deutschMirror, mirror on the wall: who can tell me what is a picker-upper ?
I was reading Ben’s article “Slogans are models“. And there appeared the term “picker-upper”, which I did not know.
I used my favorite service LEO first. But this did not help much (I could have worked me up from the verbs, but …). Then I used dictionary.com and I got an explanation (I hope it is the right one 
):
picker-upper: something that restores one’s depleted energy or depressed spirits
I take this now as an opportunity to search the term in some of the English to German services (see also Michael’s article):
Google Translator
Babelfish
LEO
Beolingus
ego4u
PONSline
IATE
Merriam-Webster
Unfortunately all have failed in providing me a (good) translation (I searched for “picker upper” and “picker-upper” ). Also my paper dictionary from PONS with 170000 terms could not help me.
It could appear from this, the term is not so much used. Actually I can not believe this. Imagine: after a long night in the morning probably some would need a picker-upper.
So, the winner THIS TIME is dictionary.com
BTW: let me provide some associations for “picker-upper”:
coffee; a hit into your face; red bull; a kid being tortured; a pretty woman; a joke; …
Erkan YILMAZ
at
Erkan,
Most of the slogans in my post mean very little without the context of having been bombarded by these in advertising. I suspect that these slogans were all limted to advertising in the United States — and maybe Canada. Most slogans probably don’t translate well out of their context and language.
Dictionaries alone are unlikely to help translate such things. (Although I’ve forgotten most of my German, I lived in Germany for 4 years and encountered such problems understanding some German phrases.)
I see this as a reminder that our value as testers may be limited if we don’t have any domain knowledge of what we are testing.
So, here are the companies and products behind the slogans. Do they make more sense now?
The slogans are:
“The ultimate driving machine”
“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
“Finger lickin’ good.”
“Let your fingers do the walking.”
“Reach out and touch someone.”
“The quicker picker-upper.”
“Have it your way.”
“It’s everywhere you want to be.”
“Betcha can’t eat just one.”
—– If you haven’t yet read the post on my blog (and Erkan’s reply), I suggest you read it before continuing —-
And the companies and products behind them are:
“The ultimate driving machine”
BMW
“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
FedEx (Federal Express) overnight letter and package delivery
“Finger lickin’ good.”
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants
“Let your fingers do the walking.”
Yellow Pages telephone book
“Reach out and touch someone.”
AT&T long distance phone service
“The quicker picker-upper.”
Bounty brand paper towels
“Have it your way.”
Burger King restaurants
“It’s everywhere you want to be.”
VISA credit cards — they are accepted everywhere you want to be.
“Betcha can’t eat just one.”
Lays potato chips
at
Hello Ben,
>I see this as a reminder that our value as testers may be limited if we don’t have any domain knowledge of what we are testing.
>Most of the slogans in my post mean very little without the context of having been bombarded by these in advertising.
very true, with pictures/videos/sounds the message gets even better transmitted. See also my response in Ben’s post.
And also about being limited as tester - well, this is a fact we have to accept and seek for assistance because we are fallible. Better to say in these cases: “I don’t know” than later: “I am sorry”
>slogans: Do they make more sense now?
Thank you again for the effort you have given to provide me the companies and products
This post awakes now another idea for a baton:
I will think of some slogans from Germany and send these out for a game play.
Erkan YILMAZ
at
Bitte.
I am looking forward to your German slogans.
Viel Spaß.
Ben
at
So, here are the German slogans. But perhaps they are not so easy to find out. So I also included the solutions (but for the fun of it - do not use the solutions immediately).