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Bill O'Boyle
CICS Moderator
Joined: 14 Jan 2008
Posts: 2501
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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The Irish Funeral
A man was leaving a convenience store with his morning coffee when he noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery. A black hearse was followed by a second black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one. Behind the second hearse was a solitary man walking a dog on a leash. Behind him, a short distance back, were at the least 60-65 men walking single file.
The man couldn't stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the man walking the dog and said: "I am so sorry for your loss. This may be a bad time to disturb you, but I've lived in County Cork all my life and I've never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?"
"My wife's."
''What happened to her?"
"She yelled at me and my dog attacked and killed her."
He inquired further, "But who is in the second hearse?"
The man answered, "My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her."
A very poignant and touching moment of brotherhood and silence passed between the two men.
"Can I borrow the dog?"
The man replied, "Sure, get in line." |
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PeterHolland
Global Moderator
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 2481
Location: Netherlands, Amstelveen
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ROFLOL.
Dogs, the best friends of men. |
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Anuj Dhawan
Superior Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 6250
Location: Mumbai, India
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| LOL - I wonder they never say, bitch (the best friend of a man)! |
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Bill Woodger
Moderator Emeritus
Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 7309
Location: Inside the Matrix
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English is a funny old thing. I can write that previous sentence, for instance.
All dogs, whether male or female, are dogs. "I'm going to take my dog for a walk", "Look at that dog running!". Male or female, no different.
About the only time you'd refer to a dog as "bitch" would be to do with pregnancy, or something "technical".
On top of that, "bitch" related to humans is a bit unpleasant, so we don't seem to like hearing the word "bitch" at all.
This leads to confusion where people whose natural language is not English talk about a female dog in English - they translate literally, "How's you bitch today?", "She's a lovely bitch".
So, although A Man's Best Friend is his Dog, that doesn't mean his dog is not a female. |
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Anuj Dhawan
Superior Member
Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 6250
Location: Mumbai, India
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The moment I write that, I knew it's gonna happen and tossed between "she-dog" (ad this a public Forum) and "bitch" - then looked at the tiltle of the Forum and just posted in... Point taken, Sir!  |
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Bill Woodger
Moderator Emeritus
Joined: 09 Mar 2011
Posts: 7309
Location: Inside the Matrix
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Anuj, it was far from a criticism of mine, it was an explanation.
Here we have caes (you have to imagine the tilde over the a as I have no time to find one now) and cadelas. It is perfectly routine for the Portuguese to use what can be literally translated into "bitch" all the time.
For the British, it is just strange. We have few enough male/female distinctions (our chairs and tables are always neuter) and even those (almost exclusively for living things) don't have to be used "correctly" unless the correct use is relevant to the information being conveyed at the time. |
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PeterHolland
Global Moderator
Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 2481
Location: Netherlands, Amstelveen
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To add something to Bill's explanation, there is more :
bitch session
bitching
bitch (in a card game)
bitch (a difficult problem)
bitch (for a gay person)
bitch (something remarkable)
etc. |
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xknight
Active User
Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 117
Location: Liberty city
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| Quote: |
"Can I borrow the dog?"
The man replied, "Sure, get in line." |
That's a very nice one..   |
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