Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Twik]

Like the early English-Russian computer program that translated "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" to "The vodka is strong, but the meat is rotten."

[Piratelvr1121]

I usually put Christmas gifts that are not from Santa under the tree days before but didn't this year because I didn't want to tempt piratebabe since he started to open one gift that my middle child got for me from a Santa's workshop thing the church did. 

Well DH wrapped my gift and left it under the tree anyway and my first thought was "Oh great, now I'll have to keep him away from that!"

Well guess what? He hasn't touched it at all but instead wants to try to pull all the ornaments off as well as the branches (artificial tree).  He gets time out every time but oh brother. 

That's my brain hurt though.  Why is it he leaves that one pretty package alone but the branches and ornaments are like a carrot to a horse?

[Iris]

I usually put Christmas gifts that are not from Santa under the tree days before but didn't this year because I didn't want to tempt piratebabe since he started to open one gift that my middle child got for me from a Santa's workshop thing the church did. 

Well DH wrapped my gift and left it under the tree anyway and my first thought was "Oh great, now I'll have to keep him away from that!"

Well guess what? He hasn't touched it at all but instead wants to try to pull all the ornaments off as well as the branches (artificial tree).  He gets time out every time but oh brother. 

That's my brain hurt though.  Why is it he leaves that one pretty package alone but the branches and ornaments are like a carrot to a horse?

Ornaments are SHINY and SPARKLY and he hasn't yet discovered that presents contain cool stuff? So at the moment it's a contest between that cool sound that tearing paper makes or the ***shiny, sparkly*** things that also look like foody treats. I know which one I'd pick, time out or not 

[hermanne]

I usually put Christmas gifts that are not from Santa under the tree days before but didn't this year because I didn't want to tempt piratebabe since he started to open one gift that my middle child got for me from a Santa's workshop thing the church did. 

Well DH wrapped my gift and left it under the tree anyway and my first thought was "Oh great, now I'll have to keep him away from that!"

Well guess what? He hasn't touched it at all but instead wants to try to pull all the ornaments off as well as the branches (artificial tree).  He gets time out every time but oh brother. 

That's my brain hurt though.  Why is it he leaves that one pretty package alone but the branches and ornaments are like a carrot to a horse?

I don't know either, but your post made me smile.   (as I'm trying to keep my 3-year-old out of our tree!)

[Outdoor Girl]

My brother is an October baby.  The Christmas he was 14 months, Mom put the tree up in the play pen to keep him away from it.

[Piratelvr1121]

I usually put Christmas gifts that are not from Santa under the tree days before but didn't this year because I didn't want to tempt piratebabe since he started to open one gift that my middle child got for me from a Santa's workshop thing the church did. 

Well DH wrapped my gift and left it under the tree anyway and my first thought was "Oh great, now I'll have to keep him away from that!"

Well guess what? He hasn't touched it at all but instead wants to try to pull all the ornaments off as well as the branches (artificial tree).  He gets time out every time but oh brother. 

That's my brain hurt though.  Why is it he leaves that one pretty package alone but the branches and ornaments are like a carrot to a horse?

Ornaments are SHINY and SPARKLY and he hasn't yet discovered that presents contain cool stuff? So at the moment it's a contest between that cool sound that tearing paper makes or the ***shiny, sparkly*** things that also look like foody treats. I know which one I'd pick, time out or not 

Probably! LOL!! Yeah I'd bet that's what it is.  His birthday was a month and a couple weeks ago but of course a month and 2 weeks is like 6 months to a toddler's perspective isn't it?

[Iris]

I usually put Christmas gifts that are not from Santa under the tree days before but didn't this year because I didn't want to tempt piratebabe since he started to open one gift that my middle child got for me from a Santa's workshop thing the church did. 

Well DH wrapped my gift and left it under the tree anyway and my first thought was "Oh great, now I'll have to keep him away from that!"

Well guess what? He hasn't touched it at all but instead wants to try to pull all the ornaments off as well as the branches (artificial tree).  He gets time out every time but oh brother. 

That's my brain hurt though.  Why is it he leaves that one pretty package alone but the branches and ornaments are like a carrot to a horse?

