Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Switz

No, let's not call it Switzerland. We should call it The Switz instead, since the French say La Suisse and the Germans say Die Schweiz and the Italians say La Svizzera. Let's not call the EPFL library the Rolex Learning Center, which is a tasteless and campy name. We should name it instead the Swiss Cheese, which is probably what it is supposed to look like anyway.


Among the races which inhabit this magical land that I have just renamed, there are the Romands, who speak something like French, the Alamans, who speak something like German, the Ticinese, who speak something like Italian (whatever that is supposed to mean), and the Rhaetians, who speak a language no one else on earth can understand.