>OTOH, I've met a lot of people who don't understand this way of Buster Keaton joking (keeping a serious face when you make a joke), and specially on the Web, with all the cross-cultural issues, sometimes it creates great confusion. "Cross-cultural" here may mean "people from another city" as well... I've had a guy who'd interrupt me when I mentioned yesterday's weather, to ask whether it was a joke or not, just in case.

Cross-cultural problems can occur within the same language and country, but even more in different languages.

One interesting example appeared in CNN. This happened after the Anthrax attacks. A person in Germany alerted the police, after receiving a suspicious packet with a label "gift". The gift was from the U.S. The police examined the packet, and then explained the meaning of the English word "gift" ("Gift", in German, means "poison").

I read another story - I believe it is true - about an Arab country who received donations of seeds. The seeds were treated with poison, and there was a label that the seeds were not fit to be eaten. Unfortunately, most people in that country could not read Spanish, and many got poisoned.

Hilmar.