Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Help Wanted: Castrators

28 juillet 2008Ref: 11521-41
-->CHERCHE PERSONNEL POUR CASTRATION MAIS - âge 16 ans révolu, pas de camping possible, période 20 août et plus, 7km de Pamiers, direction Belpech. Tél. 05.61.67.47.98 le soir



Every town in the States has some sort of weekly advertising newspaper, listing garage sales, selling the same junk week after week, used cars, houses and apartments for rent, and a few odd jobs. In Moab it's called the Ad-Vertiser. In the Ariege, we faithfully read Le 09 to find out where the vide greniers, fetes, and marche nocturnes will be. But I find myself browsing through the other listings just to practice my reading skills. I couldn't pass this one up. (It is called "Le 09" because 09 refers to the Ariege's alphabetical order in the queue of departments of France.)


I'm not exactly certain what the job description reads for a "corn castrator"; Doug thinks they are going to de-tastle corn (the male flower of the corn plant). You must be 16, no camping on site, beginning August 20th.So, any of you farmer-types out there....fill us in. Otherwise, our imaginations are running wild. And if anyone's interested, I can get them an application.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I"m a city girl and have never detasseled corn in English or /french for that matter.
I find that as Ron & I become more home-bound I am using your blog as a great resource. I read "The Labyrinth" and enjoyed it. Have you read "The Eight" by Katherine Neville? There are some similarities in the type of mystery and over-the-centuries story.
I found a recipie for Alasce bread that is made with whole wheat flour and chopped hazelnuts. I made the dough in my bread machine and let it rise in loaves like baggettes...it was great.
Third, my Kodak Easy Share digital camera just seized up and I am on the lookout for a new camera...I'll take a look at the Panasonic like you have been using. You would never guess how far your influence has extended! Judy

Anonymous said...

Detasseling corn is they way I would interpret that, but isn't is late to be doing that? I love reading the papers in France, all the juicy stuff about the murders and weird things that people do that never get to the American newspapers. I always tried to read them first without the dictionary, then a second time through with the dictionary to get words I didn't know. great vocabulary expander, if I have any money left over this month I am going to look for a big, serious dictionary, not just a paperback one. I like to just read through the dictionary some nights. It's amazing how many words are so similar, if I could only remember them! Leslie

Anonymous said...

Luke is sorry to be boring...but I also think the ad is for de-tasseling corn! Sounds more like Iowa or Nebraska, doesn't it?

arachesostufo said...

ciao a voi tutti da scorzè Venezia

Anonymous said...

"La castration du maïs consiste à arracher sans instrument les fleurs des rangées femelles situées à l’extrémité de la tige avant que les étamines n’aient libéré le pollen."

I believe that the quote above answers the question, unless there is some unfortunate gentleman out there named "Mais."