Swindon, England -- Why so funny?
Howard Hold Horry Heel
gather that the place is sort of a joke among the English. Unfortunately,
being an American I don't really get the joke.
This section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swindon#In_popular_culture
gives a sense of what the English think of Swindon, with entries such as:
* The British television series Red Dwarf makes a reference to the town
in series seven, in the episode Epideme. The character Dave Lister dies and
is brought back from the dead. Upon being asked what death was like, he
replies "Have you ever been to Swindon?"
* The father of The Nice Family (a caricature of a strictly
disciplined, dull family) in Channel 4's "Absolutely" exclaims "By Swindon,
this is an inspiring tale!" during a particularly boring presentation by a
travelling salesman.
Can anyone fill me in with more of the juicy background details of what
makes Swindon funny, and why? What is the essence of the place, what is
its atmosphere, its driving identity, that makes it what it is?
Mac
Good thing you are asking in AFCA. In some circles, you'd get a
roundabout answer. Must be some kinda magical thinking.
John Hatpin
There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
banality of the place - there are other cities just as famously dull,
including Scunthorpe[1], Wolverhampton, Luton[2], St Helens[3] and
Hull.
Douglas Adams used Guildford and Rickmansworth (and possibly more that
I've forgotten) for a similar purpose, possibly to avoid cliche.
[1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
objected to a four-letter word.
[2] A 1970s advert for something or other had Lorraine Chase as a
beautiful-looking (but very common-sounding) woman on holiday, being
asked by a suave foreigner "were you truly wafted here from
Paradise?". Her reply: "nah, Luton Airport".
[3] There's an old Punch cartoon showing Napoleon looking morosely
over the side of a ship; one onlooker says to another "poor man thinks
he's being exiled to St Helens".
--
John Hatpin
http://uninformedcomment.wordpress.com/
HVS
There are a number of towns in England that are used as shorthand
for "boring, boring, boring, boring". Swindon's one; Basildon and
Basingstoke are a couple of others.
(armchair psychology mode)
This generally applies to old market towns that expanded and had
new town centres and lots of suburban houses built in the 1960s.
Such places are absolutely detested by fashionable young
music/art/theatre/tv types who grew up in there, moved away to
London, and are now quite mortified that that's where their roots
actually lie. Basically comes down to self-loathing,
embarrassment, and all that on the part of the sitcom writers.
(/armchair psychology mode)
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Mac
It goes back a little further than that. Ruddigore?
John Dean
> Howard Hold Horry Heel wrote:
>
>>
>> Can anyone fill me in with more of the juicy background details of
>> what makes Swindon funny, and why? What is the essence of the
>> place, what is its atmosphere, its driving identity, that makes it
>> what it is?
>
> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
> banality of the place - there are other cities just as famously dull,
> including Scunthorpe[1], Wolverhampton, Luton[2], St Helens[3] and
> Hull.
>
And other places like Basingstoke, Surbiton and Bognor.
They're not funny in themselves, but they are reputed to be dull, lacking in
history, lacking in excitement or cultural nourishment and with nowhere to
go and nothing to do.
I say 'reputed' but I've spent time in most of those places and they *are*
dull.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Howard Hold Horry Heel
news:7l99vpF...@mid.individual.net:
So Swindon is sort of the equivalent of Shaumburg, Illinois?
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29383
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30767
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29921
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/t_g_i_fridays_executive
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38940
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52705
Mac
<howardholdhorryh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote innews:7l99vpF...@mid.individual.net:
Throw in a little Aurora, I think, for Swindon.
art...@yahoo.com
<RemoveThisjfhop...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:
> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
> banality of the place - there are other cities just as famously dull,
> including Scunthorpe[1], Wolverhampton, Luton[2], St Helens[3] and
> Hull.
How about North Malden? (Maybe it got more exciting, once people
started investing in it)
Peter Ward
Don't forget Slough [of despond].
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow
Swarm over, Death!
Come, bombs, and blow to smithereens
Those air-conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans
Tinned minds, tinned breath.
Mess up the mess they call a town --
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week for half-a-crown
For twenty years,
And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears,
And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.
But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.
It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead
And talk of sports and makes of cars
In various bogus Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.
In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.
- Sir John Betjeman
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
You can put lipstick on a dog, but it's still going to end up on some
other dog's butt.
- Groo
Peter Boulding
<RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote in
<k2pue5tro00tbvff5...@4ax.com>:
>there are other cities just as famously dull
Results 1 - 10 of about 30,300 for "the most boring town in england". (0.36
seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 61,800 for "the most boring town in america". (0.28
seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 146,000 for "the most boring town in the world".
(0.20 seconds)
--
Regards, Peter Boulding
pjbn...@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk (to e-mail, remove "UNSPAM")
Fractal Music and Images: http://www.pboulding.co.uk/ and
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=794240&content=music
David Friedman
<03a495e4-5ff1-4729...@m33g2000pri.googlegroups.com>,
Mac <ANMC...@ALUM.WPI.EDU> wrote:
> > So Swindon is sort of the equivalent of Shaumburg, Illinois?
Surely not. Shaumburg used to have an SCA group, with a very good
fighter in it. Very likely it still does.
Swindon doesn't sound at all like that.
--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of
_Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World_,
Cambridge University Press.
Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer)
> Don't forget Slough [of despond].
>
> Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
> It isn't fit for humans now,
We used to stay in the Slough Holiday Inn, as it was convenient to
Heathrow and wheelchair accessible. I'd read the poem long before our
first stay, but we didn't get far enough from the hotel to really find
out anything about the town. We were too beset by jet lag to really
care.
