Inconnus (Museum Jára Cimrman, Prague)
Long time ago, we drove to Italy, and someone joked that he wanted to meet that miss Caduta Massi, whose name was written on so many road signs. It became a running gag during a great holiday: we praised the paintings of Vietato Fumare in the Roman museum of contemporary art, asked directions to the home of Senso Unico, and were happy when A.S. Roma finally bought a new striker, Totò Calcio.
Some time ago, I was in the Louvre to take photos of Roman portrait busts, when a Dutch tour guide parked her group next to me, had a quick look at the explanatory sign, and asked attention for the bust of the Emperor Inconnus. Unfortunately, that was not a joke.
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Heh. Reminds me of a news story from Ireland last year. There’s been quite a bit of immigration from Poland in recent years, and the Irish police were after a repeat driving offender who’d racked up more than fifty parking fines and speeding tickets all over the country – a Polish man by the name of Prawo Jazdy. Which, as they eventually discovered, is Polish for “driving licence”.
A hotelkeeper and his wife in Umbria told me, swearing up and down it was true, that one Christmas they got a nice card from an American couple who had stayed in their small hotel for a week that summer — starting “Dear Chiuso and Martedì”; puzzled, they finally realized that on their hotel’s flyer, at the bottom, were printed, sure enough, the following 2 lines: “Ristorante • Chiuso Martedi” (Restaurant: closed on Tuesday)!
That’s funny! What did you do after that?
Nothing; I was making photos and had more urgent things to do…
That is so funny! It reminds me of our long drives through France, to get to Bilbao. We always listen to traffic information on the local channels and the radio presenters always wished everybody “Prudence et patience sur la route…” and we imagined that they were two very old and nice French ladies…