In a nutshell... why? Do people have nothing better to do?

The following is an adaptation of Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. How was it adapted, I hear you ask? Simple! Just by translating it from English into Spanish, and then into French, and then back to English again, on Yahoo’s BabelFish. Here follow's Yahoo’s best effort at translating Frost's thoughtful work...

 

Two ways diverged in a yellow wood,

and saddened it could not travel both

AND I am a traveller, length stays placed

AND supervised under this why it could

with where he folded in the undergrowth;

To take l' then; other, so much like Juste,

and by having perhaps the best request,

parce qu' it was grassy and expensive wear;

However as for that the step there

had used those really presqu' equal,

and all two that the morning also puts

In sheets ninguÌ  N not had pressed black.

Oh, j' kept the first for another day!

With while knowing the manner it carries lighting to the manner,

j' doubted if I am never turned over.

I will say this with ages d' a sigh

in a certain part and ages consequently:

Two ways diverged in a wood, and j'

took that which is travelled less fence,

AND that differentiated all it.

 

Erm... don't think many translators will be losing sleep over competition from their free online competitor!

Some while ago, you may remember that a ship ran aground off the mighty South Coast, sprinkling the shore liberally with lengthy planks of quality timber. I concocted some headlines and comments at the time, and here they are, along with a helpful snap (if you're as thick as a plank) by Leana Angus. Probably a wonderful woman, with a real passion for proper wood.

 

 

 

Plans to extend the Common Room gather pace after senior management obtain building materials from “a reliable source”.

 

Charity statement, released today: “We pledge to build a new wooden house in Johannesburg”.

 

The poor caretakers. You spend so much time persuading people not to drop litter, and then this happens.

 

I've been thinking for some time about how the London Olympics in 2012 could possibly come out with any credit after the preposterously good spectacle that was Beijing's Games.

 

There is little hope of outclassing the Chinese in terms of sheer eye-popping magnificence. We could, I suppose, have 2012 drummers bashing away at drums in the Olympic Stadium, but if the contractors build the foundations out of cardboard to save money (prudent in these times of financial crisis) then the entire stadium could give way. Also it depends wht kind of drummers they are. Miliary bands might be alright, but if we withdrew frontline musicians to help the Opening Ceremony, Afghanistan will be absurdly undermannned once again. Also, those Argies might invade the Falklands while we're busy. (For an example of an ill-advised invasion timed to coincide with Olympic events, see Georgia.)

 

Perhaps you could have 2012 Morris dancers dancing around the athletics track, makng complicatd patterns, and so on? Gordon Brown could ask Ed Balls change the curriculum so that children have to do at least an hour of Morris-dancing per week. Then by 2012 Britian would have enough inernational-standard Morris dancers to feature in the ceremony.

 

I think that it would be a laugh to feature Lin Miaoke again. That is, the little Chinese girl who appeared to be singing at the Opening Ceremony in Beijing (but was in fact miming to a prerecorded track by a different child).