I hate you more than what?

While at a late dinner with Travy tonight, I was reminded of an amusing interaction from Luke's birthday. To preface this, you should know that Luke is from New Zealand and therefore the good-natured recipient of frequent jokes at the expense of his funny (to us Americans) sounding accent. Luckily, he takes it in stride and can dish as well as receive. But this is how the conversation went:

Ailey: You suck, Luke (or some such banal remark about how Luke is less-than-cool).

Luke: I hate you, Ailey. I hate you more than dith.

Ailey (to Travy in a whisper): Um . . . what's 'dith?'

Travy (to Ailey in a whisper): I'm not sure, but I think he means 'death.'

Ailey (to Travy in a whisper): Oh, death! He hates me more than death! I get it now.

Luke: I can hear you guys and now I hate you even more.

Sigh. Just remembering this conversation makes me laugh to myself. It's not quite as funny, though, as the story that Travy told about the German who pronounced anise wrong. When asked what the Greek liquor tasted like, he said:

"It tastes like anus."

And few things can compete with that.