Peifer, William [OCDUS] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hi Gianfranco,
>
> "Furriners" means "foreigners". The "Willy" and "Joe"
characters in the
> strip were likely representations of rural American country
folk from
> somewhere deep in America's heartland, who had probably never
seen any
> "furriners" in their lives, much less been to a foreign
country. In fact,
> "Willy" and "Joe" might not even pronounce the word
"foreigner" correctly;
> thus, the phonetic representation "furriner". (If you've ever
read some of
> American novelist Mark Twain's work -- "Huckleberry Finn" or
"Tom Sawyer" --
> you have a flavor for this type of character.) This is the
cartoonist's
> light-hearted attempt, I think, to poke some fun at how we
Americans were in
> many respects culturally isolated from the rest of the world.
Not ~all~
> Americans, but certainly many of the young boys who came from
throughout a
> rural America, mired in an economic depression, in order to
fight (and
> sometimes to die) on foreign soil in faraway places.
>
> Hope this helps.
Hi Bill,
Thanks, I feel really stupid not to think of it!
I usually am able to understand the mispronounce (or miswriting)
in English, but this time the task seemed simply too hard...
I should have a coffee before reading the mail... :)
Gianfranco
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