Am I bruchleidend?
I saw this ad inside the back cover of the Milwaukee America Kalendar 1924 I bought this weekend, and it asked a question we all must ask ourselves daily: Bruchleidend?
Because if I am, I definitely need to send off to a far away city to get a set of four suction cups I can wear around my waist to help with my bruchleidend condition.
Heather informs me that I cannot suffer bruchleidend, as those are obviously a woman’s hips in it. Google’s translator tells me that bruchleidend means “break-suffering,” which I sometimes have been known to feel (if bruchleidend means “Dreading the last minutes before you have to punch back in after scarfing a submarine sandwich and a quart of orange juice in 7 minutes”).
Given the language barrier in addition to the archaic nature of the advertisement, I cannot be clear whether this was an actual, outdated, treatment for something, snake oil of some sort, or some mechanism to part German immigrants from their American dollars. As a matter of fact, given that it appeared in the back of a magazine and has a tarty line drawing, perhaps I’ve blown my PG-13 rating on my blog by including it.
I think “Bruch” in this case translates as “hernia.” To guess wildly, a cognate might be “breach,” which is what a hernia is.
The subtitle advertises “Free 30-day trial”. A very rough translation of the beginning:
“Wear this comfortable Easy-Hold hernia device for 30 days. If after this period of time your hernia doesn’t change, return the device and it won’t cost you a penny…”
I’ll attempt a more complete translation tonight if I’m bored.