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Comment by nkantar | Hacker News Reader

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nkantar·

Please tell me "Charlie" refers to something hilarious, much like "ein Berliner" meant "a donut", more/less.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mu02xUgE4k

(Don't mean to take away from the gravity of the situation — merely wanted to share a good laugh.)

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(That's irrelevant. However, it's also an urban legend. Be rest assured that no one in Kennedy's German audience was even for a second confused and didn't understand exactly what he meant. He was perfectly clear. Even if you argue that his choice of words is grammatically questionable – something I disagree with and I think it works quite well as an emphasis and makes it clear that he is speaking figuratively and not simply declaring that he is from Berlin or was born in Berlin – the context of his speech and the preceding sentence as well as the sentence itself make it crystal clear what he is talking about and also insures that no one is thinking of baked things.)

Yep, Kennedy had his speech prepared by a native German speaker. There was no confusion.

An equivalent(ish) English example would be saying "I am a New Yorker."

Does it mean you literally are a Reuben (or New Yorker Sandwich)? Hell no, it is plainly obvious that is a ludicrous interpretation even without grammatical context of the rest of the speech.

Note: If he'd gone to Hamburg and said "I am a Hamburger" this would have also been totally fine.

I'm French. There is no hidden pun (at least perceptible by French speakers), sorry.

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