Wet fish
This morning, my boss sent me an email that made sense generally, but contained the sentence: “instead of haddock rehearsals, rather we gather 15 talented young people…and get them in Windhoek for three months to offer them proper skill development”.
Initially I was completely baffled, and also amused to the point of snorting water out of my nose. I don’t know why the word haddock is inherently funny, but there you go. It makes me snigger every time.
I asked him what a haddock rehearsal was, and his explanation suggested to me that ‘haddock rehearsals’ is a phrase commonly used in the theatre community, so I googled it, so as to understand better. Nothing. Just lots of pages about haddock.
Anyway, about two minutes ago, I was reading it again, as I had a nagging feeling that I was missing something obvious.
Then I realised that he meant ‘ad hoc rehearsals’.
March 13th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
[...] Original post by Rachie [...]
March 13th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
You just discovered the joy of typos,and interesting spelling error’s. I can’t count the times when I have been in a rush and made a mistake that made what I had wrote mean something, very different. Just remember when reading future E-mails from your Boss keep liquids away from the keyboard or you may end up with your drink all over it.
March 13th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I’m vaguely worried that I guessed what he was getting at
March 13th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
are you sure? All the haddock I’ve worked with have been very unruly and need all the rehearsal time they get…
March 14th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Brilliant. Obviously heard it used in a meeting and thought he’d look smart using it. Like an old manager of mine who used to talk about adding “carry outs” to certain decisions, unaware that the word he was really looking for was “caveat”. Both Latin phrases too. The plot thickens.
Haddock is indeed a great word, but I would argue that pilchard and sturgeon are better. Or halibut. In fact, most fish names are great. Gudgeon. Salmon. Mackerel. Herring. The list just goes on and on.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Invictus Solis - yes, it’s a particularly amusing one.
Amanda - I had a niggling suspicion I knew what he meant, but it just took a while to sink in. Do not be worried!
Penfold - I know. You should see the state of the rehearsal hall after the haddock are done with it.
Citizen Sane - the thing is, he’s French, so he would pronounce them both the same. Carry outs - very amusing. I wonder how he thought that translated? Pilchard - you’re right - also snigger worthy.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Haddock-like it. Reminds of my last job where language misunderstandings were a daily occurence. In Italian, the word for law, is ‘norma’. Plenty of ‘norma’ then, in Italy. which no-one adhere’s to! Oh silliness.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:12 am
If it had been my boss, I would have left that word in place, just as it was. After all, he is my “superior”.
March 15th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Susy, welcome! Silliness indeed - surprisingly, this is the first time this has happened. Not bad going!
Jennifer - it was only in an email to me, so there was no point changing it - I knew what he meant!
March 17th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I like it. Are the haddock rehearsals the ones before the piano tuna has been?