Ever since someone tried to teach me French, I have loved the phrase book issued to people likely to find themselves in enemy territory during WW 2. So that they could make themselves understood in France, phrases like, Ce ne fait rien, were translated as San fairy Ann. From that, you will understand how pelased I was to find that, for a Punch article, Paul Dehn had recorded the names of French wines as they appeared in the New York Times as - So tairn, Shah Blee, and Bow Joe lay. Dehn explained that So tairn was the start of a Scottish ballad, So Turn etc.; and Bow Joe lay was a sea shanty, in which the last line went Where Bow Joe lay. 

I found this, among other gems, in the Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, edited by Frank Muir.

http://sullatoberdalton.com




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