wmmarks wrote:
Chris Johnson wrote:
wmmarks wrote:
Picture this event: Berlin. The wall is still up, Berlin divided.
Half of Berlin is in the street of a famous Berlin square facing a
podium. At the podium stands the leader of the richest country on
the planet. Next to him stands his wife. He is there to make a
political speech, of course.
The microphones are ranged in front of him. The crowd, sensing the
beginning of the speech, quiets down.
In Cincinnati, Aunt Mary and I are watching on the TV. The
President, John F. Kennedy begins, "Ich bein eine Berliner," (sp?)
and the crowd goes wild, cheering. Aunt Mary turns to me with a
puzzled look on her face and says, "I'm a jelly donut?"
WizardMarks, Central
Sorry to rain on your parade, Wizard, but that's an urban myth. (I
speak German, though not fluently.)
It is and it isn't an urban myth. It's still the funniest political
story around and ranks right up there with the fist fights on the
floor of the Texas legislature. My grandfather married my grandmother,
whose parents came from Germany when she was six. (She was 14 when she
married.) My aunt picked up some German from the rellies on that side,
but not much. The grandparent's family wanted everyone to 'be
American,' so did not pass on the German. Whether accurate or not,
Aunt Mary translated the line as 'I am a jelly donut,' and we did call
jelly donuts berliners, though in MN they are called bismarks. The
mistranslation is half of why it's so funny, because, in Cincinnati,
at least, there was a huge German and first generation German/American
population. Thus, it became an urban myth since many agreed, at least
around us, that Kennedy said he was a jelly donut and the crowd went
wild.
WizardMarks, Central
P.S.: Read Molly Ivens in the Strib today. She's such a wonderful
writer, that I laughed out loud throughout her piece.
''A common urban legend falsely asserts that Kennedy made an
embarrassing grammatical error by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner,"
referring to himself not as a citizen of Berlin, but as a common pastry.
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