Mary "He wrote an apology to Slough eventually."
--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer
We didn't just do weird stuff at Dryden, we wrote reports about it.
reunite....@gmail.com or mil...@qnet.com
Visit my blog at http://thedigitalknitter.blogspot.com/
John Hatpin
> On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 01:17:20 -0000, Peter Ward <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> > Don't forget Slough [of despond].
> >
> > Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
> > It isn't fit for humans now,
>
> We used to stay in the Slough Holiday Inn, as it was convenient to
> Heathrow and wheelchair accessible. I'd read the poem long before our
> first stay, but we didn't get far enough from the hotel to really find
> out anything about the town. We were too beset by jet lag to really
> care.
>
> Mary "He wrote an apology to Slough eventually."
I spent a week in Slough in about 1984, on a UNIX course (my first
formal exposure to it). You were better off in the hotel.
Opus the Penguin
> I spent a week in Slough in about 1984,
The canonical joke is "I spent a week in Slough one night."
--
Opus the Penguin
The best darn penguin in all of Usenet
Jesper Lauridsen
>
> Good thing you are asking in AFCA. In some circles, you'd get a
> roundabout answer. Must be some kinda magical thinking.
For those not in the know:
http://reinout.vanrees.org/thesis/swindon.jpg
Mark Brader
> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
> banality of the place
Hey, it's still got the Great Western Railway Museum, hasn't it?
> - there are other cities just as famously dull,
> including Scunthorpe[1] ...
> [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
> Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
> objected to a four-letter word.
That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
For another example of similar corporate idiocy, by the way, unrelated
to censorship of the kind we're talking about, google on "medireview".
If you don't know what I'm talking about, the results will not be what
you're probably guessing!
--
Mark Brader | "We may take pride in observing that there is
Toronto | not a single film showing in London today which
m...@vex.net | deals with one of the burning issues of the day."
| -- Lord Tyrell, British film censors' chief, 1937
My text in this article is in the public domain.
John Dean
> John Hatpin (RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com) wrote:
>
>> I spent a week in Slough in about 1984,
>
>
> The canonical joke is "I spent a week in Slough one night."
Not to mention "I spent a fortnight in Slough one weekend.
And
"The first prize in the Rotary Club draw was a week in Slough. The second
prize was two weeks in Slough."
--
John "Tish BOOM" Dean
Oxford
John Dean
> "John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote in
> news:7l99vpF...@mid.individual.net:
>
>> John Hatpin wrote:
>>> Howard Hold Horry Heel wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone fill me in with more of the juicy background details of
>>>> what makes Swindon funny, and why? What is the essence of the
>>>> place, what is its atmosphere, its driving identity, that makes it
>>>> what it is?
>>>
>>> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
>>> banality of the place - there are other cities just as famously
>>> dull, including Scunthorpe[1], Wolverhampton, Luton[2], St
>>> Helens[3] and Hull.
>>>
>>
>> And other places like Basingstoke, Surbiton and Bognor.
>> They're not funny in themselves, but they are reputed to be dull,
>> lacking in history, lacking in excitement or cultural nourishment and
>> with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
>> I say 'reputed' but I've spent time in most of those places and they
>> *are* dull.
>
> So Swindon is sort of the equivalent of Shaumburg, Illinois?
>
Or even Sheboygan
--
John "The Creature that Ate ..." Dean
Oxford
David Friedman
"John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
HVS
Excellent point, but I think it's pretty well the same thing
happening at an earlier period. In the 40 or 50 years before
Ruddigore was written, the GWR had turned Swindon from a small
village into what was very much a Victorian new town -- so the
reputational thing is similar in fashionable circles as for the
post-war new towns, I think.
It's just Swindon's misfortune to have been sneered at by le bon
ton at two different periods, for similar reasons.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
David Skinner
howardhol...@hotmail.com says...
> Can anyone fill me in with more of the juicy background details of what
> makes Swindon funny, and why? What is the essence of the place, what is
> its atmosphere, its driving identity, that makes it what it is?
Remember Wayne's World (movie version)? They're dicking around with
chromakey backgrounds in the studio, pretending to be at various exotic
locations. Then they "go" to Delaware.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pvUOrxAlbg
HVS
The intriguing thing for me about the Magic Roundabout -- which I
drive through every few months -- is that although it looks manic
(and the road sign is even more off-putting), it works really well in
three dimensions when you're driving through it.
I find it very easy to comprehend what's going on -- who's going
where, who wants to do what, and where I need to position myself for
my next move.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Chris
news:tuSdndfGS-QOIHLX...@vex.net...
> John Cockman:
>> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
>> banality of the place
>
> Hey, it's still got the Great Western Railway Museum, hasn't it?
>
>> - there are other cities just as famously dull,
>> including Scunthorpe[1] ...
>
>> [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
>> Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
>> objected to a four-letter word.
>
> That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
> idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
> some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem
shows that it started with AOL in 1996. At that time, there were very few
ISP's in the UK, so it would be a major problem
It also appears that a number of other filters blocked a variety of other
Brit. place names such as Essex and Penistone.
Years later, Google safe search also blocked Scunthorpe.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1032_3-5198125.html from 2004
John Dean
> In article <7la3v9F...@mid.individual.net>,
> "John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>
>> Opus the Penguin wrote:
>>> John Hatpin (RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com) wrote:
>>>
>>>> I spent a week in Slough in about 1984,
>>>
>>>
>>> The canonical joke is "I spent a week in Slough one night."
>>
>> Not to mention "I spent a fortnight in Slough one weekend.
>> And
>> "The first prize in the Rotary Club draw was a week in Slough. The
>> second prize was two weeks in Slough."
