Some Sing Wrong

A funny thing that Jadon and I realized the other day as we continued our reading of the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas (I try to read the dialogue in a German accent) was that neither of the two major Axis powers in World War II — Germany and Japan, of course — have the "th" sound in their languages. When people of these countries begin to learn English then, they would often mispronounce the "th" sound with an "s" or "z" sound. Could this be one of reasons the two empires found common ground in the war effort (tongue-in-cheek)? Perhaps before the war their leaders had innocently commented on other nations' populations "thinning," or maybe their Navy admirals were commonly misunderstood by others when they were simply trying to express their country's gratitude toward others: "We thank you all!"?

Thus the hilarious English learning commercial we love so much featuring a young German coast guardsman misunderstanding an American distress call just as easily could have featured a Japanese coast guardsman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmOTpIVxji8

Baptist Bucks, Presbyterian Pennies, Lutheran Legal Tender, Jehovah's Witness Wealth?

Last night I told Jadon I'd give him the money he got back for our being able to resell his "contraband cellphone" (another story in itself!) at a slight loss, & minus a very friendly $5 "advertiser's surcharge" for my putting out the Craig's List ad and going out to meet prospective buyers.  So while he spent about $55, he was getting back $40.  I asked him in which denomination of bills he'd like his money (10s or 20s of course), & he joked that he'd like his money in 50s or even 100s.  I quipped back that in the case of 100s, we could just round the amount to the nearest $100 then, but of course he didn't want that.  Later as we entered his room he joked back, "I'd like my money in Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutherans, Baptists, and Presbyterians" -- perhaps these "denominations" are the most inflation-proof?