Useless things I have gleaned from books recently

[webofevil]

Poorly-written book on the British military takes a welcome detour:

The downtown Pristina restaurant serving only carp was called ‘Krapi Restaurant’. Carp in filo pastry was translated on one menu as ‘Krap in embers’, while over at the Muriqi Restaurant, steak served without any sauce or garnish was ‘domestic strip of meat’. At the Restaurant Bristol, ‘Fruit Salad’ became ‘Sexy Salad’, ‘Sweetbreads’ became ‘Sex-Glands of Kosovo House’ and ‘Plums in Yoghurt’ became ‘Kosovo’s plums soured to you’.

Christian Jennings, Midnight in Some Burning Town

Did food dreams play as large a part as this in the planning of America’s response to 9/11?

One of the organisers of the 11 September operation, Ramzi Binalshibh ... claimed that the date for the attack was the result of [lead hijacker] Mohammed Atta’s dreams: ‘he saw two sticks and a line between them. A cake with a stick dangling.’ Realising this represented an 11 and a 9 the news was relayed to bin Laden, who received it as ‘a very good tiding’.

Abdel Bari Atwan, The Secret History of Al-Qa’ida

Already bonkers 1970s quasi-mystical British pipe-and-pullover UFO investigation makes a sharp turn at the traffic lights, giving the reader serious mental whiplash:

... in purely symbolic essence, Christ was assuredly present in the last war. The six leaders whose nations were involved in the biggest show of hostilities in the history of mankind were: Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt, Il Duce, Stalin, and Tojo. Take the initial letters of these names and what have we? Spell it out loud and clear, for it was and still is so true! We have C-H-R-I-S-T.

Arthur Shuttlewood, The Flying Saucerers

Comments

[uniquefergus.livejournal.com]

Last one doesn't work so well if you call Mussolini Mussolini, which most folk tended to do.

As it stands though, the second world war could also be seen as a damning condemnation of the TV show I work on, River City.

RC SHIT!