Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  Which "it" are you referring to...   
      
    ak>  It was about the subj, of course.   
      
      
             When the message is from one Russian to another, of course....  :-))   
      
      
      
    ak>  Probably, I should have written "At first, it sounded   
    ak>  as 'Good lick!' wish." I just imagined how the phrase   
    ak>  could appear in English.   
      
      
             Okay.  I just imagined how we seem to use a lot more vowel sounds in   
   English than you do in Russian & how Denis might be struggling with them.  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  BTW, in Russia we still have the verb "luckat" (can   
    ak>  you see the similarity of the root?   
      
      
             In North America "luck out" means to fail or be disadvantaged by bad   
   luck... but yes, I can see the similarity.  After having spent most of my life   
   in a seaport I almost understand other Indo-European languages, provided I can   
   read the words for myself in an alphabet I'm more or less familiar with.   
      
             Denis, I hope you won't feel bad if my conversation with others from   
   Russia leaves you eating dust at times.  In many cases they have been studying   
   English for a long, long time.  I'm still learning the Cyrillic alphabet.  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  Cats in Russia "luckaut" their milk. So Russians   
    ak>  preserved the ancient verb. :)   
      
      
             All mammals in English-speaking countries "lactate".  We adopted the   
   word from Latin, and I wouldn't be surprised if you guys did the same....  ;-)   
      
      
      
    AH>  "Good lick!" is what musicians say in response to a   
    AH>  brief solo passage which is interesting & enjoyable   
    AH>  to the performer.   
      
    ak>  Yes, "lick" also denotes that me speak of a small   
    ak>  piece of something.   
      
      
             A small quantity... that makes sense.  When we do a rather hasty job   
   of some household task, e.g., or do the easy bit(s) first and put off the rest   
   until later we sometimes say we're giving it a "lick and a promise".  :-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  Take for instance ice-cream eating. "The boy took an   
    ak>  ice-cream, made a good lick and passed the ice-cream   
    ak>  to his friend."   
      
      
             Uh-huh.  Although this boy doesn't want to seem rude, he may be able   
   to get as much ice cream from a "good lick" as a small bite... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
    AH>  Were you hoping this message would reach everybody in   
    AH>  time for April Fool's Day?  I should give you a good   
    AH>  licking...   
      
      
             In Canada, kids play April Fool jokes on their teachers too.  I know   
   from experience that on April 1st I must look out for thumbtacks on my chair &   
   pieces of chalk artfully concealed in the chalkboard eraser because kids tried   
   things like that when I was a kid.  If you want to play Mischievous Student, I   
   get to play Old Hag.  Role play can be educational & fun for all ages....  ;-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  It was just a little joke. I was hoping for nothing.   
      
      
             Ah.  You threw a little joke of your own out to the world in general   
   *without expecting anything in particular*... which IMHO is often the best way   
   to go about things... and went up a notch in my estimation because I saw after   
   some further dialogue that you & I could safely tease each other.   
      
             Well done, Sir....  :-)  :-)  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)