>
> In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
On the whole, I'd rather be there ...
--
John "Why did the chicken cross the Delaware?" Dean
Oxford
Nick Spalding
on Tue, 3 Nov 2009 09:28:30 -0000:
According to a post I saw elsewhere this is known in the business as
'The Scunthorpe Effect'.
--
Nick Spalding
Greg Goss
I see that Pen Island dot com finally gave up on his joke and didn't
renew.
--
apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants
a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
Boron Elgar
Is Tunbridge Wells funny, too? I remember that from "Blithe Spirit."
Boron
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> In article <7la3v9F...@mid.individual.net>,
> "John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>
>> Opus the Penguin wrote:
>>> John Hatpin (RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com) wrote:
>>>
>>>> I spent a week in Slough in about 1984,
>>>
>>> The canonical joke is "I spent a week in Slough one night."
>> Not to mention "I spent a fortnight in Slough one weekend.
>> And
>> "The first prize in the Rotary Club draw was a week in Slough. The second
>> prize was two weeks in Slough."
>
> In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
>
Charles
Nick Spalding
on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:30:57 -0500:
Tunbridge Wells is the home of the archetypical writer of pompous
letters to the papers "Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells".
--
Nick Spalding
Peter Ward
>
> On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 01:17:20 -0000, Peter Ward <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> > Don't forget Slough [of despond].
> >
> > Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
> > It isn't fit for humans now,
>
> We used to stay in the Slough Holiday Inn, as it was convenient to
> Heathrow and wheelchair accessible. I'd read the poem long before our
> first stay, but we didn't get far enough from the hotel to really find
> out anything about the town. We were too beset by jet lag to really
> care.
>
> Mary "He wrote an apology to Slough eventually."
He did no such thing.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article640396.ece
His daughter apologised on his behalf, even though the man was dead and
gone, and claimed that JB regretted writing it. Said regret wasn't
evident during his lifetime, as far as I'm aware.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
Have you ever tried to TUNE bagpipes, much less AIM the fucking thing?
- Huey Callison
Peter Ward
I should think Arsenal had trouble as well.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
There's another example, but I can't think of it.
- Greg Goss
Chris
news:q150f5lrgm2b3q9nh...@4ax.com...
ISTR Peter Sellars reciting a poem that emphasized
"Tunbridge---------------------------Wells" for comedic effect. It was on
his first LP, possibly called "The Best of Sellars". Damn, I sold that LP a
couple of weeks ago.
http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=1243998&image=303442571&images=303442599,303442571,303442616&formats=0,0,0&format=0
Looking at the cover makes me think it was part of "Balham - Gateway to the
south", a faux radio travel documentary.
Chris
HVS
That's a slightly different thing: Tunbridge Wells is used as
shorthand for the archetypical fuddy-duddy who huffs and puffs
about how there's much too much profanity broadcast these days, and
that standards have gone to hell since he or she was a child.
It's kind of like to "the little old lady from Dubuque" -- such
types are referred here to as "Disgusted, of Tunbridge Wells".
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Boron Elgar
wrote:
Aha...the Coward use makes even more sense now.
Boron
Nick Spalding
on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:27:58 -0500:
Coincidence time. About an hour after posting that I opened the
November 'Oldie' that arrived this morning and found an item about the
locals being fed up with it and starting to promote 'Delighted of
Tunbridge Wells' with T-shirts, mugs and postcards.
It says that the tag was invented in the 1950s when a local newspaper
editor told staff to make up readers' letters because of a shortfall.
One was signed 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' and the name stuck.
--
Nick Spalding
John Hatpin
Nitpick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellars
> Looking at the cover makes me think it was part of "Balham - Gateway to the
> south", a faux radio travel documentary.
I've not heard any of this. I've a copy on VHS of the Pete & Dud TV
documentary on the Great North Road, though.
John Hatpin
> John Cockman:
> > There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
> > banality of the place
>
> Hey, it's still got the Great Western Railway Museum, hasn't it?
>
> > - there are other cities just as famously dull,
> > including Scunthorpe[1] ...
>
> > [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
> > Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
> > objected to a four-letter word.
>
> That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
> idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
> some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
Chris has provided that. My phrasing "national censorship" was a (too
obscure, probably) joke - AOL pretty much was the national internet,
at least in the consumer market.
Lesmond
I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
--
If there's a nuclear winter, at least it'll snow.
David Skinner
RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com says...
> Chris has provided that. My phrasing "national censorship" was a (too
> obscure, probably) joke - AOL pretty much was the national internet,
> at least in the consumer market.
Nah - those of us with Demon Internet would scoff at those AOL
latecomers and their Compuserve bretheren. Well, Compuserve predated
Demon, but didn't offer an Internet gateway until some time later.
Boron Elgar
wrote:
>Boron Elgar wrote, in <od80f5l07jm70i8r9...@4ax.com>
> on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:27:58 -0500:
>
>> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:40:46 +0000, Nick Spalding <spal...@iol.ie>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Boron Elgar wrote, in <q150f5lrgm2b3q9nh...@4ax.com>
>> >>
>> >> Is Tunbridge Wells funny, too? I remember that from "Blithe Spirit."
>> >
>> >Tunbridge Wells is the home of the archetypical writer of pompous
>> >letters to the papers "Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells".
>>
>> Aha...the Coward use makes even more sense now.
>
>Coincidence time. About an hour after posting that I opened the
>November 'Oldie' that arrived this morning and found an item about the
>locals being fed up with it and starting to promote 'Delighted of
>Tunbridge Wells' with T-shirts, mugs and postcards.
