Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Michael Dukelsky:   
      
    PQ>  Translated by Bing...   
      
    MD>  Overgrown beach is close to the paved road (Sea of asphalt).   
      
    PQ>  Bad boy.  :)   
      
    PQ>  Some Russian fellers take too much to heart and think that   
    PQ>  every written thing ought to be taken literally.   
      
      
              IMHO the first half of the translated version needs a bit more   
   work, but the tarmac sea/sea of asphalt does appear to be a paved road....  :-)   
      
              I know Canadians... i.e. native speakers of English... who also   
   take things literally.  One of them admitted to Dallas & me privately that he   
   didn't understand metaphors unless he could look them up in the dictionary,   
   yet he was quite intelligent in other ways.  And I think those who are   
   learning English as a foreign language or depending on computer software to   
   translate for them tend to find themselves in much the same position.   
      
              One way some people have fun with the latter is to give the   
   software a metaphorical expression which is well-known in English, then see   
   what happens after it's been translated into another language & back again   
   into English.  In an example I read about long ago "The spirit is willing, but   
   the flesh is weak" came back as "The liquor is good, but the meat is rotten".    
   Although I have yet to try that myself, I experimented briefly with a program   
   Dallas had on his BBS at one time.  IIRC it was called LIZA, and I'd heard   
   about it as a student.  It was originally meant to be used in counselling   
   situations where what people may need is somebody who will listen patiently &   
   make occasional sympathetic noises while they think aloud but doesn't expect   
   to be paid more than they can afford. I'd seen BBS users spend half an hour   
   talking to LIZA before they realized they were talking to a computer, but   
   since I already realized that I gave her a very simple test.  When she said   
   "How are you?" she expected a conventional response   
   ... and I used a deliberately unconventional response to see what would   
   happen. I quoted a line from THE MUPPET MUSICIANS OF BREMEN: "I'm old... I'm   
   beat up... I'm worn away", to which LIZA answered "I'm twenty-three years   
   old".  If I need somebody who understands where I'm coming from I won't count   
   on *her*....  :-))   
      
      
      
    PQ>  I think there is some literary licence being taken   
    PQ>  by the author of that passage.   
      
      
              I agree.  And give yourself a gold star, BTW, for knowing whether   
   to spell "licence/license" in this context as a noun or a verb....  :-)   
      
      
      
    PQ>  When I first read it I thought that someone had discovered   
    PQ>  the Blues Brothers but, no.   
      
      
              OTOH there's something about the rustic cabin with neon lights   
   which reminds me of the Blues Brothers attempting to play a C&W gig...   
   [chuckle].   
      
      
      
    PQ>  Then there seemed to be an oblique reference to the artwork   
    PQ>  style (coloured sequences) in the 'Wizard Of Oz' 1930s film.   
    PQ>  I think my latter idea is close.   
      
      
              I think you're close on both counts.   
      
              In the Emerald City, where the wizard lived, everything was   
   green... but now we're talking about a different hotel.  If I put the two   
   ideas together I imagine the narrator is referring to someplace like Las   
   Vegas, where there is an air of unreality about everything.  When I visited   
   this city years ago there was a hotel with a neon sign cowboy who tipped his   
   hat & said "Hi, Pardner!" at all hours of the day & night, and there were many   
   "wedding chapels" where folks could get married after a quickie divorce in   
   Reno.  But I wouldn't expect other folks to draw such conclusions if they live   
   eighteen hours away by air....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)