German words are a hoot. So many of them are like little balls of aluminum foil all jammed together.
But you can have your schadenfreude and your schlimmbesserung – we’ll take this beauty from Thursday’s Wall Street Journal A-Hed.
Here’s a Presidential Election That Actually Is Coming Unglued
Austria postpones vote over faulty envelopes; ‘half of Europe is laughing’
VIENNA—Austria’s politics are coming unstuck. Or more precisely, unglued.
Special envelopes designed to hold mail-in ballots for the Oct. 2 runoff presidential election are rimmed with a glue that should seal them tight. But it is mysteriously malfunctioning, and that has provoked a crisis, which in the words of one TV anchor is leading to a “Bundespräsidentenwiederholungswahlverschiebung”—the postponement of the rerun of the presidential election.
Excellent! Bundespräsidentenwiederholungswahlverschiebung is now the hardwonking staff’s favorite word.
Yes yes, we know – Austria is not Germany. But check this out:
Newspapers have dubbed it Gluegate, the Glue Glitch and the Glue Crisis. For embarrassed Austrians, the one consolation is that the glue came from Germany.
Ha-ha!
P.S. The above is just one more example of why the Wall Street Journal is a great newspaper and entirely worthy of your desert island consideration.
Can you say that in one breath, John?
Not even in two, Mudge.