I subscribe to a Russian children's magazine, "Микки Маус" (Mickey Mouse) because it is about the reading level I am comfortable with and it is a useful learning tool for me.
I was surprised to read the following anecdote in a recent issue:
Маленький муравей бегал кругами вокруг коробки с печеньем. Его друг, другой муравей, наблюдавший эту картину, спросил:
- Что означает эта спешка?
- Ну, тут есть надпись: «Рви вдоль пунктирной линии».
(Not the exact version that appeared in that journal, a variant I copied off the internet so I didn't have to type the whole thing).
Anyway, I recognized that as a joke I read as a kid, probably more than once as I remember it well. As a little background, when I was growing up (MANY years ago) it was pretty common on a cereal box to see the words "tear along the dotted line". This joke probably wouldn't make sense to kids today as I haven't seen that on a box for a long time, with the modern "easy-open" packages. The Russian version is pretty much a direct translation from what I remember reading as a kid.
What surprised me about this was not the fact that the old joke was still around - but the fact that the punchline of the joke relies on the double meaning in English of the word "tear". The ant was running, i.e. tearing, along the dotted line.
I was curious as to whether the Russian "рвать" also has that double meaning? Neither of my dictionaries indicates that. But if not - does this joke make any sense at all in Russian? I did find several copies on the web.
Ken
