A book called Rude Britain includes a list of the 100 “dirtiest” named places (towns, streets, etc.) in the U.K. Here are the top 30, courtesy of Wikipedia.
1. Cocks, Cornwall
2. Minge Lane, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, England
3. Bell End, Worcestershire, England
4. Twatt, Shetland (note, [...]
Archive for October, 2009
31 Oct
30 outstanding place names in Great Britain
31 Oct
Grief in the (other part of) the primate world
For some reason this is just heartbreaking.
From the November issue of National Geographic magazine.
31 Oct
Some truly funny comments from the wingnut world
Granite Grok, a shitblog maintained by proud right-wing New Hampshirites who aren’t from New Hampshire, is always a reliable source of misinformation, illiteracy, and the various other noisome hallmarks of self-identification with neoconservative politics. They’ve outdone themselves, though, with this post about serial lunatic Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota. Its opening utterances:
She drives the [...]
30 Oct
More evidence that local driving schools have a sense of humor
Today, during a trip to the local supermarket, I saw a taxi-style sign atop a wavering car that read “PALE RIDER” advertising (or admitting) that the vehicle in effect belonged to an outfit called the Pale Rider Driving School. I had visions of Clint Eastwood for a few seconds before I got the joke.
This is [...]
29 Oct
This could get mildly interesting
I’ve never used online dating services and have no honest desire to do so now, but earlier today I impulsively created a profile on one of the more popular ones, just because the sun had risen in the east and I was therefore feeling a bit manic and mischievous. Here is how I described myself:
I’ve [...]
29 Oct
Schwarzenegger’s not-so-secret sentiments
The governor of California recently refused to sign Assembly Bill 1176, sponsored by Rep. Tom Ammiano (D) and dealing with the creation of infrastructure financing districts in San Francisco. Anyone care to guess was the Terminator was really trying to tell Ammiano–with whom the governor who has a well-established hostile relationship–with this?
If you need a [...]
28 Oct
Christians waxing dishonest about new hate-crimes law, as expected
With President Obama having just signed a bill toughening standards relating to certain “hate crimes” into law, the religious right is using the opportunity to boost its dishonesty and hysteria quotients beyond their already stratospheric levels. OneNewsNow.com (who else) is claiming that Christian broadcasters are now at risk for being punished for speaking out against [...]
28 Oct
Weight Watchers donates $1 million to combat world hunger…
…but dammit, they’re still in the weight-loss business and had the temerity to use pounds lost by its members as an incentive in a six-week drive that ended a week and a half ago. As noted here (and turn down the sound unless you really want to listen to Jenny McCarthy prate on), for every [...]
28 Oct
“Clearly, outright denial of Satan and demons is not the answer”
Sure it is, if your faculties are intact. And of course it isn’t, if you’re a wacknut like those behind the creationist site Answers in Genesis, who have provided an early Hallowe’en trick and treat with their earnest essay explaining the “evidence” for the existence of demons.
The essay is as long-winded as it is loopy, [...]
28 Oct
Nutjobs love the “war on Christmas”
Despite their stated distaste for the so-called war on Christmas that unfolds every December, Christians of the martryesque persuasion plainly enjoy the battles, as this gives them uncommonly powerful opportunities to engage in the hollow bitching that pervades their entire “faith.”
Today, the American Fuckup Association spat out a press release noting that the 2009 version [...]
27 Oct
The most hysterical anti-gay site in existence?
It’s troubling that some people are obsessed with denying gay people fair treatment to the point at which they seem to be afflicted with a genuine mental disorder that allows them to focus on little else. However, once this fixation reaches a certain level, it’s hard to do anything but laugh at these types.
A blog-like [...]
27 Oct
From the “way past random” department: interesting tanning salon criticism
This page–found thanks to some of the more haphazard Web browsing I’ve done lately–can’t be nearly as funny as I think it is. But, not to go all Larry the Unamusing Cable Guy on people, it’s still funny.
Someone with the handle “AlottaFagina” is not happy with the way the owner of Sol Tans On The [...]
