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1. 

   paha_siga said, 4 months ago

   Nobody would be digging outside 15 minutes after coming home? Surely one would need more than that to change and eat, and look up comics in internet, right?
2. 

   Bruno Zeigerts said, 4 months ago

   In real life … maybe. In the comics … who can say?
3. 

   Robert Danielzik said, 4 months ago

   Who said he was at work, he could’ve gone to a Home Improvement store for the shovel and other gardening related things.
4. 

   Homer D. Poe said, 4 months ago

   Isn’t it easy to overhear anything in a quiet spot?
5. 

   davidf42 said, 4 months ago

   I was wondering about the dialog in Panel 1 also. Shouldn’t the Inspector be saying, “In this noisy neighborhood, it’s hard to overhear a gunshot,” or possibly, “In this quiet neighborhood, it’s easy to overhear a gunshot?”
6. 

   BartJ385 said, 4 months ago

   @davidf42

   and @ Homer D. Poe -
   – it is a false friend problem.
   Obviously “gunshot” can never be the object of the verb “to overhear”; it makes no sense.
   German “über” is English “over”;
   German “hören” ist English “to hear”.
   But “überhören” does not mean “to overhear”, it means “to not hear something”.
   I guess it is the same in Werner’s first language.
7. 

   Michael McMillan said, 4 months ago

   That’s it. Inspector Danger, you’re fired! In a quiet neighborhood, a gunshot would get attention because it’s out of place. On Chicago’s South Side it might not get noticed— because it’s not healthy to notice things like that, y’e unnerstand?
8. 

   voluspaa said, 4 months ago

   @BartJ385 Actually “uberhören” is German for “pretend not to hear something”. The Danish equivalent would be “overhøre” but the word doesn’t even exist. Werner may have been misled by “overlook” as it contrasts with “look”. Btw – if “look” and “see” are pretty much synonyms, why in the world are “overlook” and “oversee” opposites?
9. 

   davidf42 said, 4 months ago

   @BartJ385

   Thanks, Bart. So, if I understand you correctly, the dialog in Panel 1 should be translated, “In this quiet neighborhood, it’s hard to not hear a gunshot.”
10. 

    davidf42 said, 4 months ago

    @davidf42

    Actually, that’s bad English, because it’s a split infinitive. I should have said, “In this quiet neighborhood, it’s hard not to hear a gunshot.”
11. 

    Werner7 said, 4 months ago

    @davidf42

    Thanks for the crash course in proper English.
12. 

    CrypticWizard said, 4 months ago

    Getting back on track, I am suspicious of the guy with the shovel. Judging by the ground around him, he had been digging for longer than 15 minutes.
13. 

    BartJ385 said, 4 months ago

    @voluspaa

    Wrong both times; “überhören” does not mean “pretend not to hear”, and “overlook” is not the opposite of “oversee”
14. 

    WytZox1 said, 4 months ago

    Actually peple hearing the gunshot might assume it’s a car backfiring or some one had lit a cherry bomb or M80.
15. 

    voluspaa said, 4 months ago

    @BartJ385

    http://translation.babylon.com/german/%C3%9Cberh%C3%B6ren/

    You can find many examples of “überhören” being used with the meaning of “ignore” – or “pretend not to hear” for that matter. Not the same as not perceiving the sound – which would simply be “nicht hören”.

    http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/05/why-are-overlook-and-oversee-opposites.html

    Not the most reliable source, I know.
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