Next thing you know, Close Encounters of the 4th kind will occur in
the area.
>
>It says that the tag was invented in the 1950s when a local newspaper
>editor told staff to make up readers' letters because of a shortfall.
>One was signed 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' and the name stuck.
I assume the rep of the place preceded its use by the editor, because
the play was first produced in 1941. It is a favorite of mine, I have
seen several productions, including Angela Lansbury's last year (meh)
and been in it a couple of times myself.
Boron
John Hatpin
I was talking about AOL's pre-internet days, tongue-in-cheek.
N Jill Marsh
<les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
pretty intuitive. I can't imagine that managing a right hand drive
system in a left hand drive car (or vice verse) is very easy, though.
The only time I have real trouble is with right hand turns, sometimes
I do have to take a second and take stock of exactly what lane I need
to turn into.
nj"thank goodness the pedals are the same"m
--
Welcome, stranger, to the humble neighbourhoods.
HVS
> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
><les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll
>> bet that if I was in England I'd screw up with having to do it
>> backwards.
>
> It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other
> side of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is
> actually pretty intuitive. I can't imagine that managing a
> right hand drive system in a left hand drive car (or vice verse)
> is very easy, though.
It's not that difficult, but you do have to keep your wits about
you. We take our (UK) car to France quite regularly, and I've only
slipped up once at a mini-roundabout coming out of a shopping
centre where there were no other vehicles around giving visual
clues.
And overtaking a lorry can be a bit tricky, as it's difficult to
peek around large vehicles to see if it's clear up ahead.
> The only time I have real trouble is with right hand turns,
> sometimes I do have to take a second and take stock of exactly
> what lane I need to turn into.
Yes; that's definitely one that can catch you out -- particularly
on less-travelled rural roads where there's not a lot of traffic
about.
--
Cheers,
Harvey
Nick Spalding
on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0500:
> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
> <les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> >I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
> >was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>
> It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
> of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
> pretty intuitive. I can't imagine that managing a right hand drive
> system in a left hand drive car (or vice verse) is very easy, though.
>
> The only time I have real trouble is with right hand turns, sometimes
> I do have to take a second and take stock of exactly what lane I need
> to turn into.
I have many times taken a right-hand-drive car to France, usually with a
caravan in tow, and have no trouble driving on the 'wrong' side of the
road, and the 'wrong' way round roundabouts.
--
Nick Spalding
Lesmond
>On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
><les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>
>It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
>of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
>pretty intuitive.
But the older I get, the stupider I get. I'm too old a dog to learn too many
new tricks.
John Hatpin
I had difficulty driving in the USA when I was 18. The LHD setup was
the worst thing, but I also strayed to the wrong side of the road
once.
Mac
You never woulda made it in Early Gosslandia (AKA Alta Washington).
BC used to have driving on the left in some parts, and on the right in
others. Of course, the ferries did often act as separators.
Parts of Victoria (B.C.) were also wired British; dunno when the
changeover was final (if ever.)
Chris
news:b2c0f51fvk7q6i49e...@4ax.com...
That'll larn me to use an American spell checker.
>
>> Looking at the cover makes me think it was part of "Balham - Gateway to
>> the
>> south", a faux radio travel documentary.
>
> I've not heard any of this.
Both "The best of Sellers" and "Songs for swinging lovers" were great
favourites in my house.
>I've a copy on VHS of the Pete & Dud TV
> documentary on the Great North Road, though.
A classic.
Chris
huey.c...@gmail.com
> > http://reinout.vanrees.org/thesis/swindon.jpg
> The intriguing thing for me about the Magic Roundabout -- which I
> drive through every few months -- is that although it looks manic (and
> the road sign is even more off-putting), it works really well in three
> dimensions when you're driving through it.
>
> I find it very easy to comprehend what's going on -- who's going
> where, who wants to do what, and where I need to position myself for
> my next move.
In the midwestern US, traffic circles are extremely rare. When I moved
to DC, one of the things that took me a couple weeks to notice was that
having them downtown seemed to have some correlative relationship with
the number of caved-in quarter panels from people who'd gotten merged
into. A Washington DC traffic circle is the closest most people will get
to a NASCAR restrictor-plate race. There's an awful lot of bumping. And
that struck me as a little terrifying, but at the time, I was driving an
aging battleship of an Oldsmobile, and not terribly worried about the
occasional fender-crease.
Now that I'm spending a little more time in outer Maryland, where
they're also fairly common, I've discovered another terrifying thing. On
any given trip through Maryland, if you're paying attention, you'll note
a much higher than normal density of people who have absolutely no idea
how to merge, and the two failure modes are "come to a complete stop at
the end of the ramp and wait" or "pull out and gun it without bothering
to look". Couple this with a traffic circle -- eight or more
densely-packed-together merge zones, each crossing ANOTHER merge zone,
and I find it miraculous that there's anyone at all left in Maryland
who isn't currently pinned inside the flaming wreckage of what was once
their car.
--
Huey
N Jill Marsh
wrote:
>On 03 Nov 2009, N Jill Marsh wrote
>
>> The only time I have real trouble is with right hand turns,
>> sometimes I do have to take a second and take stock of exactly
>> what lane I need to turn into.
>
>Yes; that's definitely one that can catch you out -- particularly
>on less-travelled rural roads where there's not a lot of traffic
>about.
Exactly, roads with enough traffic to provide the visual clue are
okay, it's when I am left to my own devices that things get iffy.
At least in Jamaica it's not as much of a worry, since everyone just
drives wherever the hell they like anyway.
nj"a space!"m
Lesmond
At least you didn't pull a Matthew Broderick.
