Topic: foolishness
Subtitle:English as a third language or What happens when a Basque manufacturing cooperative which makes bikes (among other things, like guns) runs an English language advertisement in a British cycling magazine!
Perhaps the Wiggums have some Basque heritage because it seems that even well educated Basque persons, like those is the ad dept. of Orbea, have a difficult time with the English language.
And I quote:
Besides offering a product with a technically competitive profile, we have also taken great care in design to tame its grip. The direction of the fibre, the surface reliefs, the design of the ZACCS rear stays and the ZICCS fork are not a question of pure chance.
T700S carbon fibre and epoxy
1000 g of reliability, stiffness and comfort
Optimised orientable properties of carbon fibre
Best profit of power and the maximum comfort
and the kicker:
The armory of the whole system will eventually make it a museum exhibit
What!?
I mean really, I am a bike nerd bar none and while some of the copy from that ad is just bike jargon, most of it it just plain and simple butchery of the language. And none of this is embellishment on my part, this is copy taken straight from the back page ad from the September 2004 issue of Procycling magazine, the one with Lance on the cover, or rather the latest one with Lance on the cover.
Though, I can imagine that English is hard to grasp when you spoken language is as fucked up as Basque is. For example, some names of riders for the Euskaltel Euskadi procycling team, which is a Basque only team:
- Aitor Silloniz Aresti
- Egoi Martinez de Esteban
- Gorka Gonzalez Larranaga
- Gorka Arrizabalaga Agirre
- Inigo Landaluze Intxaurraga
So, what's the moral of this story, I don't know, but I am fascinated by the Basques, and their grotesque language, love of cycling, and soccer. And remember,
The armory of the whole system will eventually make it a museum exhibit!
Draper Esteban Landalutxeagga
Posted by thynkhard
at 12:55 AM EDT
