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

It is a bit wahm in here isn't it. Somebody open a Window.

I'm a little confused TC. Was he a real person or a character in a play/film?

~j~

I new I'd heard of Voight. I've got a book that details many hoaxes like that. I particularly like "Count" Victor Lustig, who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice.

Whoops, failed to read over the page. He was a real person.

Mycroft, you make me wonder whats the use of the rules forbidding a foreign language, as you make english so incomprehensible.

TC, of course you are right. The baton is yours.


From my sources:


Excerpted from Hoaxes by Curtis D. MacDougall, Dover Publications 1958.
Alas, this wonderful book is currently out-of-print.


William Voigt: Captain von Köpenick
One of the oldest, most frequent and most successful devices of the hoaxer is imposture, the acquiring of undeserved prestige by which to make easier the attainment of his ends. Wear the proper clothes, assume the correct "airs," and your awestricken victims will not detect the joke, swindle, or fraud.

As a master of bluff none ever excelled William Voigt, a cobbler remembered by the sobriquet of Captain von Köpenick (after the small suburb of Berlin where, October 16, 1906, he executed his famous coup).

Masquerading in the uniform of a Prussian army captain, Voigt, an ex-convict, placed himself at the head of a detachment of grenadiers, marched to the town hall, arrested the burgomaster, examined the municipal accounts, seized ready cash to the sum of two hundred pounds, commandeered telephone and telegraph services "for state business," and sent the burgomaster in custody to Berlin military headquarters.

When, nine days later, Voigt was arrested and, within six weeks, sentenced to four years' imprisonment, the attention of the entire world was directed to alleged abuses in the German prison system. Either because of the tremendous public opinion which was aroused or, as some say, because of being amused, Kaiser Wilhelm pardoned Voigt by imperial edict despite the impostor's record of twenty-seven years in prison for petty offenses.

Six years later, according to an Associated Press dispatch which appeared in the Atlanta Constitution, German newspapers received notices of Voigt's death. In orthodox fashion they reviewed his life and unwittingly gave valuable publicity to a vaudeville company to which the Captain von Köpenick belonged. In 1932 a motion picture, Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, starring Max Adalbert, was based on Voigt's escapade.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As far as I remember the play, Voigt was living above a cleaner's shop, where the uniform was delivered for guess what? Cleaning.
He tried it for fun, and as the people there saw him change from a bum into an officer, he got the idea.

In fact he just wanted a passport to get out of a catch-22 situation.
For a job, you needed a passport, for a passport, you had to have a job.
Too bad for him the townhall did not have passports...

Thanks Marjin
I had never heard about that one before so the details are welcomed.
It sounds like the real deal.
There is also supposed to be a famous American fraud featured in the film 'The Great Imposter'. Always moving on to new 'cons' and 'scams' he performed brain surgery and did rocket science before he was caught. I always thought most of that was urban myth and hollywood hype.

Well ..I guess we're waiting for TC.

jwf

tum ti tum
^. .^
= ' =

I remember seeing a film once about a girl who worked in a laundry during the French revolution, and got into the palace by putting on a dress that she had washed. Clothes maketh the man.

The film was complicated (I think this was the same one) by a girl who wanted to be a Musketeer and actually pulled that off, too, except that the laundry girl fell in love with her, thinking she was some heroic swordsman.

Really as daft as it sounded, and probably riddled with anachronisms, but I can't remember any details.

Anyway - I suppose I'd better prove myself worthy of holding this baton and pose a question:

Ramadan will soon come to an end. What is the name of the feast which celebrates the breaking of the fast?

If that one is too easy - what about this one: Who can tell me where my Windows CD is?

>>What is the name of the feast which celebrates the breaking of the fast?<<

Breakfast!


~j~

You can tell yourself where the Windows CD is , by remembering where you left it.

You are lucky actually that you have a Windows CD. New computers seem to be supplied with Windows already installed but without any CDs.

Oh, I like jwf's answer...

Yummy!

Is it "Ebe". I'm sorry, I have no idea about the spelling. I'll try to look it up.

Okay, found it. Make that "Eid ul Fitr".

'Idle fritters' you say, eh.
M-m-m-m-m good.
With some fresh grilled pork sausages, baked beans, fried onion and mushrooms with a bit of toast and jam. And a very large OJ.

~jwf~

I suspect anyone who eats pork sausages at the end of Ramadan hasn't been taking it particularly seriously. Try some kahk instead.

dammit, i knew that 1 2
my mates celebrating it, i wanna join in!
our school is daft. our special xmas dinner is 2day, but as some people r still fastin they are having another 1 next tuesday! talk about gettin the best of bother worlds (or rather religions!)

As far as I know, it's called the "sugarfest", with everybody eating lots of very sweet things.
The official name is indeed Eid ul-Fitr

Eid ul-Fitr occurs after the end of the month of Ramadhan. Eid is celebrated after the sighting of the new crescent on the previous evening.
It is expected that the new moon will be visible from North and South America, Africa (esp west coast) and possibly parts of the Middle East on the evening of 26th Dec 2000.
It is expected that the new moon will be visible from the rest of the world on the evening of 27th Dec 2000.

Hence pending actual moon sighting, Eid ul-Fitr should be on 27th Dec 2000 for the Americas and possibly Africa and Middle East and 28th Dec 2000 for the rest of the world.


And your windows cd? Try to borrow one from someone else, and copy it onto your harddisk. Works much faster also.

Erk, my go again. Got to think of a question...

Okay, place this quotation:

"Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving - forever?"

That'd be George Burns in 'Oh God'.


Eating pork sausage I mean.

Oo-oo! Somebody gets to make post #1000.

We shoulda had a prize ready or something.

It would be extremely gauche of me to post ten minutes after my own question just to get the thousandth post, wouldn't it?