TVTropes looks to have grown into something beyond the wildest dreams of the guys who created it. I just found a cool entry there: "Russian Proverbs and Expressions"
Remember with Reagan used to say, "Trust but Verify"? Turns out that's a Russian proverb: Doveryay, no proveryay
I was looking for "Trust but Verify" because I wondered if it was a real trope on its own. I wanted to add it to the Bodacious Space Pirates entry to describe the situation on the bridge of the
Golden Ghost Ship at the end of ep 12.
I've been adding a lot to that one. It's fun. What's perhaps more fun is to add an entry, and then to come back and see that someone augmented it. For instance, I added "Playful Hacker: Lynn Lambretta". And someone added Courier to it -- and they were right!
I also added Lethal Chef, and White Haired Pretty Girl, and Funny Afro, and Large Ham, and Mood Whiplash.
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If they had a Japanese equivalent, I might be interested. There should be more than "gouni itte wa, gouni shitagae".
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 19, 2012 12:14 PM (5OBKC)
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How funny you post this. When I was working in suburban DC for a FEMA contractor back in the late eighties, a buddy at work gave me a little two-sided thing like a nameplate that sat on your desk. On one side was "Trust but verify" in English, and on the other side it was in Russian.
Good times back then...
Posted by: Tex Lovera at April 20, 2012 03:07 PM (DvLEA)
On the other hand, the word intelligentsiya has the
opposite meaning: cultured, educated, sophisticated persons involved in
creative or scholarly professions, in other words, Gentlemen and Scholars. These are likely to speak classical Russian. Though some use this word to denote posers and use the word intellektualy for the real [ McCoys]. Lenin, for instance, meant the posers when he
said "Intelligentsia is the crap of the nation, not its brain".
It's also a borderline curse word for a stuck up snob who
thinks himself better than "the common people". An exchange of
"nekulturnyy" - "intelligent neschastnyy" can be common.
It's also Older Thanthey Think. For example when Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian playwright, was asked: "Are you an intelligent (that is, a member of intelligentsia)?", his reply was: "God forbid, I have a profession!" — he was a practicing physician up to his death.
Nowadays this word almost invariably refers to an ivory-tower
intellectuals so engrossed in their high and noble ideas that they often
forgot what they mean, until those ideas turn into their exact
opposite.
obrazonanets, roughly translates as educationated person and is a term introduced or popularized by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
meaning someone who has formal education (usually a university graduate)
but has very little actual knowledge; originally this term referred to
graduates of 'political faculties' who were taught the communist
ideology and not much more, now it usually refers to graduates of
'diploma printing shops' or people posing as intelligentsya with evident lack of actual knowledge or sometimes even basic education.
This reminds me of a certain former law professor who didn't know anything about Marbury v. Madison.
Posted by: pgfraering at April 23, 2012 05:40 AM (icN4a)
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Ironically, nobody but "intelligentzia" uses "obrazovanetz". It just never caught on.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 23, 2012 09:26 AM (5OBKC)
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Hmmm, Is Lilly Bell a "White Haired Pretty Girl" or a "Dark-skinned Blonde"?
Posted by: Mauser at April 23, 2012 11:07 AM (cZPoz)
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Her hair isn't blonde. It's kind of pale violet, which is what they use for white hair to distinguish it from blonde (yellow).
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Well, the entry says Dark Skinned Blonde includes white hair as well. But we really haven't seen enough of her to see which other trope characteristics apply to her, so it's hard to sort out if the white hair or the dark skin rule the sorting.
Personally I just like the combination.
Posted by: Mauser at April 24, 2012 02:59 AM (cZPoz)
Aziz needs recommendations for kid-friendly anime to show his girls, ages four and nine.
Read the requirements before you do a title-dump, OK? Seems like every time I ever see anyone ask for recommendations, they get handed a huge list of titles which directly violate the requirements. Ever eager to help, people simply list every title they've ever heard of, whether it makes sense or not.
So, for instance, it's true that Puella Magi Madoka Magica features young protagonists, has a life lesson, and induces a sense of wonder. But it ain't a kid's show, is it? So don't list that one.
I suggested Shingu but I'm not actually sure it would be a good choice, especially for the 4 year old. The story is just too complex for a little kid to keep up with.
I thought about suggesting Ichigo Mashimaro, but there's no life lesson, and no sense of wonder. That's pretty much the case for any gag series, I think.
And I'm sure he doesn't want to show Naruto to his kids. Or Gundam Wing. Or Evangelion.
Seems like Azumanga Daioh is marginal. Chiyo-chan could be the identification-character for his daughters, and though it's a gag series it does have a long term sense of progress, and the characters do change. (At least some of them, Sakaki-san and Chiyo-chan mostly.)
I have a suspicion he's a bit like Waterson. He doesn't want vast wealth, and he doesn't want the hassle. Having been through the production process once, he doesn't seem to want to go through it again.
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Respect it, yes. Believe it's wrong and pray every night that he comes to his senses, also yes.
Posted by: Wonderduck at March 09, 2012 11:13 PM (Ds9fh)
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Tell you what, every time I get a new volume of Yotsuba&! I am flat-out amazed at the artwork.
Having made my own silly attempts at drawing manga I can see how much work has gone into just about everything. The guy hardly uses any screentone; just about everything is drawn!
I vote for "hope and pray he comes to his senses" too.
Posted by: atomic_fungus at March 10, 2012 03:18 AM (si27V)
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I suggest Ultra Maniac. It's pretty light, there's magic, inanity, and save for one scene with an over eager butler, there's nothing scary about it. Tried and tested with my daughters, who were about 8 and 6 at the time. The show's maybe 4 or 5 years old now, but it'll hold up well enough.
Posted by: scotaku at March 10, 2012 06:17 AM (qr1SC)
This picture really does look pretty cool. There's a pretty plausible technological explanation for it, but I'm sure it's gonna end up in some "ancient mysteries" web site without that explanation Real Soon Now.
A reader just informed me that this year's SaiMoe winner is Railgun, Misaka Mikoto Onee-sama.
I just noticed a couple of days ago that Railgun's Saten-san has the same seiyuu as AsoIku's Eris -- and I sure didn't suspect. The voices don't sound at all alike to me.
Anyone interested in Russian guns? James says they're a bargain. And they aren't necessarily garbage, either.
1
I thought that now that I live in America, I want something American. But I have an M-59 Mosin, that I got for $50. It's a cut-down on a 1942 war-time action, so it has no collector's value.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at November 29, 2011 10:14 AM (G2mwb)
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Just got my own Mosin-Nagant. Still haven't had the chance to go try it out, though. Cleaned a small lake of Cosmoline out of it over Thanksgiving. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take it out this weekend. Dad filled up the ammo panniers...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at November 29, 2011 11:38 AM (GJQTS)
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I have all accessories: sling with dog collars, oiler, cleaning kit, ammo poaches. No bayonet.
You know what James neglected to include? IZh shotguns. Their O-U models were quite on the level of workmanship even internationally. I think those were one of the few things Soviets could export without enormous discounts.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at November 29, 2011 12:15 PM (wr9de)
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This might be a stupid question. . . but is Misaka *really* "moe"?
Posted by: metaphysician at November 29, 2011 12:58 PM (3GCAl)
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I don't think so. But it really depends on what you mean by it, and I think it's transformed from its original meaning to instead be "cute and popular".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 29, 2011 01:00 PM (+rSRq)
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Pete and Avatar, you should be leaving those comments on his post, not on mine.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 29, 2011 01:02 PM (+rSRq)
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I shouldn't have left the comments open on this post. Closed now.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 29, 2011 01:02 PM (+rSRq)
