Tuesday, May 02, 2006

SOW AND SIN NO MORE

In her story about the impact of immigration protests in the Ozarks, Nina Rao of the News-Leader typed:
Spanish-language band Banda La Arrolladora El Limon sings a popular song with the lyrics that translate as "They say Mexicans are stealing their jobs. I didn't know they liked to sow and clean bathrooms."
Or sew, either.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you sow a bathroom too deep, it'll never come up. About an inch of dirt usually does it. Then mulch like there's no tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Gee, it's a good thing YOU'VE never committed the sin of a typographical error.

And that's to assume that Nina Rao didn't have a little help from the copy desk in editing this mistake into her copy, of course.

What's Nina done to you to deserve the pillory?

Ron Davis said...

anon: Pillory? Grow a thicker skin.

Anonymous said...

Ron,

I don't normally read your blog, but I heard I'd been "pilloried" so I thought I'd better check it out.

And then I thought I'd better correct the impression that I made a typographical error.

I meant to say "sow" as in "sow a field." The Spanish word in question is "sembrar," which means to plant or sow. But you're right: the English translation I used could be easily misinterpreted as a typo. Perhaps I should have translated the lyrics as "I didn't know they liked to plant and clean bathrooms," thought that also comes across oddly.

Thanks for reading, Ron,

Nina

Anonymous said...

actually when I initially read the passage I automatically assumed it was sow the fields as in migrant workers etc.