Talkback:160/lg_bytes.html

[ In reference to "News Bytes" in LG#160 ]

Deividson Okopnik [deivid.okop at gmail.com]

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 00:33:03 -0300

[ Wait, wait... this is like a repeat nightmare. Isn't there a standard story about how the Chevrolet Nova didn't sell well in Mexico because 'no va' in Spanish means 'no go'??? Only this time, it's not clueless American GM executives deciding on the name... -- Ben ]

Nova also means new in some spanish based languages (including portuguese)

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Neil Youngman [ny at youngman.org.uk]

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 08:22:38 +0000

standard story == urban legend

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Neil

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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]

Thu, 5 Mar 2009 17:34:02 -0500

On Thu, Mar 05, 2009 at 08:22:38AM +0000, Neil Youngman wrote:

> [ Wait, wait... this is like a repeat nightmare. Isn't there a standard story 
> about how the Chevrolet Nova didn't sell well in Mexico because 'no va' in 
> Spanish means 'no go'??? Only this time, it's not clueless American GM 
> executives deciding on the name... -- Ben ]
> 
> standard story == urban legend

I clearly didn't make my tongue-in-cheek attitude obvious here. I'm quite aware of the Snopes entry (perhaps linking to it would have been prevented misunderstandings), and that is what I meant by "standard story"; that's what made it so amusing. It's not like Cuban students at a Cuban uni creating a Cuban distribution would be unaware enough of their own language to name their distro anything questionable or weird, any more than Mexicans are likely to name their national distro after a sugar cone or a nail, or Dominicans have one called "Grab me!", or Venezuelans use "Catch your friends!" (I may have the locations wrong, but all of the above carry... um, strong indirect meanings in Spanish depending on the place.)

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

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