Real time web analytics is amazing! Omniscient! I love seeing evidence of the internet and specifically social networking media allowing connections unimaginable before this decade. The screen shot above documents a visit to @TCManics.blogspot.com that arrived via googling 'Huckleberry Finn film' from Latvia. I find it thrilling that a film adapted from the best of American novels exemplifying the US southern culture is being queried from a country in Eastern Europe that I've never heard of. naturally I immediately wikipediaed 'Latvia'...
Republic of Latvia (
Latvian:
Latvijas Republika) is a
North European Baltic country. Across the
Baltic Sea to the west lies
Sweden. The territory of Latvia covers 64,589 km² and has a
temperate seasonal climate. The
Latvians are a
Baltic people culturally related to the
Estonians and
Lithuanians, with the
Latvian language having many similarities with
Lithuanian, but not with the
Estonian language.
The capital and largest city is
Riga. Latvia has been a member of the
United Nations since
17 September 1991, of the
European Union since
1 May 2004 and of
NATO since
29 March 2004.
yada yada who cares about geopolitical....but what found delightful...
Unlike in other countries around the world, stand-up comedy is not yet developed among Latvians, although some Russian comedians are popular among audience, who understand russian language. But this does not amount to a
Latvian humour scene.
Latvians find it more funny to play around with words, twist one's words and turn them into an inside or dirty joke on the fly before one finishes speaking, still preserving neutrality. For example:
A Latvian goes to the doctor, and says "I am going to work in Estonia and I really want to fit in, so I want 25% of my brain removed." The doctor says "Fine, such surgery is possible" - and the Latvian has part of his brain removed. However, after the surgery, the doctor comes to see him and says "I'm really sorry, we got things mixed up and instead of removing 25% of your brain, we left you with only 25% of your brain," to which the patient responds - Gerai, gerai! ("Good, good!" in Lithuanian language)
Get it? Cute, but it doesn't explain the Latvian googlers purpose for reaching this destination. Maybe he's a poor student who could care less about Huck Finn, but he's looking for film adaptations to cram for a quiz on Mark Twain novels ( he hasn't read) for this obscure America course he had to take. Doubtful that he's a TCM maniac, but their visit was welcomed and I hope they return.
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