Remembering the time in junior high, in the middle of the “Satanic Panic” of the 80’s, when my mother came into my room and earnestly asked to inspect my cassettes. She pulled out my Kraftwerk “The Man Machine” tape and said, “Kraftwerk, huh? That’s not about witchcraft is it?”
I was amazed, floored even, that my own mother could make that leap (or lapse) in logic. I confirmed to her that they were indeed German and not about witchcraft or Satanism at all. That two things are homophones does not mean that they mean the same.
We won’t even get into the Deutschophone festivals of Hexennacht (Witch’s Night) or Sankt Walpurgisnacht (St. Walpurgis Night), which feature in German folklore and literature. Doubtful my mother had those in mind.
Shortly after putting the tape back down, she left comforted that her virginal, voluntarily-goes-to-church son was still an untarnished good kid.
I still sometimes laugh about it.