in reply to Re^7: Do you have a middle name?
in thread Do you have a middle name?

And the last phrase is

For now I suppose we'll have to trust that the Guinness people did their homework and weren't the victims of a hoax.

Read the comments, very amusing ...

I remember when National Lampoon announced that the IRA had set a world record for assassinating editors of the Guiness Book of Records ... xD

And

I think a whole lot of the stuff in the Guiness book is of questionable validity and/or not very carefully researched. Remember that the Book of World Records was originally written as a promotion for the pubs owned by the Guiness brewery behemoth, and was (I guess) never intended as a scholarly reference work.

1978...

Anyway like Americans believe that Germans could have 35 letter names, I believe that American officials might simply forget to copy the white-spaces. There are so many immigration names which got distorted...

The Brits even write and pronounce the house of "Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha" like "Windsor"... * fg *

Cheers Rolf

UPDATE: A comment bringing it to the point

Second, the "story" part of the name is highly babelfishy. Some of the spelling problems are due to imperfect copying, but in other places the most likely explanation is that someone was translating word-for-word by dictionary, with little attention to fancy linguistic stuff like polysemy, agreement or even noun/verb distinctions.

For instance, "vor Altern" is very suspicious, ("ages ago"?); "Menschlichkeit" is the wrong sense of "humanity" ("Menschheit" would make sense in this context); there are case and genus errors all over, some plurals are creatively formed by just adding "-s", and let's not even discuss "Stern welche gehabt bewohnbar Planeten Kreise drehen sich" ... This phrase is not, nor has it ever been, a card-carrying member of the German language.

The "shortened" version consists mostly of suffixes that do appear in names (-stein, -hausen, -berger, -dorff), but they make little sense crowded up like this.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^9: Do you have a middle name?
by davies (Monsignor) on Dec 03, 2009 at 22:42 UTC
    On that subject, I'm sure most monks have seen this (or a variation) on various computers. It's not politically correct, but ...

    ACHTUNG!

    Das Elektromaschine ist nicht fur Fingerpoken und Mittengrabben. Ist easy snappen das Springenwerk und blowenfusen mit Poppencorken und Spitzensparken. Das bloodunddammit rubbernecken Sightseeren mussen keepen das Hands in das Pockets. Relaxen, und watchen das Blinkenlights.

    Original author unknown.

    Regards,

    John Hywel Davies
    (who needs a middle name to avoid confusion with the thousands of others).

    Update: fixed minor typo

      yeah the "translated" version is quite popular in Germany, don't worry about PC! 8)

      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      ATTENTION

      This room is fulfilled mit special electronische equippment.

      Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is allowed for die experts only!

      So all the “lefthanders” stay away and do not disturben the brainstorming von here working intelligencies.

      Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked anderswhere!

      Also: please keep still and only watchen astaunished the blinkenlights.

      -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

      if you exclude the whitespaces you might get the middle name you wanted! Just apply for an US-passport and enter eventually into the Guinness Book... 8)

      But be warned about the downsides... xD

      Cheers Rolf