Bette and Bangledeshi Stories

This is Anna's new tattoo. (pause for effect). The same girl who was (and still is) scared to death to get a shot now has a permanent tattoo on her left wrist. She pronounced that because she was 18, she could get one. We really couldnt' say no because we allowed Ben to do the same thing. Damn-I hate it when she remembers that stuff.

This tattoo is actually fairly clever.

It says "THINK" in Bangladeshi. Her friend Nabila wrote it out for her. At least we all think it says Think. Her friends were giving her grief on facebook that it really doesn't say "Think" but something else. I would laugh if it really said "thunk" or "stink" or "thing".

There's a danger in putting something in foreign language.

Time for a story (skip this if you've heard this one...hope I don't offend anyone)

When I was much younger, like in my mid 20s and starting my corporate career with IDQ, I wanted to have a sign made that said (to quote Bette Midler)" @#$% 'em if they can't take a joke" . Well when David was working for McGlynn Bakeries, he had a chance to make friends with a number of Vietnamese and Chinese men so he asked them to write me out a sign in Chinese.

So I had what I thought was a great sign and I hung it proudly in my offices and those who asked what it said, I would tell them.

Fast forward to when we lived in Mankato and I was working at Mankato State University. I had the sign in my office and a Chinese grad student walked into my office and was very surprised to see the sign hanging in a teacher's office. Down came the sign and it's been packed away ever since.

Today as I was telling this story to the people from Amman Jordan, the teacher (who is originally from MN) said, "Wouldn't it be great to have that saying written out in many different languages?"

I might do that

Or maybe in my old age, I will decide that, while it sounds like a good idea, it probably isn't.

(back to the tattoo which is where I started this story)

Anna is a little shell shocked that she has done something (get a tattoo) that is truly PERMANENT! She said it's the first truly permanent, can't change it, thing she's ever done.

I hope for her sake that it truly does read "think".

If not, she'll have a great story out of it

Yes, then she will truly be my daughter!