servermonkey: (Worried Dino)
servermonkey ([personal profile] servermonkey) wrote2005-07-20 02:30 pm
Entry tags:

Well DUH! calendar round up

Today's entry

Dumbing Down the Arts

A frustrated writer came up with novel scheme to test the intelligence of book publishers. He retyped into manuscript form The Painted Bird, Jerzy Kosinski's award-winning novel, and submitted it, under his own name, to a dozen big publishers. They all rejected the manuscript as not being worthy of publication, including the house that had actually published Kosinski's book.

From Tuesday

Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Too Smart to Ask

Why do the idiots always rise to the top?

They're handpicked by the top brass, who don't want someone smart coming in and making them look bad by comparison.

From Monday

International Idiocy

The world's first parking tickets were given out in Nineveh (now Iraq) over 2,000 years ago to people who parked their chariots on the king's road. The fine? Death by impalement.

From Sunday

Dumb Moments in the Lives of Famous People

Not all presidents need scientific advisers. Ronald Reagan, for example, found it more efficient to invent his own science. Here's Reagan on the campaign trail dismissing the dangers of atomic energy: "All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk." That would have been one amazing desk, big enough to cover up the 25 tons of nuclear wasted produced each year by an atomic power plant.

From Saturday

People with Unique Vision

Lady Lewson, a wealthy eighteenth-century English woman, refused to bathe, ever, thinking immersion led to illness. Instead, to preserve herself she coated her body daily with hog's lard. She lived ninety years that way.

[identity profile] apocalypse-0.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
This would have been a lot better if you hadn't screwed up the HTML formatting... :D

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Sonuva. . .!

See, now I'm resorting to screwing up HTML to get people to read me. :)

[identity profile] paperpath.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Lady Lewson would have reeked so badly that no one could come close enough to her to give her their germs; that's why she lived to ninety, I'm sure of it. ;-)

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Nitch and I in the office shuddered at the thought of what she must have smelled like.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Nineveh (a city) was also the capital of Assyria. So go tell THAT to the Old Man From Scene 27.

It was of course also the place Jonah was sent, refused to go and ended up inside a whale to be taught a lesson. = )

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I can faintly hear, "We are the pirates who don't do anything" in the back of my mind.

I am scared.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Heeh. I just saw that thing with Melody. Fun little bunch of vegetables aren't they?

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, definitely. It was a shame that movie pretty much destroyed the Big Idea company.

[identity profile] xforge.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
You're kidding! The Veggie Tales are no more? I was wondering why I hadn't heard much more from them. That's a bummah, my gf and her daughter were LOVING that there was something fun for kids that taught Biblical stuff, and I just found them really entertaining.

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-22 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, it's a sad, sad story (http://www.philvischer.com/bigidea_archives/Killed_BigIdea1.htm).

I wasn't aware of it myself until a few months ago or so.

[identity profile] mineral777.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
I love the story about the novel that is too funny.

[identity profile] servermonkey.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, you got something against hog lard? :)