[X] My Assistant

[Bill Harris]

I guess that it means what it means. I'd suspect that "the longest day" in this context does not have the same meaning as "der längste Tag". Languages can be a headache; the classic example is the Chevy Nova automobile is the non-complimentary "No Va" in Spanish.

--Bill

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

According to Newsweek, the theocrats who run Iran were terrified of the idea that Dole might win the 1996 election -- not so much because of his policies but because "dole" is Farsi for "penis", and if he won they'd have to print that regularly in their newspaper headlines.

[David]

According to Newsweek, the theocrats who run Iran were terrified of the idea that Dole might win the 1996 election -- not so much because of his policies but because "dole" is Farsi for "penis", and if he won they'd have to print that regularly in their newspaper headlines.

This is not quite an urban legend, in that it has a grain of truth to it; "Dole" in Farsi could be spelled dal-lam, and dal-vav-lam, and one of the pronunciations of the latter (approximately "dool") could raise a smile. (Naturally, Farsi newspapers opted for the first spelling.)
However, "dool" is not the really objectionable Farsi word for "penis"; it's a very childish sort of slang, sort of like "weewee" or "winkle" in English, and is only used about children. It's laughable but not offensive. So the part of the legend about "the theocrats... were terrified" is not plausible. In fact, they would probably enjoy having an American President with a name that is easily mocked. Consider how much mileage the two Bushes got out of "sad damn". Not that I'd really want to make fun of other people's names, if my name were "Bush".

The "bite the wax tadpole" story is another urban myth, btw.