December, 2009

Top 20 ridiculous place names.

16 Dec

Let’s face it, we live in a screwed up world.  Combine that with the fact that there are roughly 18,000 cities and towns in the US alone and you get one big list of stupid-ass place names.  Here are some of the best.

Bald Knob, Arkansa, US
Big Bone Lick, Kentuck, US
Bitey Bitey, Pitcairne Island
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg [...]

Between ‘97 & ‘99, in an attempt to offend fewer non-christians, Birmingham(UK) City Council promoted the idea of rebranding Christmas as ‘Winterval’.

15 Dec

The intention was to encourage people into the newly-rejuvenated town centre, with secular and interfaith events marking religious and other occasions during the relevant period.  There is even a Facebook campaign still in existence calling for Christmas to be banned
There were also protests in November 2009 when the city of Dundee (UK) promoted its celebrations [...]

Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

14 Dec

In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents’ names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin.
In the Random House novels, Barbie attended Willows High School, while in in the Generation Girl books published by Golden Books in 1999 she attended the fictional Manhattan International High School [...]

At the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve 1914, firing from the German trenches suddenly stopped. A German brass band began playing Christmas carols…

12 Dec

Early, Christmas morning, the German soldiers came out of their trenches, approaching the allied lines, calling “Merry Christmas” (Fröhliche Weihnachten). At first the allied soldiers thought it was a trick, but they soon climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers.
The truce lasted a few days, and the men exchanged presents [...]

In the UK, it is illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas day.

11 Dec

In a law passed in 1664 by Oliver Cromwell no less, mince pies and Christmas pudding were deemed ‘not puritan enough’.  The law was passed as a measure to combat gluttony which is of course, one of the ‘seven deadly sins‘.
In fact, Cromwell was all for banning any kind of celebration at Christmas.  Between 1647 [...]

Shaquille O’Neal has made the all-star selection nine times!

11 Dec

The Shaq was selected for all-star team in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2002!  On top of that he was a member of gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team in Atlanta (1996) and World Championship team in Toronto (1994).
In ‘96 he was selected as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA [...]

More Americans believe in angels than human contribution to global warming

10 Dec

A Pew poll released late last month found that just 36 percent of Americans believe humans are responsible for accelerating global climate change, which scientists say mushroomed after the industrial revolution due to humans’ dependence on carbon-based fuel.
Half of all Americans believe they are protected by guardian angels, one-fifth say they’ve heard God speak to [...]

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