Lost in Translation (Part I)

Back when we were young and stupid (Translation: 10 years ago. Also maybe last month? But definitely 10 years ago.), FAB met this very sweet boy we likened to a golden retriever: adorable and kind, athletic, a fine physical specimen for his ilk, but perhaps a little light in certain intellectual departments.* We met in Maine, but he hailed from the waaay north parts of England. The parts of England even people from England would never deign to visit.

These people who live in these way northerly parts of England, they speak a different sort of English than we do here in the NY Metro area. FAB's never been so great with understanding different accents, and the difficulty increases exponentially when spoken to directly. (I suspect it might be some kind of wackadoo performance anxiety, related to shyness and stage fright.) And when said speech is conveyed indirectly - through a machine, say, a telephone - FAB's degree of comprehension pretty much hits the deck.

Shortly after FAB met this very sweet yet moderately incomprehensible English boy and had a very sweet and very short fling, we parted ways, with plans to meet up for a few days in New York before he was booted back to darkest England. The night before our scheduled rendezvous in the city, the boy called to chat.

To be continued...

*Ok. So I understand that golden retrievers are actually quite an intelligent breed. So they're really smart. Compared to other dogs. I'm merely maintaining that in a side-by-side comparison of FAB and golden retriever, FAB probably prevails. That's all.