Ornaments are SHINY and SPARKLY and he hasn't yet discovered that presents contain cool stuff? So at the moment it's a contest between that cool sound that tearing paper makes or the ***shiny, sparkly*** things that also look like foody treats. I know which one I'd pick, time out or not 

Probably! LOL!! Yeah I'd bet that's what it is.  His birthday was a month and a couple weeks ago but of course a month and 2 weeks is like 6 months to a toddler's perspective isn't it?

Plus at age 1 children are quite capable of seeing "I had fun ripping that paper" and "Now I have some new toys" as totally independent events with no causation involved

[Midnight Kitty]

The Board upon which I serve made many wastewater operators brains hurt.  They need to renew their licenses in October of each even year - 2008, 2010, 2012.  The Board clerk was supposed to send a reminder letter to all currently licensed operators 60 days before their licenses expired 10/15/2012.  She didn't send it.  So I revised the letter a bit and we sent it out in the beginning of December.  The letter is a little scary because it basically says, "Do want to continue working as an operator? If so, send in your application PLUS a $5 late fee."

I received a lot of calls from angry operators who sent their applications in back in April/May/June (way in advance) and the Board clerk cashed their checks, but did not send them their new ID cards.  She said that somehow these applications "didn't get databased" so the cards didn't get printed.  What?  Did she think they were going to "database" themselves?  I don't think so.  She absolutely refuses to take responsibility for her mistakes. She would be a candidate for Professional Darwinism except her supervisor is too lazy to write her up.

[Elfmama]

I got that one year with my car registration.  Never got a notice that it was up for renewal.  3 weeks after it expired, cop gave me a ticket for having expired tags.      I was NOT happy that the state got an extra $100 off of me PLUS the new tags PLUS a late fee.

Cop said I should have noticed that the tags were due, and maybe I should have -- but who really looks at their car's license plate, other than maybe to check that it's still there?

[Midnight Kitty]

I found the records of what happened during the last renewal period (2010).  They forgot to send the 60 day letter out before the October 15 expiration date, so they sent it out in December.  They didn't change any of the wording, so they said stuff like "your license will expire on Oct. 15" in a letter dated December 15, which hurt my brain just reading it.

[Midnight Kitty]

Like the early English-Russian computer program that translated "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" to "The vodka is strong, but the meat is rotten."

I love it 

[Optimoose Prime]

Then there's the story (again, possibly apocryphal) of a member of royalty who could lip read and loved to do so during silent movies. Apparently in one movie, during a particularly passionate love scene the actors were in actual fact discussing that one of them was worried that they were going to be evicted.

The lady in question here is Alice of Battenburg, Queen Victoria's Great-granddaughter and mother of Prince Philip.

[Virg]

Twik wrote:

"Like the early English-Russian computer program that translated "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" to "The vodka is strong, but the meat is rotten.""

This isn't a direct translation, it's a "jumper" (and it's also apocryphal so it may not have really happened).  This particular gem was supposedly what happened when someone ran the English through a program to translate it to Russian and then back into English.  It's also been told of rookie translators, but that strikes me as unlikely because someone who translated the sentence into Russian wouldn't likely translate it back differently, and if two people did this the one going from Russian to English would likely have recognized the idiom from the near-miss and corrected it.

Virg

[nutraxfornerves]

snopes: Computer Translation discusses the supposed Russian translation.

Back to brain hurt. On another message board, the owner of a guesthouse reported about a group of guests who asked if they could get spaghetti puttanesca for dinner--but it should not contain tomatoes, capers, anchovy, garlic, or olives.  (In case you aren't familiar with puttanesca, that's the ingredient list, although the anchovies are optional.)

[Girlie]

snopes: Computer Translation discusses the supposed Russian translation.

Back to brain hurt. On another message board, the owner of a guesthouse reported about a group of guests who asked if they could get spaghetti puttanesca for dinner--but it should not contain tomatoes, capers, anchovy, garlic, or olives.  (In case you aren't familiar with puttanesca, that's the ingredient list, although the anchovies are optional.)

Kind of makes me wonder what they thought it was.