h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Murphy's law is quite common in Ireland in gift shops, where it gets put on teatowels. I know this because my grandmother lives in Ireland, and our family visits quite often. The murphies law teatowels are not quite as common as leprecauns, but most gift shops seem to have the teatowels. There are a number of different murphy's laws but here are a few:

The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train
A short cut is the longest distance between two points
To get a loan you need to prove you don't need one
The chance of a piece of toast landing butter side down is proportional to the value of the carpet.
The train is only late if you are early, only early if you are on time, and only on time if you are late.

=) Being Irish myself, I probably shouldn't admit to it, but I happen to own one of those teatowels =)
Actually, I have a good excuse =) I was busking at the Cliffs of Moher, playing the fiddle, and some sweet American child gave me her mother's wallet... not sure what to do, I told the child to wait at a nearby picnic bench, and returned the wallet, when the mother came to get the girl. The woman seemed suprised at my honesty, we got talking about different American and Irish values, stereotypical and actual, and it ended up with her giving me the teatowel, tho I don't recall why =) Anyway, if you want all the different examples of Murphy's Law, I can give you them...? Email me, at [email protected]
*N*

But Murphy was American... Go figure, as he might have said.

Okay, so maybe he was Irish-American.

(Aside: Anyone know of a British English equivalent to 'go figure'?)

I know of a Scottish equivalent, made famous (at least in Scotland) by the comedy programme "Chewin' the Fat". It consists of sticking your tongue behind your bottom lip and saying "Duh!".

What? 'Duh' and 'go figure' are totally different! The former means "what a stupidly obvious statement", whereas the latter means, roughly, "what an amusing contradiction of expectations".

Well what about "You don't say!" or "That's a turn up for the books"

Hmmm... close, but no cigar.

Zark it, I used another Americanism! And I don't even smoke!