Les Albert
<john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>Howard Hold Horry Heel wrote:
>> So Swindon is sort of the equivalent of Shaumburg, Illinois?
>Or even Sheboygan
Sheboygan!
(cue the band)
Mention my name in Sheboygan,
It�s the greatest little town in the world.
Just tell them all you�re an old friend of mine,
And every door in town will have a big welcome sign.
So mention my name in Sheboygan
And if you ever get in a jam,
Just mention name, I said mention my name,
But please don�t tell them where I am.
Les
John Hatpin
> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:46:32 +0000, John Hatpin wrote:
>
> >Lesmond wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0500, N Jill Marsh wrote:
> >>
> >> >On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
> >> ><les...@verizon.net> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
> >> >>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
> >> >
> >> >It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
> >> >of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
> >> >pretty intuitive.
> >>
> >> But the older I get, the stupider I get. I'm too old a dog to learn too many
> >> new tricks.
> >
> >I had difficulty driving in the USA when I was 18. The LHD setup was
> >the worst thing, but I also strayed to the wrong side of the road
> >once.
>
> At least you didn't pull a Matthew Broderick.
That will presumably mean something to some people. I am not one of
those people.
Les Albert
wrote:
>>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
>of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
>pretty intuitive. I can't imagine that managing a right hand drive
>system in a left hand drive car (or vice verse) is very easy, though.
> ...
It took me only one day of driving a rental car from Bath to Morton to
get used to driving on the other side of the road. After a week of
driving around the Cotswolds, and the traffic in Bath, it became so
effortless that I thought I might have trouble with U.S. driving when
I returned. But as soon as I got back into my car in the U.S. there
was no difficulty, and all of the British road rules were gone from my
mind; it was as if they were learned and stored in some RAM memory of
the brain, and they were immediately erased.
Les
Les Albert
<les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0500, N Jill Marsh wrote:
>>On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
>><les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>>>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>>It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
>>of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
>>pretty intuitive.
>But the older I get, the stupider I get. I'm too old a dog to learn too many
>new tricks.
"You're not such a dog as you think you are." - Ernest Borgnine in
"Marty"
Les
David J. Martin
> Lesmond wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:46:32 +0000, John Hatpin wrote:
>>
>>> Lesmond wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0500, N Jill Marsh wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
>>>>> <les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>>>>>> was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>>>>> It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
>>>>> of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
>>>>> pretty intuitive.
>>>> But the older I get, the stupider I get. I'm too old a dog to learn too many
>>>> new tricks.
>>> I had difficulty driving in the USA when I was 18. The LHD setup was
>>> the worst thing, but I also strayed to the wrong side of the road
>>> once.
>> At least you didn't pull a Matthew Broderick.
>
> That will presumably mean something to some people. I am not one of
> those people.
USAn actor, in 1987 had a car accident in Ireland that killed two.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Broderick#Auto_accident_in_Ireland
David
John Hatpin
I am now one of those people. Thanks.
Hactar
I've been through a few and you're right, most USAn drivers have
absolutely no idea how to merge. I think whenever they add a lane to a
roadway it should be added to the left, and when they delete a lane it
should be deleted from the right. That would shunt merge-resistant
drivers to the right-hand lane and then force them to merge.
--
-eben QebWe...@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
Q: What did one photon say to the other photon?
A: I'm sick and tired of your interference. -- thebigmike1983 on Fark
Mark Brader
>>> including Scunthorpe[1] ...
>>
>>> [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
>>> Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
>>> objected to a four-letter word.
John Cockman:
>> That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
>> idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
>> some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
Chris Greville:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Oh come on.
> shows that it started with AOL in 1996.
Exactly.
--
Mark Brader "Well, I didn't completely test it, and
Toronto of course there was a power failure the
m...@vex.net next day." -- Louis J. Judice
John Hatpin
> Mark Brader:
> >>> including Scunthorpe[1] ...
> >>
> >>> [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
> >>> Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
> >>> objected to a four-letter word.
>
> John Cockman:
> >> That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
> >> idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
> >> some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
>
> Chris Greville:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/...
>
> Oh come on.
>
> > shows that it started with AOL in 1996.
>
> Exactly.
So now you're not only changing my name in quotes, you're putting my
changed "name" on your own text?
Would you please not do that. It's hard enough to figure out what's
going on here sometimes without you messing about with false
attributions too.
Mark Brader
> So now you're not only changing my name in quotes,
Yes. That's a joke about the instability of your name.
We seem to have trouble understanding each other's jokes;
I've now seen your followups in another branch of the thread
explaining that you were exaggerating.
> you're putting my changed "name" on your own text?
Apologies; I botched the edit intended to keep the names together
with the quoted text.
--
Mark Brader "The design of the lowercase e in text faces
Toronto produces strong feelings (or should do so)."
m...@vex.net -- Walter Tracy
Peter Ward
Funny that, I often think that all the British road rules are gone from
the minds of most of our resident drivers.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
I think I'm going to need some grant money and beautiful lab assistants.
- Glenn D.
Mark Brader
> BC used to have driving on the left in some parts, and on the right in
> others. Of course, the ferries did often act as separators.
Cite, please? What I've read is that traffic drove on the left in
4 out of 9 Canadian provinces -- B.C. and the Maritimes -- until the
early 1920s when they all switched to the right.
(Newfoundland switched in 1947, before joining Canada.)
--
Mark Brader "It flies like a truck."
