Intepreting laws is no easy matter

[leblon]

Дайсон рассказывает: когда он еще был ребенком, в Англии пассажирам, путешествующим с собакой, надо было покупать билет на собаку. Один раз он сел в поезд с черепахой. На вопрос, следует ли покупать на нее билет, кондуктор без колебаний ответил:

"Cats is dogs and rabbits is dogs but tortoises is insects and travel free according."

Comments

[dimrub.livejournal.com]

покупать билет на собаку

Надолго завис на этой фразе.

[kobak.livejournal.com]

Прекрасно!

Вбил фразу в гугл и нашел такое (http://www.koaxkoaxkoax.com/ribbit/2006/08/cats-is-dogs.html):

Postscript: the August 10, 2006 issue of the NYRB contains a letter from Nicholas Humphrey rather pointedly indicating that this episode is not from Dyson's life but from a cartoon in an 1869 issue of Punch. Reads the caption:

Railway Porter (to Old Lady traveling with a Menagerie of Pets), "STATION MASTER SAY, MUM, AS CATS IS 'DOGS,' AND RABBITS IS 'DOGS,' AND SO'S PARROTS; BUT THIS 'ERE 'TORTIS' IS AN INSECT, SO THERE AIN'T NO CHARGE FOR IT!"

Dyson's response:

My memory of travelling with a tortoise has two possible explanations. The first and more probable is that I heard of the conversation recorded in the Punch cartoon and transformed it over the years into a memory. This would not be the first time that I remembered something that never happened. Memories of childhood recollected in old age are notoriously unreliable. The second possible explanation is that the memory is accurate. In that case the conductor on the train knew the cartoon and said what he was supposed to say according to the script.

[leblon.livejournal.com]

It did sound a little too cute to be true.

[akor168.livejournal.com]

Очень английская история.