Lingua Franca

I think we've all got a mental blind spot that causes us to overlook familiar things, even when they occur in unusual contexts. Case in point: a few years back I was watching home video of a friend's trip to Russia; in it, he's conversing with a local through a translator. Suddenly, the native switches to fluent English. The translator notices immediately, but continues "translating" English to English, and it took my friend several minutes to notice what what was going on.

Or take the show Iron Chef. The host's fractured French is pretty noticeable; "allez cuisine!", which is roughly "go cook!". But it took me literally years to notice that, even on the original Japanese soundtrack, he sometimes says "iron chef" in English. It just went right under the radar.

Tidbit #1: Food Network will be resuming Iron Chef America with new episodes this January. Now, I had assumed that when the show's host referred to the host of the original show as his uncle, it was a little theatrical throwaway, the same sort that had made the original host the fictional chairman of a fictional gourmet academy. But no: apparently the actor who played Kaga really is his uncle.

Tidbit #2: There was a door hanger from Papa John's when I got home, announcing that their pizza is "now being delivered" in my neighborhood. Implying, apparently, that it didn't use to be. Kinda scary. I guess that pizza delivery really is the last step of gentrification.