Browsings: WILLIAM HARTSTON

Go:

The ancient oriental game of Go is scheduled to be played in space for the first time this November, when the Japanese cosmonaut Koichi Wakata goes into orbit.

Back on Earth, the British Go Association newsletter reports that the "Chicago Hog Butcher Tourney" was attended by 27 players and 100 doughnuts.

Russian:

The Random House Russian-English Dictionary of Idioms has been published in New York, and lists more than 13,000 expressions, including (translating literally): "an elephant stepped on his ear" (meaning he is tone-deaf), "she ate the dog" (she really knows her stuff) and "he's hanging noodles on your ears" (he's misleading you).

The project, which has taken 13 years, was funded by the US Department of Defence.

Japanese:

The words sannadabichi, banira, reinkoto and Kencha no Furachin have all entered the slang vocabulary of the with-it Tokyo teenager. They mean, respectively, son-of-a-bitch, vanilla ice-cream, raincoat and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

An article in Verbatim - The Language Quarterly also lists a number of Western words that have been adopted as trendy obscenities. A long list includes fakko-meto (intimate acquaintance) and masutabeeshon (work it out yourself).

Hungarian:

There is, according to Verbatim, "an unstoppable flood of English words" pouring into Hungary, where a biznisz man or menedzser can now make his bebi-szitter a szendvics.

For further details: Verbatim, PO Box 199, Aylesbury, Bucks HP20 2HK.

Beekeeping:

A letter in the May 1995 issue of Bee Craft (the journal of the British Bee-Keepers Association) refers to an inmate of Parkhurst Prison who plans to run beekeeping courses: "It occurs to me that slightly softened beeswax would be suitable for taking impressions of keys - a further use for by- products of the hive."