Whittle It a Little, It’ll Fit

Odds and sods I look at regularly, just because they amuse me. I hope they do the same for you. Incidentally, I found this page’s title on Greg Ross’s Futility Closet (it’s somewhere on this page) in a mini-article which also includes the delightful sentence in Icelandic: Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabbabara. Ross points out that this, “besides being fun to say, is spelled with only three letters. It means “Barbara, daughter of Ari, brought only rhubarb to Ari the Arab.”

Futility Closet » Memorial

Thursday 4 April 19:20:32 UTC 2024

From The Book of 500 Curious Puzzles, 1859: Following is the epitaph of Ellinor Bachellor, an old pie woman. How should we read it? Bene A. Thin Thed Ustt HEMO. Uld yo
L.D.C. RUSTO! Fnel L.B.
Ach El Lor. Lat. ELY,
Wa. S. shove N. W. How — Ass! kill’d I. N. T. H.
Ear T. Sofp, I, Escu Star. … [Link]

Weird Universe » By 2531 everyone in Japan will be named Sato

Thursday 4 April 11:47:00 UTC 2024

Japanese demographics professor Hiroshi Yoshida has warned that by 2531 everyone in Japan will have the last name 'Sato'.

Why? Because a) Sato is the most common last name in Japan, and b) Japanese law requires that married couples use the same last name. Because Japanese women almost always take their husband's name, this means that the surname 'Sato' is … [Link]

Weird Universe » Follies of the Madmen #591

Thursday 4 April 10:02:00 UTC 2024

It's hard to remember a time when Lambchop could serve as a role model. Certainly the puppet was abetted by Shari Lewis being so gorgeous.

[Link]

Futility Closet » The Stroke

Thursday 4 April 7:19:28 UTC 2024

When John Hollander claimed that English has no rhyme for bilge, George Starbuck imagined advancing on him, calling him a killjoy. “No don’t!” Hollander cried. “I’m not a killj–“ [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons