Never Take Comedy from a Stranger - Excerpt
It seems that wherever we turn, we are challenged to decipher what others
really want us to know. The problem seems to stem from the words we use.
Take the word "phonetic" for example. It isn't even spelled phonetically.
Is there another word for thesaurus? even our history books confuse the
facts. Remember the famous admiral named Farragut? He is quoted as saying
"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". However, what he really
said was 
"Damn! Torpedos! Full speed ahead!" You see? One typo,
and the man is a hero for all history. Is it any wonder that we are in such
a quandary about our ability to communicate.
It's not only us little folk who get into trouble with our communications skills. Large companies throughout America have found themselves in trouble via and Freudian slip. When Chevrolet proudly took their car "Nova" to Latin America, they neglected the fact that "Nova" means "won't go" in Spanish. Even a giant like Pepsi blundered with their slogan, "Come alive with Pepsi," which translated in Taiwan into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave." Eastern Air Line's slogan, "We earn our wings every day" literally translated into Spanish indicates that passengers will arrive at their destination as angels. Frank Perdue's slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," in Spanish becomes "It takes a virile man to make a chicken affectionate."
