There is a word in Bavarian that can express both mercy and deadly vengeance. The irritations that result from this were recently revealed in a village shop in Lower Bavaria.
gloss of
Hans Kratz
Even the godlike Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi is plagued by earthly weaknesses. For example, on Wednesday he missed a penalty in the World Cup match against Poland. In the sophisticated language of sports journalism, that means: Messi awarded the penalty. This brings us to a word that played a notable role in a village shop in Lower Bavaria a few hours before Messi’s missed shot. When the customers discussed the world situation in front of the checkout, an old farmer’s wife said: “I can never turn on the radio!” Her reasoning made sense: the Russian, that is, the Putin, scared her, she said, “the bastard, they should just forgive him.” Putin’s enemies should forgive him, she said, and the general store went quiet. But not everyone had understood what the good woman really meant.