The Tantex Man and friends

For youthful lines, remember bile beans

2008-02-18T02:20:00.001-08:00

Mmm, bile beans! I imagine them like a disgusting dark green version of jelly beans.
"A purely vegetable tonic-laxative"! Just what you need.

Rocket from a sardine can

2008-01-30T03:38:00.001-08:00

I would love to know what on earth this means.

Kompas tiger cartoon

2008-01-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but my mind added a sound track to the tiger on the microphone. It goes a bit like:
"Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaoooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Square melons

2008-01-29T12:56:00.001-08:00

Vocabulary

2008-01-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

Clearly I shouldn't be allowed two blogs. I did warn you it was going to slow, OK?
Here are some gloriously random vocabulary selections from a Thai (or maybe Cambodian?) newspaper - Chinese to Thai to English.

A mighty teapot

2007-12-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

From Indonesian newspaper "Kompas", 13th September 1997, the biggest teapot I've ever seen.

A guy at work (not a native speaker of Indonesian) provided the following translation of the caption:

Pouring tea
A stylish waiter pouring tea, like in the picture. The nozzle of its mouth eclipses the length of an adult man's arm. Head of the Designer Tower, Shanghai and also Jakarta Tower (that has been built in the centre), Jiang Huangcheng (right), laughs looking at the scene.

Never outgrows your size

2007-12-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

From "The Hindu" newspaper, January 18th, 1976, I bring you the Tantex Man:

Welcome, friends of Tantex

2007-12-01T11:24:00.001-08:00

In the course of my work, I deal with specimens that arrive in newspaper. Mostly the newspapers are dull, or not in a language I understand, but sometimes there are the most fantastic incomprehensible cartoons and adverts and tiny, telling articles. I have a small accumulation of them, and I'd like to present them here, but please feel free to contribute any newspaper clippings that made you smile. If you know the newspaper and the date that it's from, so much the better. The address is: noahswife (at) gmail (dot) com

Newspapers from India, east Africa and anything pre-1970 are particularly rich I've found...