Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to Michael Dukelsky:

 PQ>  Translated by Bing...

 MD>  Overgrown beach is close to the paved road (Sea of asphalt).

 PQ>  Bad boy.  

 PQ>  Some Russian fellers take too much to heart and think that
 PQ>  every written thing ought to be taken literally.


           IMHO the first half of the translated version needs a bit more work,
 but the tarmac sea/sea of asphalt does appear to be a paved road....  :-)

           I know Canadians... i.e. native speakers of English... who also take
 things literally.  One of them admitted to Dallas & me privately that he
didn't understand metaphors unless he could look them up in the dictionary, yet
 he was quite intelligent in other ways.  And I think those who are learning
English as a foreign language or depending on computer software to translate
for them tend to find themselves in much the same position.

           One way some people have fun with the latter is to give the software
 a metaphorical expression which is well-known in English, then see what
happens after it's been translated into another language & back again into
English.  In an example I read about long ago "The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak" came back as "The liquor is good, but the meat is rotten". 
Although I have yet to try that myself, I experimented briefly with a program
Dallas had on his BBS at one time.  IIRC it was called LIZA, and I'd heard
about it as a student.  It was originally meant to be used in counselling
situations where what people may need is somebody who will listen patiently &
make occasional sympathetic noises while they think aloud but doesn't expect to
 be paid more than they can afford. I'd seen BBS users spend half an hour
talking to LIZA before they realized they were talking to a computer, but since
 I already realized that I gave her a very simple test.  When she said "How are
 you?" she expected a conventional response
... and I used a deliberately unconventional response to see what would happen.
 I quoted a line from THE MUPPET MUSICIANS OF BREMEN: "I'm old... I'm beat
up... I'm worn away", to which LIZA answered "I'm twenty-three years old".  If
I need somebody who understands where I'm coming from I won't count on
*her*....  :-))



 PQ>  I think there is some literary licence being taken
 PQ>  by the author of that passage.


           I agree.  And give yourself a gold star, BTW, for knowing whether to
 spell "licence/license" in this context as a noun or a verb....  :-)



 PQ>  When I first read it I thought that someone had discovered
 PQ>  the Blues Brothers but, no.


           OTOH there's something about the rustic cabin with neon lights which
 reminds me of the Blues Brothers attempting to play a C&W gig... [chuckle].



 PQ>  Then there seemed to be an oblique reference to the artwork
 PQ>  style (coloured sequences) in the 'Wizard Of Oz' 1930s film.
 PQ>  I think my latter idea is close.


           I think you're close on both counts.

           In the Emerald City, where the wizard lived, everything was green...
 but now we're talking about a different hotel.  If I put the two ideas
together I imagine the narrator is referring to someplace like Las Vegas, where
 there is an air of unreality about everything.  When I visited this city years
 ago there was a hotel with a neon sign cowboy who tipped his hat & said "Hi,
Pardner!" at all hours of the day & night, and there were many "wedding
chapels" where folks could get married after a quickie divorce in Reno.  But I
wouldn't expect other folks to draw such conclusions if they live eighteen
hours away by air....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)