is still the possibility that Kate used the name
"Babooshka" because she once heard it used as a term of endearment by
an ignorant English-speaker and it stuck in her head.
|>oug
P.S. A Health teacher in high school told me that "retcyn" is a
trademark for glucose (i.e. sugar). Whether or not he is right, I
don't know, but it would not surprise me in the least.