Dark Geography and a Riddle

[malsperanza]

According to today's NY Times, there is a resort town in Germany named Bad Fussing.

*pauses to enjoy that*


I know, I know: Bad just means spa, or resort, in German; Fussing has an umlaut and is not peculiar at all, really. Really.

But O! If the Dursleys ever decide to leave Little Whinging and emigrate to Germany, I know where they will settle.

Never misunderestimate the magic of translation. Meanings slip from word to word like little fishes among the rocks. Gift is the German word for poison, and poisson is the French word for fish, and pesce is fish in Italian, but peche in French is a sin, except when it is a sweet and tender summer fruit.

Or, of course, a fish.

So

A gift of fish may be a person's poison.
A peach in French may sometimes be a sin.
A Spanish sin is without rhyme or reason:
The word is without meaning when it's in.

A sin in French may sometimes be a peach;
No rhyme nor reason can complete this speech.
But fowl, fish, or flesh
Or peach, pitch, or peche
Or peche or foul poison: je m'en fiche.

***
Hm. I see that Germany also has a Bad Kissingen and a Bad Lippspringe. I hope very much that they are not too close to one another; it sounds like teens snogging and getting their braces hooked.

There is also a Bad Orb. Germany is clearly a center of the Dark Arts.

O god, I am losing it: Why on earth is the town of Bad Toelz suddenly so damn funny?

***
Elsewhere in the news, I have just discovered that the brilliant, if macabre, set designer responsible for all the wonderful, surrealist scenes in the old Avengers TV show was one Harry Pottle. I have no idea what to make of that.

And there really is a medical condition called "geographic tongue." I have no idea what to make of that either, but it seems promising, somehow.