Verification

Perhaps you thought that, when registering blog comments, the Word Verification codes were simply jumbled letters produced randomly by some distant computer server. That is not the case. Each Word Verification code is actually a real word from the small Balkan state of Verifica. This is a tiny country of some sixty thousand souls - often omitted from maps. It borders Albania and Serbia-Montenegro and it is the only area of the planet where the ancient Verification language is spoken.

Until blogging came along, the Verificans eked out their peasant lives rearing goats and weaving reed baskets. Verifica’s previous claim to fame was that it was Europe’s number one producer of Balkan parsnips - they were even exported to the USA. Nowadays most Verificans are employed in producing Word Verification codes – not just for Blogger but for online banking and a range of other internet services. Foreign money has poured into the country and the standard of living in Verifica has shot up with most peasants now owning SUVs and pop up toasters.

Hzzeorg Xxrijkm

The greatest poet in the Verification language is also its prime minister Hzzeorg Xxrijkm. Here in this extract from the seven hundred and fifty line epic poem“Verifica, Verifica!”he captures the true spirit of his nation:-

Yxzelhh vuyvypd dsskipl xxrwqyq nnihvgf
Zrtqiop bbgsdrt mkikmnb mlkopio
Dwqmkkp cvxcxzs hhjinji ccdgiui
Sfghjkl dbhnilm ggqqxip Verifica, Verifica!

Roughly translated this means:-

Oh land of goats and reed weavers
Sweet land of liberty
Send us victorious, happy and glorious
Comrades all we will fight for fair Verifica, Verifica!