Funny T-Shirts

Yes, there probably was some simplification of spelling (that is, making it more like English spelling), and no doubt characters that don't exist in English tended to be changed or dropped (since there were no keys for those characters on the typewriters used at Ellis Island), and any place you have people (some of them not too well-educated) writing a lot of things in a hurry, there will be a good many outright mistakes. A substantial minority of the immigrants came from countries using the Cyrillic or other alphabets, so their names obviously had to be transliterated before they could be written in the Latin alphabet at all (I speak here only of writing systems used in Europe, because very few non-Europeans came in through Ellis Island).
But all of this is different from the legends I had heard about officials who just arbitrarily changed names from "Giannopoulos" to "Smith" or from "Kozlowski" to "Brown."
Also, many names were eventually changed either by the immigrants (or their descendants) themselves or by employers or others, and in later generations those changes have tended to be attributed to "Ellis Island."
I don't think admitting that names were changed would reduce tourism to Ellis Island, and this would help, rather than hinder, people tracing their geneologies, so long as they knew what the name had been changed to (which would most often be their own current family name).

Dearing. We've also seen it spelled Deering. From what we know it probably came from England. If not, then it's from Ireland.

You know, you are starting to miss the point, which is that Alex has enabled an evil girl imp to kill us tonight.

Regardless of the curse, I think the fact that you can also make it say A CASUAL BOTTOM is pretty great stuff.

Yes, Lina, but if I had my druthers, I'd like to spend my last few moments discussing linguistics.

Oh, a HOMICIDAL murderer. As opposed to all those other kinds of murderers. I bet he buried her in dirt made of earth, too.

>>>OR...we kick the shit out of that little girl when she comes visiting....(careful not to mistake any cooky selling girlscouts for her. <<<

It ought to be easy to tell the difference, since girl scouts rarely stick to the ceiling, as far as I know.

Has it occured to anyone that you are in fact posting on a blog right now, and if you were really worried about the 'curse', you could just copy n' paste the message and put it in a post on this very thread, and that would technically suffice? Just sayin'....

Thank you for that awful suggestion, Barghest. The only problem with it is that after 1000 copies of Toma Sota Balcu have been posted on this site, an insane blogger named Alex might start appearing on people's ceilings.

"What is that on the ceiling? It's mumbling to itself...something about haunted pregnant women on eBay made from elephant dung?"

"I think it's that Alex guy. Get me the broom."

"No, let's catch him in a jar and let him out in the backyard. If you squash a blogger it's bad luck, makes it rain or something...."

It's past midnight and I'm still cool.

Anagrams and Romanian barrel makers aside, this seems very similar to legends that have grown up around sleep paralysis, sometimes known as 'old hag syndrome'.
This occurs when you are just awake (either going to sleep or waking up), and your body is still paralysed (as it is every time you are asleep).
Interesting article here about a program on the subject from the observer, no buried girls selling cookies I'm afraid, you'll have to make do with a giant demonic bat:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0%2C6903%2C596608%2C00.html

Klaatu...

My grandfather's father came here as O'Mahoney, no one really knows that story about why the O' was dropped. Ol' John James enlisted in the military when he got here. We have a copy of the ship's manifest, there were quite a few O'Mahoneys on the ship, but according to my grandfather, they weren't our family. The little info we have is that he worked in a castle named for the O'Mahoney family...but we haven't been able to back that up.

A CASUAL BOTTOM
is a good anagram from these words!

Sorry Alex, but just in case, I would like to say:

TOMA SOTA BALCU

Thank you. I think I will sleep better now.

Barghest, what are you, crazy?
If you caught the ghost of Blogger Alex in a jar, think how much you could get for that jar on eBay!
And you'd let him out again?!?

Dominus vobiscum
Et cum spiritu two oh
Don't you eat my sleazy pancakes
Just for Saintly Alphonzo

That's the counter chant.

A girl died in 1933 by a homicidal murderer. He buried her in the ground when she was still alive. The murdered chanted, "Toma sota balcu" as he buried her. Now that you have read the chant, you will meet this little girl. In the middle of the night she will be on your ceiling. She will suffocate you like she was suffocated. If you post this, she will not bother you. Your kindness will be rewarded.

Sorry, but I've been having enough trouble sleeping as it is. ;_;

<<
TOMA SOTA BALCU

Thank you. I think I will sleep better now.>>>

Ditto

Will I see her tits?

Good news all around: last night I did not die. I did wake up at 6:30 though. Trust me, I checked the ceiling. Clean.