Re: Current Events

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003, Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

> Brian Burger wrote:
> 
>  >One further amusing squib from today's news, from an AP wire story:
>  >
>  >"Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud..." - Um, someone tell the nice
>  >reporter that the whole damn family is 'Saud', that *every* male
member of
>  >the family is a prince - and that there are a few thousand members
of the
>  >family/clan... just file this one under "Inadequate Information".
> 
> Um, someone tell the nice Mr. Burger that the Arabs use their first
names a
> lot more than we westerners do on formal occasions, and that the Saudi
> foreign minister's first name is "Saud" just like Mr. Burger's own
first
> name is "Brian".
> 
> The Saudi foreign minister's full name is Saud bin Faisal bin Abd
al-Aziz Al
> Saud, which means "Saud son of Faisal son of Abd al-Aziz, of the clan
Al
> Saud".

OK, I stand corrected on the matter of Saud family naming, esp. WRT this
specific member (the Foreign Minister). I assumed that Saud was just the
gentleman's family name, and that his full name had been shortened by
the
reporter. Evidently in this case it's his first name *and* his
family/clan
name...

What's the line about "Assume making an a*s out of u"? <g>

Brian.