Yes, I get your point. Hydraulic ram becomes 'water sheep' and 'out of sight,
out of mind' becomes ' invisible idiot'...
My point was more
serious.
This was known during the second wold war.
“Most
important of all, Martin had a letter personally signed by Lord Mountbatten
which ended with a simple pun designed to trick the Germans into believing the
Allied assault would be on Sardinia, 'Let me have him [Martin] back, please, as
soon as the assault is over. He might bring some sardines with him; they are on
points here!' “
http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/urban_myth/hoax_military.htm
Mountbatten was asked to compose this himself. The reason was obvious. The
Nazi’s held intercepted massages from Mountbatten and so a contrived missive
composed by others would not have rung true. For the WWII historian, the
Sardinia bit was very much a contemporary joke. Before the war, most sardines
came to the UK from Portugal -not Sardinia. To conserve the balance of
payments, this import was stopped immediately on the outbreak of war. Anyone in
the UK of a ''certain age'' will confirm that Pilchards ( sardines) was a
missed delicacy and they knew where they came from (just as they knew that
rancid wale meat offered during the times of war time rationing came from Russia
- yuck). Only Mountbatten could make such a faux par and get a way with it and
that's what helped to make it so convincing. This missive was just not only
signed by him but contained his unique style.
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|