Posted by Peter Ceresole on December 27, 2006 at 22:36:10 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: The Blackett code mystery posted by Jock on December 27, 2006 at 16:39:22:
Blistering barnacles! Ten thousand thundering typhoons! is scrambled Nancy-speak, rather than Haddock dock-speak.
Really? I thought the translators had at least gone for the blistering barnacles; sounds like the books to me... Not that the translators wouldn't have some previous in their minds... I can't tell because all my children's Tintins (which includes my old ones) are in French.
In fact the French versions are far more imaginative. In one story Haddock collides with a veiled Arab woman in the market and in the routine exchange of compliments he calls her 'Fatma de Prisunic' meaning (roughly) 'Bargain basement Fatma'. And most of his other insults use quite learned language...