a hundred visions and revisions

The other day I picked up a copy of Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn at a used bookstore here in Bloomington. It's a strange little novel about a fictional tiny island country that worships the creator of the classic typing test pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." They've erected a monument to this guy with the phrase written on it, but when the letters start falling off one by one, the island leaders take it as a sign and, as each letter falls off, they ban the people from using each letter in writing and conversation. Anyway, reading this got me curious about other pangrams, so during a boring reference desk shift I wandered over to the Wikipedia entry on pangrams and wasted a good hour or so. Among my discoveries was this incredible Finnish pangram, "Törkylempijä vongahdus," which Wikipedia helpfully translates as "Muckysnogger booty-call." Now, I have no idea what a muckysnogger booty-call is, exactly, but the fact that it exists and is a perfect pangram in the Finnish language just makes me unreasonably happy, and I intend to proudly use this beautiful phrase at every possible chance I get.

Other great pangrams in other languages and their translations, as mentioned on Wikipedia:

Bulgarian: За миг бях в чужд плюшен скърцащ фотьойл: "For a moment, I was in someone else's plush squeaking armchair."

Lojban: o'i mu xagji sofybakni cu zvati le purdi: "Watch out! Five hungry Soviet cows are in the garden!"

Dutch: Sexy qua lijf, doch bang voor 't zwempak: "Sexy of body, though scared of the swimsuit."

Korean: 키스의 고유조건은 입술끼리 만나야 하고 특별한 기술은 필요치 않다: "The essential condition for kiss is that lips meet and there is no special technique required."