In The End of Faith, Sam Harris quotes a scholar of ancient Semitic languages as saying that a mistranslation of the Aramaic word, "hur," meaning "white raisins," entered Arabic as "virgins." Thus those who enter the Islamic Paradise may be surprised to end up not with some willing women but a hand full of dried grapes.
Comments, please, from those of you who speak Aramaic and/or Arabic.

Well, this could certainly change some things, couldn't it?

. . . . although it makes me think of that old commercial with the singing raisins . . . heard it through the grapevine . . .

Hmmm...

"White Raisin Atlantic" doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?

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although it makes me think of that old commercial with the singing raisins . . . heard it through the grapevine

Precisely my thoughts, CW!

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
[QUOTE]although it makes me think of that old commercial with the singing raisins . . . heard it through the grapevine

Funny that you should mention that. Back in the mid-eighties I shared an apartment with the man who built that particular raisin at Will Vinton Productions, the Portland company that made that commercial. Small world! The commercial was shot with the "clay-mation" process, using clay raisins shot a frame at a time, repositioned, shot again, etc...