Happy Aua

Menus are particularly vulnerable, and advertising brochures are practically never without them. A flawless sign is a rarity, and daily newspapers provide us for free with the latest news from politics, culture, and sports: the little typos, misplaced apostrophes, misplaced commas, ambiguous instructions, and unintentionally funny word combinations. Trash is no longer sorted into organic waste, glass, or packaging, but rather distinguished between residual waste and tenants. All of Afghanistan is exploding, yet there are only 28 dead. Where is Newfundland? Our appetite disappears at schnitzel with mushrooms and pharmaceutical ham, but fortunately, not our sense of humor.

Of course, this can all spiral out of control, but Bastian Sick has carefully compiled all the handicaps, attempts at curses, and other mishaps and commented on them in his incomparable style. This was certainly a Sisyphean task, but we are throwing pearls before swine here. Following the sensational column collections "The Dative is the Genitive's Death," "Happy Aua" brings together the material from which language takes its most erroneous form. One can only warn against this German reading book; everything here is wrong and uproariously funny.