This week’s whimsy is brought to you by Samuel L. Jackson narrating a bedtime story. Those of you who follow Boing Boing may have already caught up with this, but it’s irresistible. Language alert: may not be safe for playing out loud in many workplaces.
Sadly we cannot purchase the free audiobook of this from Australia right now (there’s some publishing weirdness, eh?). I hope we can soon. There are rumours (oh please, oh please) that Werner Herzog may also do an audiobook version.
Please share any bits and pieces you have come across recently that have surprised, delighted, intrigued or otherwise positively engaged you.
NB: the weekly whimsy thread is a stoush-free zone
Erm…I can’t top the Samuel L. Jackson whimsy. That is some nuclear-grade whimsy.
I’ll lower the bar with Goats On Stuff.
Ah, that takes me back! Thanks, tigtog.
The goats take me back, too. We had goats and children in Bendigo.
Sounds somewhat frantic, Dave. A household of interruptions!
I read about this in the Guardian but didn’t see the cover picture. It’s awesome! Also, what a great choice to read it!
Teeny weeny dinosaur!
With the Dalai Lama in town, I liked this piece of whimsy.
http://yetanotherbloomingblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/badly-drawn-cautionary-horse-story.html
Yesterday, I discovered that if you attempt to type “Australian Federal election” in MS-Word but instead type “Austrian feudal erection”, the spell checker won’t pick up the mistake.
That’s because they are all perfectly cromulent words!
Paul @9, why would the spell checker pick it up? There’s no spelling error.
Another classic of the genre is public mistakenly written as pubic.
This sounds like a great excuse to post the link to the most excellently whimsical Eggcorn Database, not a single one of which will be picked up by a spellchecker.
And, Sam, there is Ian Lowe’s reference to Alan Moran from the Institute of Public Affairs as “Alan Moron from the Institute of Pubic Affairs”.
In my past life as an amanuensis for the Communist Party of Australia, I would sometimes write covering letters for pre-Congress discussion documents which were meant to draw members’ attention to “the draft resolution from the Blue Mountains Branch on the need to intensify the class struggle” but which instead drew members’ attention to “the daft resolution from the Blue Mountains Branch on the need to intensify the crass struggle”.
Why am I not surprised that there was a Blue Mountains Branch of the CPA? Did they hold their congresses at the Hydro Majestic?
Sam, I’ve read Bolt’s blog… the CPA has branches everywhere! There’s one under your bed right now!
In the old days a lot of left-leaning Labor members used to joke about who among them was also a member of the Combined Pensioners Association.
Sam, there certainly was a Blue Mountains Branch and they were very hard line. They were deeply unhappy, demonstratively so in fact, when the party decided to call it a day in the late 1980s and early 1990s. AFAIK there weren’t any Congresses held at the Hydro Majestic.
Probably not enough of them for the HM. How about at the Paragon?
None there either AFAIK.
BTW, you’ve all seen the latest trailer for the final Harry Potter movie, right?
More the memory of whimsy past than much new whimsy in this movie, methinks. Still, our house is kinda excited.
Ben Pobjie: Trust me I am a professional television viewer
tigtog @ 5, a household of interruptions sounds like the perfect collective noun. Can I steal it?
*gift-wraps phrase for DI(nr)*