Now that sounds like fun

My friend Kris has told me I can forward on to you guys a recent e-mail that I got a kick out of:

...I had lunch with my mom and dad today. Mom's been working on gathering info on her family members and origin out of Belarus and their emmigration. (Her mother came over at 14, following her parents years earlier, speaking no English.) She's been able to gather quite a bit, thanks to the internet and Ellis Island.

She recently came across stacks of letters that were written from relatives that stayed behind in the 'old country' written to family and friends here, from the 20s into the 60s. She found a translator who comes into Austin fairly regularly who is working on the letters for her.

The most recent bunch he did for her took quite a while; he said that they were written in a combination of Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, and written in Latin script rather than Cyrillian (sp?)! On top of all that, there were spelling and grammar errors...

I thought that with your knowledge of linguistics you'd get a kick out of the challenge this poor guy has with the letters! But what a sense of accomplishment he must feel to finish one....

That's the coolest thing I've heard for a while. Thanks a bunch, Kris.

I see from the bottom of her e-mail, by the way, that she too has a blog; and since she has a pretty deadly sense of humor her own self I am happy to direct you guys her way: It's Kris, with a "K".