“…Ljubljana was founded by Jason (formerly of the Argonauts, before his solo career as Prince of Corinth)…”

Love it Great post, Michael!

     by pengovsky on March 20, 2007 at 8:46 am

I love how every aspiring writer in every quality American journal is mopping up the style of The New Yorker magazine: elegant, expansive, warm, slightly detached, a bit ironic, a bit patronising and a bit odd. There are couple of mistakes that The New Yorker’s fact checkers would never allow (”Petkovskovo Nabiezie”, “Jose” Plecnik), but still. And the sentence “Ljubljana has nice roofs” will become a classic.

     by tadej on March 20, 2007 at 9:58 am

Tadej:
My favourite classic candidate is this one: From time to time, I’ve fantasized about coming from an obscure country.

My own personal version would then be: From time to time, I’ve lost money because I come from an obscure country that is NOT Slovakia.

     by alcessa on March 20, 2007 at 10:18 am

“From time to time, I’ve fantasized about coming from an obscure country.”

Yeah, girls throwing themselves at you because of the cute accent and the exotic provenience. It can be such a pain…

Too much Sex and the City.

     by crni on March 20, 2007 at 2:48 pm

Ahem… When was the last time you were in a pub or a club in LJ? It actually happens…

     by pengovsky on March 20, 2007 at 3:39 pm

What, tourists “going native”?

     by crni on March 20, 2007 at 4:34 pm

That too… But it seems I misunderstood sorry… I thought you were talking of Ljubljana babes (not) falling for a foreigner…

I always had more success when I spoke English (preferably with an accent). But sometimes it ended in disaster, when my phone rang and I instinctively answered with “prosim!”

     by pengovsky on March 20, 2007 at 5:48 pm

OMG you’re such a faker. British accent or ‘Murrican?

     by crni on March 20, 2007 at 9:04 pm

I would go with British, based on the number of times Slovenian women have told me it sounds “more sophisticated.”

     by Michael M. on March 20, 2007 at 9:21 pm

They have?
I thought BE was considered funny and outdated nowadays?
(I find it beautiful, too)

     by alcessa on March 20, 2007 at 9:36 pm

Does “sophisticated” really matter if most of the women are not as sophisticated as they would like to believe?

     by Sunshine on March 20, 2007 at 10:47 pm

Eh, the women who would fall for that kind of bait & switch are definitely not sophisticated. Neither are the men who employ it.

I have a strong ‘Murrican accent when speaking English and I’m darn proud of it. Trying to avoid the southern twang, but who knows…

     by crni on March 20, 2007 at 11:06 pm

Sure it’s cool and kinda special to be from a small country. The response I got in the US 90% of the time:
- Where are you from?
- From Slovenia (with an inonation like…”everybody knows where this is”, actually not caring whether they have the faintest clue or not)
- Oooooooh, how *COOL*!!!

     by ahim on March 20, 2007 at 11:08 pm

Really? That’s the reaction you get? My most memorable conversations when in US were: “Where are you from? Slovenia. Where’s that? In Europe. Where’s that?”

And: “Where are you from? Ljubljana, Slovenia. How many inhabitants? 2 millions. Oh, that’s such a small capital city. No, no, no. That’s the whole country.” And than there was silence.

But to be fair I must mention also the opposite example. There was a cook who asked me where I was from and to my response simply replied “aha, ok”. The next day he approached me and said: “I checked it out. It seems like an interesting country. I lies between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia, there’s only 2 millions of you, your capital is Ljubljana and the nature looks amazing.” And I was seriously impressed.

     by Sunshine on March 20, 2007 at 11:34 pm

My fave was a very elegant lady with over-coiffed hair who imperiously declared: “Dear boy, nowadays EVERYBODY is from Slovenia!” Yes, it was few years ago (for those wondering about the “boy” bit) and the party was very drunk, but still

     by tadej on March 21, 2007 at 2:12 am

@crni: Why be sophisticated with women who are not? In any case, I was just confirming a theory and having oodles of fun in the process.

As far as the accent is concerned - I varied it… Sometimes it was British (preferably RP), sometimes non-descript American, sometimes Scottish

     by pengovsky on March 21, 2007 at 2:47 pm