On 2-11-2015 2:08, clipka wrote:
> Am 01.11.2015 um 23:29 schrieb Stephen:
>> On 11/1/2015 10:00 PM, clipka wrote:
>>> Am 01.11.2015 um 14:39 schrieb Stephen:
>>>
>>>> I could read or at least get the meaning of Modern Dutch on posters and
>>>> adverts. Quite hand when travelling by train, I might add.
>>>
>>> Musing about Dutch and English and German, I'm somehow reminded of a
>>> memorial plate on a Dutch church, which reported that the building had
>>> suffered heavy damage in the 1940s from "beschieting dor de engelsen".
>>>
>>> As tragic as the event surely was, for a German with some rudimentary
>>> Westphalian language background it can invoke quite humorous
>>> associations, as in the Westphalian dialect "Schiet" (spoken "sheet")
>>> translates to "shit", and the German "Engel" is "angel"...
>>> .... so come again - _what_ happened to the church?! :P
>>>
>>
>> For starters
>>
>>
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=beschieting+dor+de+engelsen%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=QZE2VqH9Mcu7UaH3s_AP#q=%22beschieting+dor+de+engelsen+translate
>
> "Dry firing the English" - yes, that makes more sense... ;)
>
> (Did you know that dry firing is bad for any gun? It can cause the
> firing pin to become brittle and possibly fracture. Never, ever, dry
> fire anyone else's gun without first asking their permission. And never,
> ever, dry fire an Englishman. First make him drink a pint or two, _then_
> give him the sack.)
>

Well, Stephen made a typing mistake: 'dor' instead of 'door' ;-) The 
real meaning thus is: 'bombardment by the English'. The church visibly 
was in the wrong location at the wrong time (which happens even to holy 
objects, or more so).

-- 
Thomas

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