English vs. Russia(n)

My father was the original nutty professor.

Odd socks, lively hair, an inevitable beard & appalling ties. He once took the TV remote control to work after mistaking it for his scientific calculator. I guess that his considerable brain was concerned with more important things, like solving the vibration problems on the engines of the space shuttle.

He was a lovely man. (the link leads to a bio of the head of his department)

And he did take the trouble to cook us breakfast every morning before school. With his scientific approach to life this led to some interesting fruhstuck solutions. The best & most eagerly anticipated was fish fingers. Fast, protein packed & good for the brain. It wasn't until I was 10 or so that I discovered that "normal" families have fish fingers in the evenings.

Living in Slavic countries for the last 17 years I have realised that I could easily have been raised on fish toes. There is no separate word to differentiate the digits on a your hands from those on your feet. This highlights the richness of English against the poverty of slavic languages; Russian, Polish, Ukrainian etc. Russian has many marvellous books and a few great plays but surprisingly few words. Look it up if you don't believe me. There isn't even a word for thirsty in Russian.  At least Polish has 'spragniony'.

As well as comparing the fight between English words & Russian words you can instantly check if the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed is still at war with Russia.

The pub argument has been killed by the smart phone.  Life is more accurate but less colourful.  I am not sure if my father would approve.