26 Oct
More lies from Gribbit
Gribbit is among those who have no qualms about writing about science topics despite the limits of having zero education and even less educability. Not for the first time, he is now claiming that Democrats have recently conceived of the term “climate change” in order to create a smokescreen–i.e., “global warming” is not backed by [...]
26 Oct
The AFA is full of shit? Wow, who knew?
The American Fuckup Association is busy today complaining about what it calls a “hate crimes” bill, which would, according to the rocket surgeons who send out the comically inept e-mails I receive from the AFA from time to time, “criminalize thought” and is “simply the first in a line of morally repugnant pro-homosexual bills” in [...]
26 Oct
The saga of Nubble: Lyme disease hits home
I live less than a half-mile from my parents and their recently-turned-nine Golden retriever, Nubble.
When I first moved back to New Hampshire almost a year ago, I, lacking a dog of my own, immediately appointed myself Nubble’s unofficial recreation director. She had never been a runner, with her daily exercise generally consisting of a walk [...]
26 Oct
Wilma turns four
As a New England native, I’ve lived through a number of ice storms, but nothing so terrifying as Hurricane Wilma, which struck Florida four years ago this weekend in the fall of 2005.
I’d already been introduced to Florida’s destructive potential. I first moved to the state, to a town just west of Fort Lauderdale, in [...]
25 Oct
Idiot check (autumn version)
I’ve been successful lately at avoiding online time-wasters, including Facebook, a message board that only gets me in trouble anyway, and this place. But this morning I had to see what the idiot who calls itself Gribbit has been up to. It didn’t take long to determine that his fucktardation has in no way declined [...]
24 Oct
Air Florida 90, 1982
I’ve been doing a lot of flying lately, much of it from New England airports that are–to no one’s surprise, I hope–notoriously plagued by nasty weather in the winter months. I was once grounded at the Manchester-Boston Airport for over 24 hours along with various others. People were of course bitching about the lack of [...]
22 Oct
Accent? Yeah, surah!
In recent weeks, I have traveled to both north Texas and Boulder, Colorado. In each case, I was told I have an accent. (This alleged accent was described in both cases as “sexy”; this is admittedly the driving force behind this post, but the comments may as well have come from straight males as from [...]
21 Oct
What the fuck?
In past weeks I have been a wildly unpredictable asshole. Perhaps more importantly, I have survived at least a dozen aeroplane take-offs and landings, most of them either en route toward or escaping from the calamitous sequential envelopment and alienation of people I like a whole lot. I have not had the worst stretch of [...]
8 Oct
Congratulations, JoAnne Stubbe!
An e-mail this morning from one of my former Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison classmates informed me that JoAnne Stubbe, Novartis Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and who was the first woman to achieve tenure in the biochemistry department at the UW-Madison, received the National Medal of Science from Barack [...]
7 Oct
I don’t care you who are; that, right there, is funny
I can’t stand Larry the Cable Guy, which makes me all the more eager to steal one of his signature shitphrases. My local newspaper, like many smaller-town rags, regularly publishes a log of recent police activity. Ordinarily this kind of contribution offers nothing but a litany of predictable offenses–domestic tumult, drunk driving, etc. But the [...]
6 Oct
ProAudio Review Jumps the Shark
As a long-time pro audio guy, I’ve been reading ProAudio Review for years. They do a good job of keeping me informed of the latest gear and spotting new trends. I received the September issue yesterday with the cover tease “Technically Speaking, Snake Oil Vs. Reality”. This was the topic of Editor Frank Wells’ column [...]
4 Oct
National 24 Hour Championships
The North Coast 24 Hour Run has just completed. The men’s winner is Phil McCarthy with over 151 miles, and Jill Perry takes the women’s with 136 miles.
But I have to give a shout to two members of my running club, John Geesler who came in second with over 138 miles, and Dave Putney, eighth [...]
2 Oct
NRA Push Poll
Last night I received a call from a woman who asked to speak to “Mr. Frlzxr” or some such. Normally, when I’m in this position I simply hang up because I know it’s probably a political call (I’m on the New York State “Do Not Call” registry which limits unsolicited phone calls to non-profits and, [...]
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