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December 13, 2006

Jeff R.:Diplomatic Incident

It was a matter of dialects. In the speaker's native East Wahindic, that particular combination of ululations, trills, and glottal stops meant "As ambassador, I am grateful for your kind hospitality."

In West Wahindic, the related tongue that Uncle Thornton the explorer had learned in his travels, those very same sounds were translated as "Provided she is a virgin, I will pay you many goats to rent your daughter for the night."

If young Patrick hadn't tackled Thornton before he finished taking the blunderbuss down from the wall rack, the war would have started three years earlier than it did.

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