Toronto "Good. What is a truck?"
m...@vex.net -- BUCKAROO BANZAI
Bill Turlock
and the steering wheel!
bill van
David Skinner <drsk...@ntlworldERASETHIS.com> wrote:
> In article <h9c0f550b4cnf9qqq...@4ax.com>,
> RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com says...
>
> > Chris has provided that. My phrasing "national censorship" was a (too
> > obscure, probably) joke - AOL pretty much was the national internet,
> > at least in the consumer market.
>
> Nah - those of us with Demon Internet would scoff at those AOL
> latecomers and their Compuserve bretheren. Well, Compuserve predated
> Demon, but didn't offer an Internet gateway until some time later.
I started with Compuserve, which at the time was trying to make its own
domain the entire online experience for its customers. I remember having
a lot of trouble trying to get outside the Compuserve walls to see what
else was out there. I gave up after a couple of months, and then had a
hard time getting them to stop billing my credit card number every month.
I joined up with a local ISP, dial-up naturally, which snail-mailed
instructions on how to use a command-line interface to download a
browser, an e-mail client and a news reader. (Mac users: Mosaic, Eudora
and NewsWatcher.) That felt much more like the real thing. And what a
thrill it was to sit and watch a Web page load, one line at a time.
bill
Bill Turlock
Once??!? Once!!!!!!?? I did that many times in my yoot!
bill van
<1c098a47-f64d-467d...@h40g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
Mac <ANMC...@ALUM.WPI.EDU> wrote:
Wiki says:
Until the 1920s, the rule of the road in Canada varied by province, with
British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island
having cars driving on the left, and the other provinces and territories
having motorists driving on the right. Starting with inland British
Columbia on 15 July 1920 and ending with Prince Edward Island on 1 May
1924, these provinces changed to driving on the right. Newfoundland was
not part of Canada until 1949, and its motorists drove on the left until
2 January 1947.
bill
Chris
news:-aGdnX2n0KqPHW3X...@vex.net...
> Mark Brader:
>>>> including Scunthorpe[1] ...
>>>
>>>> [1] Famously (and hilariously) pretty much cut off from the fledgling
>>>> Internet because of a botched attempt at national censorship that
>>>> objected to a four-letter word.
>
> John Cockman:
>>> That seems greatly exaggerated. As far as I know, that particular
>>> idiocy was -- or is being, as the case may be -- perpetrated only by
>>> some specific companies. If I'm wrong... cite, please?
>
> Chris Greville:
> Oh come on.
>
Are you a lawyer by any chance
>> shows that it started with AOL in 1996.
>
> Exactly.
>
And which part of "shows that it started with AOL in 1996. At that time,
there were very few
ISP's in the UK, so it would be a major problem" didn't you understand?
And yes, you certainly cocked up the attributions.
--
Chris
There are LOTS of persons in this world who cannot be civil.
I've met more than my share of them over the years. Seems anytime
you introduce facts that don't fit in with their pre-conceived
notion of how things should be, they go into the attack mode.
Just part of life, I guess. - Mark Edward Marchiafava
Mac
> Mac McCaff:
>
> > BC used to have driving on the left in some parts, and on the right in
> > others. Of course, the ferries did often act as separators.
>
> Cite, please? What I've read is that traffic drove on the left in
> 4 out of 9 Canadian provinces -- B.C. and the Maritimes -- until the
> early 1920s when they all switched to the right.
>
> (Newfoundland switched in 1947, before joining Canada.)
These are less than AFUnian, but:
Wiki mentions the split changeover, without details. ("Lower
Mainland" isn't specified.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Canada
A reference from a local magazine:
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/story_top.asp?catid=17&id=18036
BC Power was affected:
http://www.powerpioneers.com/BC_Hydro_History/1860-1929/chronology.aspx/
(Notice that the switch-off inland isn't even mentioned, because there
were no major problems switching streetcars.)
Next time I'm up there, I'll get some higher-koalatea cites.
Joseph Nebus
>(Newfoundland switched in 1947, before joining Canada.)
I didn't realize one annexed into nations from the right-hand lane.
--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snidely
> Next time I'm up there, I'll get some higher-koalatea cites.
Mmmm ... eucalyptus potions ....
/dps
Peter Ward
>
> m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) writes:
>
> >(Newfoundland switched in 1947, before joining Canada.)
>
> I didn't realize one annexed into nations from the right-hand lane.
No, you should pass the Duchy on the left-hand side.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
German brats are the wurst kind.
- Bill Kinkaid
Lesmond
>Joseph Nebus says...
>>
>> m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) writes:
>>
>> >(Newfoundland switched in 1947, before joining Canada.)
>>
>> I didn't realize one annexed into nations from the right-hand lane.
>
>No, you should pass the Duchy on the left-hand side.
I love that song.
QueBarbara
One study suggests that roundabouts are safer than regular
intersections.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446639/
OBJECTIVES: This study estimated potential reductions in motor vehicle
crashes and injuries associated with the use of roundabouts as an
alternative to signal and stop sign control at intersections in the
United States. METHODS: An empiric Bayes procedure was used to
estimate changes in motor vehicle crashes following conversion of 24
intersections from stop sign and traffic signal control to modern
roundabouts. RESULTS: There were highly significant reductions of 38%
for all crash severities combined and of 76% for all injury crashes.
Reductions in the numbers of fatal and incapacitating injury crashes
were estimated at about 90%. CONCLUSIONS: Results are consistent with
numerous international studies and suggest that roundabout
installation should be strongly promoted as an effective safety
treatment.
--
QueBarbara
Mark Steese
news:MPG.255a27c0b...@news.enta.net:
> Reunite Gondwanaland (Mary Shafer) says...
>>
>> On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 01:17:20 -0000, Peter Ward <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>> > Don't forget Slough [of despond].
>> >
>> > Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
>> > It isn't fit for humans now,
>>
>> We used to stay in the Slough Holiday Inn, as it was convenient to
>> Heathrow and wheelchair accessible. I'd read the poem long before
>> our first stay, but we didn't get far enough from the hotel to really
>> find out anything about the town. We were too beset by jet lag to
>> really care.
>>
>> Mary "He wrote an apology to Slough eventually."
>
> He did no such thing.
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article640396.ece
>
> His daughter apologised on his behalf, even though the man was dead
> and gone, and claimed that JB regretted writing it. Said regret
> wasn't evident during his lifetime, as far as I'm aware.
It doesn't seem like the sort of thing he would have regretted, really.
--
Mark Steese
=======================================================================
PS: Your second question, you thought I forgot? I didn't. I never found
the banana slug. - William Least Heat-Moon
Les Albert
>Les Albert says...
>> On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0500, N Jill Marsh <njm...@storm.ca>
>> wrote:
>> >On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:46:33 -0500 (EST), "Lesmond"
>> ><les...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> >>I like traffic circles and think they work very well. But I'll bet that if I
>> >>was in England I'd screw up with having to do it backwards.
>> >It's not as hard as you might think, because you're on the other side
>> >of the car, so staying on the other side of the road is actually
>> >pretty intuitive. I can't imagine that managing a right hand drive
>> >system in a left hand drive car (or vice verse) is very easy, though.
>> > ...
>> It took me only one day of driving a rental car from Bath to Morton to
>> get used to driving on the other side of the road. After a week of
>> driving around the Cotswolds, and the traffic in Bath, it became so
>> effortless that I thought I might have trouble with U.S. driving when
>> I returned. But as soon as I got back into my car in the U.S. there
>> was no difficulty, and all of the British road rules were gone from my
>> mind; it was as if they were learned and stored in some RAM memory of
>> the brain, and they were immediately erased.
>Funny that, I often think that all the British road rules are gone from
>the minds of most of our resident drivers.
Interesting that you should say that. My impression of driving on the
highways and through the traffic circles was that it all seemed to
work so well because the British drivers followed the rules. Maybe
it's a different driving experience in the larger cities, and Bath was
so jammed with traffic and tour buses that it was difficult for anyone
to move fast enough to make driving errors.
Les
John Mc.
> On Nov 2, 4:15 pm, Howard Hold Horry Heel
> <howardholdhorryh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote innews:7l99vpF...@mid.individual.net:
>>
>>
>>
>>> John Hatpin wrote:
>>>> Howard Hold Horry Heel wrote:
>>>>> what makes Swindon funny, and why? What is the essence of the
>>>>> place, what is its atmosphere, its driving identity, that makes it
>>>>> what it is?
>>>> There's nothing particular I'm aware of other than the drabness and
>>>> banality of the place - there are other cities just as famously dull,
>>>> including Scunthorpe[1], Wolverhampton, Luton[2], St Helens[3] and
>>>> Hull.
>>> And other places like Basingstoke, Surbiton and Bognor.
>>> They're not funny in themselves, but they are reputed to be dull,
>>> lacking in history, lacking in excitement or cultural nourishment and
>>> with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
>>> I say 'reputed' but I've spent time in most of those places and they
>>> *are* dull.
>> So Swindon is sort of the equivalent of Shaumburg, Illinois?
>>
>
> Throw in a little Aurora, I think, for Swindon.
What about Berwyn?
John Mc.
--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
- boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." - Gene
Spafford,1992
Peter Ward
Well, maybe "all" was poetic (or some kind of) license.
--
Peter, from outside the asylum
I'm an alien
email: usenet at peterward dot adsl24 dot co dot uk
http://blowinsmoke.wordpress.com/
Here am I, brain the size of a planet, and I spend my time posting to
Usenet!
Opus the Penguin
He thinks you are being rude by not using your real name.
--
Opus the Penguin
The best darn penguin in all of Usenet
Les Albert
Too philosophical for me. I was just commenting on the good driving
that I experienced.
Les
Bill Turlock
KF 'im
Chris
news:jm01f5l44kocs6ctu...@4ax.com...
And he's also "outing" you in his signature in case you didn't notice.
Mark Brader | (Hatpin's Razor:) "Never attribute to stupidity
Toronto | that which can be adequately explained
m...@vex.net | by marketing" --John <Your Name>
Opus the Penguin
> David Friedman wrote:
>> "John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>>> Opus the Penguin wrote:
>>>> John Hatpin (RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com) wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The canonical joke is "I spent a week in Slough one night."
>>> Not to mention "I spent a fortnight in Slough one weekend.
>>> And
>>> "The first prize in the Rotary Club draw was a week in Slough.
>>> The second prize was two weeks in Slough."
>>
>> In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
>>
> When we lived in New Orleans, these were Raceland jokes.
>
In California, I think the honor goes to Fresno.
John Hatpin
I'd not noticed - thanks. I can't be bothered to explain to the
wanker *again* why it's wanky to do this, so my "records" have been
"amended" and he gets one less reader.
Mac
wrote:
Why ? Is he some kind of rapist?
HVS
> John:
>> So now you're not only changing my name in quotes,
>
> Yes. That's a joke about the instability of your name.
It's not instable at all: he's used that pseudonym for some time
now. Grow up.
-snip-
>> you're putting my changed "name" on your own text?
>
> Apologies; I botched the edit intended to keep the names together
> with the quoted text.
Bollocks. You're intent on forcing your prohibition on the use of
pseudonyms on others. And that's about as lame as you can get, Mark.
