Yeah, that has to be the loneliest number since the number one.
I see no problem using cultural references as long as you’re willing to explain them to people who don’t get it and aren’t nasty when you do it.
I’ve taught specialized software engineering classes in a number of countries around Europe and Asia. One of our sides on the life-cycle of software development includes the phrase “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” In Germany I stopped to ask if my students all understood this phrase. The consensus was that they understood the point (repeat as necessary) but didn’t understand the origin. When I explained that these were the directions on shampoo in the USA everyone laughed.
Another slide referred to the Abbot and Costello skit “Who’s On First”. I tried to figure out how to explain that to a classroom of engineers who spoke English only as a second (or maybe third) language. Finally I just suggested they watch the video.
The significance of that phrase is both more subtle, and more profound. The “Repeat” directive is seldom necessary for acceptable results, but it definitely helps increase shampoo sales!
Even the video may not help, since the foundation of that skit is subtle idiosyncracies of U.S. English syntax.
In general, humor - especially word-play and puns - is very difficult to translate across cultural lines. Just last Friday I was with a group of international university students, where somebody was trying to illustrate a presentation with sketches from “Saturday Night Live”. The East Asians seemed to be bored and confused (their culture discourages them from actually expressing those emotions); the Indians somewhat less so; but many from the Middle East seemed to catch on.
Dale
I watched a lot of westerns when I was a kid but I never heard that phrase. I asked myself: “Does this have something to do with ratsnest?”
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