Pride before a fall

We're sh** and we're still beating you!

 

- West Ham fan chant taunting Spurs supporters, 4 March 2007

 

[But Tottenham went on to beat West Ham 4-3 with four goals in the 2nd half...]

And you will know them by...

A nice potted history of the origins of band names (see link below) just can't leave out the Dead Kennedys, and I'm relieved to note that this one doesn't. Nor does it fail to mention EMF, the whole Jefferson Airplane name calamity thing, the Scissor Sisters (oo-er) and a whole lot more. One point of correction though: I always thought Was (Not Was) got its name because no-one could pronounce Don Was' surname properly?

- Contra Costa Times, 4 March 2007

Lost in translation

Extract from a book on England's 16th-century colonisation attempts in Virginia:

 

The English had great difficulty in communicating with the Indians: [ship captain Arthur] Barlowe managed to discover that [a] tribal elder was called Granganimeo and was more than a little proud of himself when he learned the name of the surrounding countryside, Wingandacoa.  This was put into all the official paperwork and it was some months before the English realised that this unpronounceable word - which the Indians kept repeating to Barlowe - actually meant 'you've got nice clothes'.

- From 'Big Chief Elizabeth' by Giles Milton, 2000

Number one rule when getting a tattoo

Make sure your tattoo artist isn't dyslexic.  A Chicago man is suing said tattooist for mis-spelling the slogan he wanted emblazoned on his chest for ever and ever.  And because people now think he's a dope.   

 

- Associated Press, 2 March 2007

On great writing

Author Kurt Vonnegut on the key to great writing:

 

Never use semi-colons. What are they good for? What are you supposed to do with them? You're reading along, and then suddenly, there it is. What does it mean? All semi-colons do is suggest you've been to college.

 

- Columbus Free Press, 5 March 2006

 

[Vonnegut was speaking at a college graduation ceremony.  The full article is here]

 

Some dude you've heard of receives irrelevant title that never mattered to begin with

Justin Timberlake Apathetically Crowned King Of Pop

LOS ANGELES—Performer Justin Timberlake, whose hit albums include Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds, was crowned the de facto "King of Pop" Monday by recording-industry executives and millions of fans unable to think of anyone else to bestow the title upon. Music industry observers said Timberlake was virtually the only candidate for the title since wildly popular singers such as Jessica Simpson and Shakira cannot technically be called "king."

- The Onion

[Courtesy of KL]

How much karaoke is too much karaoke?

I think we have an answer to that eternal question. The BBC has reported that a South Korean woman, Kim Seok-ok, recently set an unofficial world record for singing karaoke for 59 hours and 48 minutes, covering nearly 1000 songs during her mammoth ordeal.

The 52-year-old said she did it for her 45-year-old husband who is fighting a brain tumour.

Did her husband have to listen to it? After 1000 songs, perhaps the brain tumour didn't seem like much of a problem.

- BBC News, 15 February 2007

[If she sang the five minutes and 54 seconds of Bohemian Rhapsody non-stop for the entire time, she would have sung it 608 times. That's an awful lot of Bismillahs and Mamma Mias]

One for Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World

This one's a few weeks old, but perhaps the white-coated scientists have yet to solve the strange mystery of how a dead shark ended up outside the visitor centre in Turangi, more than 100km from the sea. Which is where sharks live, in case you'd forgotten.

Taupo District Council Turangi/Tongariro area manager John Campbell yesterday cheekily fingered global warming as the reason for the shark's presence in the town. "With global warming there's high tides and they've found sharks in Lake Taupo," he alleged.

- NZ Herald, 15 February 2007

[Courtesy of Alex R]

Get right back to where we started from

Now that I've semi-settled down in London it's definitely time to start posting to the Very Friday Blog again, surely? For details of what's been going on since my last post, see my travel blog. And as usual, for those who know me, do send any nifty websites or articles you come across to my email address.

Extra points for those who can identify the artiste who sang the above lyrics...

Hiatus

Ahoy all - time for the Very Friday Blog to take a catnap for a while, as I'm moving to London for a year or two and won't have regular internet access at the outset. Regular update emails will start emerging once I'm hooked back up though, I promise! In the interim, there's always the archives to peruse, right?

For news of travels and trevails, keep an eye on my hopefully-not-too-dull travel journal, with the catchy title of Slightly Intrepid.