--
Harvey, sans cheers, who considers Mark Brader to be, well, let's say
"a bit of a fucking wanker" for doing that.
Mark Brader
> > > BC used to have driving on the left in some parts, and on the right in
> > > others. Of course, the ferries did often act as separators.
> >
> > Cite, please? �What I've read is that traffic drove on the left in
> > 4 out of 9 Canadian provinces -- B.C. and the Maritimes -- until the
> > early 1920s when they all switched to the right.
> These are less than AFUnian, but:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic#Canada ...
> http://www.authorsden.com/categories/story_top.asp?catid=17&id=18036 ...
> http://www.powerpioneers.com/BC_Hydro_History/1860-1929/chronology.aspx/
It appears, then, that you're only talking about a transitional period,
different parts of the province switching at different dates in 1920-21.
That makes a certain sense given the geography of the province.
> Next time I'm up there, I'll get some higher-koalatea cites.
That would be nice, thanks.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and
m...@vex.net | look at it for hours." -- Jerome K. Jerome
My text in this article is in the public domain.
Dover Beach
news:Xns9CB9EC2A...@news.albasani.net:
> On 03 Nov 2009, Mark Brader wrote
>>
>> Apologies; I botched the edit intended to keep the names together
>> with the quoted text.
>
> Bollocks. You're intent on forcing your prohibition on the use of
> pseudonyms on others. And that's about as lame as you can get, Mark.
>
What Harvey said. It's childish and control-freakish and obnoxious.
Don't like pseudonyms? Mark Twain says "fuck you".
--
Dover (and so do I)
Mark Brader
> > Yes. That's a joke about the instability of your name.
Harvey Van Sickle:
> It's not instable at all: he's used that pseudonym for some time
> now.
I started doing it when he started changing it. Who knew it was going
to stick?
> Bollocks. You're intent on forcing your prohibition on the use of
> pseudonyms on others. And that's about as lame as you can get, Mark.
I'm sorry you feel that way.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "C takes the point of view that the programmer
m...@vex.net | is always right" -- Michael DeCorte
HVS
> Mark Brader:
>>> Yes. That's a joke about the instability of your name.
>
> Harvey Van Sickle:
>> It's not instable at all: he's used that pseudonym for some
>> time now.
>
> I started doing it when he started changing it. Who knew it was
> going to stick?
And now that it's stuck you're still referring to its "instability",
and still insisting on revealing his real name in your sig.
Check your calendar: time seems to have passed you by.
John Dean
Indeed. BTW, I saw the thread about bears who had gone bald and I was
thinking - I've seen quite a few penguins but I've never known a bald one.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Mark Brader
>>>> Yes. That's a joke about the instability of your name.
Harvey Van Sickle:
>>> It's not instable at all: he's used that pseudonym for some
>>> time now.
Mark Brader:
>> I started doing it when he started changing it. Who knew it was
>> going to stick?
Harvey Van Sickle:
> And now that it's stuck you're still referring to its "instability",
You're right. I declare that that joke has expired and I will give up
on continuing it. I was getting tired of coming up with new names anyway.
> and still insisting on revealing his real name in your sig.
Mentioning, not revealing. He changed names openly ("I think I'll
start calling myself Hatpin" or words to that effect). If it was
supposed to be a secret, that was a very odd way to go about it.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "A secret proclamation? How unusual!"
m...@vex.net -- Arsenic and Old Lace
Mac
To be a really fast-swimming penguin, you have ditch the feathers. To
really fit the bill, only the bald win.
N Jill Marsh
<opusthepen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>He thinks you are being rude by not using your real name.
That is not the case. I use my real name, and Mark changes it to
something more palatable to his taste that is less accurate to my
reality. It's obnoxious and insensitive behaviour in a poster who
otherwise isn't either of those, I don't get it, but I think his
compulsion to do it lies far beyond any quirky opinions about usenet
nicks.
nj"gots to do, gots to do"m
--
Welcome, stranger, to the humble neighbourhoods.
Veronique
wrote:
> Charles Wm. Dimmick (cdimm...@snet.net) wrote:
>
>
>
> > David Friedman wrote:
> >> In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
>
> > When we lived in New Orleans, these were Raceland jokes.
>
> In California, I think the honor goes to Fresno.
Bakersfield.
V., "Burbank?"
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
Dover Beach
news:d2fb3666-ce37-463c...@u36g2000prn.googlegroups.com:
Milpitas.
--
Dover
Veronique
:::snork!:::
V., you win.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep
huey.c...@gmail.com
> Veronique <veroniq...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Opus the Penguin <opusthepenguin+use...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Charles Wm. Dimmick (cdimm...@snet.net) wrote:
> >> > David Friedman wrote:
> >> >> In the U.S., I think these are usually Philadelphia jokes.
> >> > When we lived in New Orleans, these were Raceland jokes.
> >> In California, I think the honor goes to Fresno.
> > Bakersfield.
> > V., "Burbank?"
> Milpitas.
...and kooOOOOOOOOOOOOK-
--
Huey " ...AMUNGA!" Callison
Opus the Penguin
> On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:09:36 GMT, Opus the Penguin
> <opusthepen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>He thinks you are being rude by not using your real name.
>
> That is not the case.
Yes it is.
> I use my real name, and Mark changes it to
> something more palatable to his taste that is less accurate to my
> reality.
That is also true.
> It's obnoxious and insensitive behaviour in a poster who
> otherwise isn't either of those, I don't get it, but I think his
> compulsion to do it lies far beyond any quirky opinions about
> usenet nicks.
>
I agree it's beyond quirky.