Domdaniel: All is this lollery is catching. Gotta watch myself here.Jess, I think I owe you one. An emu, of course. Which I'll get around to as soon as I have the courage to check my gmail. Could be a while.
<Howard> Lost in the mists of time. I can't even give you any keywords, as I was locked in here and made to delete them. Ages ago, Jess and I 'accidentally' found out that the harmless town of Bilbo, Newfoundland -- spell it with two dees, not bees - was on CG's list of naughty banned words.
So naturally we carried out careful scientific experiments to see what other words were on it. Telebilbonics and the like.
It never ceases to fascinate me that you're allowed to use bloody words which are pretty bollocking strong on this side of the Atlantic, but either unknown or harmless in the US. While words that wouldn't register here have shock value in Amurrikay.
All our childish high spirits, sadly, came to an end. The forum was locked down while I tried to work out which posts were naughty. Jessica's "margaret cnutting thatcher hahhhahah" was one of the easy ones. And Mr Freeman patiently explained to me that, to function commercially, websites need a family-friendly certficate -- reminds me of Superman and the old Comics Code, not to mention movie censors and the League of Decency, but there you go.
I have history with those Legion of Delicacy types. I once read that a leading light of some Catholic Censorship group had a heart attack watching 'filth' on TV (he forced himself to watch it). So I wrote it up in my little 'zine, making the attack a fatal one, and saying "His last words, enigmatic as ever, were 'Aaaaargh!'..."
And then he died for real the day the zine came out. My first victim.
The Frogspawn habit of saying unspeakable things in impenetrable code may have grown out of this incident. More likely I've always been this way but get more twisted with age ...
Uh, where was I? So CG needs to function in the money world, and I understand that. Which is why I don't break *all* of the rules *every* day, and just sometimes can't help myself when Der Laffmeister (Gawd, he's so *cute*) publishes one of his inimitable Paeans to Self (in neck).
<I have noticed (I had an e-mail from a young fan with a doctorate in astrology (and golf course design!!)) that the SKY is BLUE (with clouds) ... I was NOT aware of this ... when I was a young COP the sky was NOT blue, it had NO COLOR ... Color was brung into this by LIBERAL pants-wetters who'd be happy to see AMERICAN SKIES TURN YELLOW!!!>
Er, I sorta made that one up? But it's NO exaggeration!!
Also, I understood that beneath all the verbiage (mine) and biting (mostly his) ... well, maybe it's a Blackadder thing like he sez, but <Nemesis> and I seem to have a similar sense of humour.
The only unforgivable sin is to be bone stupid, and Mark isn't. So there.
And I think our joint scientific research into cultural taboos on chess websites helped to set Jess (an actual *genius*, IMPNESO) on the road to being the world-famous historian she is today (and yesterday, and tomorrow, and to Moro, and to Tal...) and turned Frogspawn into a haven for LENDLs.
Nuff said. For now. Far too much, ackshly ... but, to borrow the last words of Ned Kelly (after they used a can opener to get his armour off and strung a noose around his neck) ... "Such is life".
PS. I have seen adult Australians fall down on the floor laughing on being shown a book with the title 'Irish Roots'. More of that cultural slippage, I guess ...
*eek face*
footnote #1: IMPNESO = In my probably not entirely sane opinion
footnote #2: LENDL = Low Expectations, No Driver's License
Kibitzing
