[790] in tlhIngan-Hol
_New Yorker_Daq ghItlhHom
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sat May 8 05:47:06 1993
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mark <mark@dragonsys.COM>
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Fri, 07 May 93 16:07:06 EST
_The New Yorker_ (current or recent) has under the rubric "Shouts
and Murmurs" a one-page ghItlh by Christopher Buckley, "Stardate
12:00 12:00 12:00". It's headed up with a quotation from
Captain... um, from Shatner in TV Guide, about how he likes to
watch sf movies on tape but still hasn't figured out how to
program his VCR.
Scene then shifts to the bridge of the Enterprise, where Capt.
Kirk is unable to record the Captain's Log because it keeps
flashing "12:00 12:00 12:00" at him. There are six Klingon
warships approaching, but the Captain can't be diverted from his
attempts to get the thing working right, and drafts Chekov* into
the effort as well. Eventually Mr. Spock suggests a possible
source of the trouble, in a Taiwan computer virus insinuated into
Starfleet Log master production; but the Klingons are arming their
photon torpedoes. Kirk asks Spock if he can fix the problem, and
the answer is "Not within the one minute and twenty seconds until
the Klingons reach weapons range." [I can't vouch for the
wording here or below, because I don't have the text in front of
me.] This is Bones's cue for an impassioned speech to "Remember
your responsibilities, Jim! There are hundreds of people on
board, families, hamsters on treadmills!"
Kirk: I haven't forgotten my responsibilities, Bones. Mr. Spock,
can we transmit the "12:00 12:00 12:00" to the Klingon control
panel?
Spock: In theory, yes, Captain.
Kirk: Do it.
Uhura: Captain, I'm picking up a Klingon transmission.
Kirk: Put it on the main screen, Lieutenant.
Klingons: QI'yaH, majegh!
Kirk: Translation, Mr. Spock?
Spock: It seems to have worked, Captain. They are surrendering.
Kirk: Mr. Chekov, take us home. Try pushing the REC-OFF button
twice.
----
The whole thing is funny enough, and the little bit of tlhIngan
Hol is appropriate and correct. ghItlhwI' yIvan!
* Is anyone else irked by the fact that the writers got the name
wrong from the very start? The Russian name is CHEKHOV, with a kh
(a different sound, a different letter), not *Chekov, and it
grates on my teeth every time I see it.
- marqem
Mark A. Mandel
Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200
320 Nevada St. : Newton, Mass. 02160, USA : mark@dragonsys.com
ngeDbe' Qapla'; yIvumqu'!
