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

That's a good thought. They do tend to accentuate the negative, or the less sexy bits. Thanks!

I have vague memories about Blackadder and Horrible History sketches about this

not that I am suggest you look Dmitri, they are not reliable, I may well be misremembering

still now I have, Blackadder/horrible Histories and 2legs all jumbled up

I think thinking is so importnat....

, you two.

What??? . This looks like a classic hootoo conversation. .

Well, being from Sussex myself, not that Mister D knew that or anything, , I'd like to say that More Fruit Fowler was in fact a distant relative of mine, named Freddie Fowler.

He worked as a gardener for a ferocious lady who owned apple orchards, but the trees had poor yield. She would walk with him through the orchards, bashing the trees with her stick, saying 'More fruit, Fowler, more fruit, that's what we need', and his friends called him More Fruit Fowler.

One day she bashed a tree and dislodged an unseen apple, which fell on her head and concussed her. More Fruit Fowler stood beside her and sang hearty Sussex ballads to her, until she came round.

And then...

What do mean you don't believe me?

I think we should reinstate the practice of using snappy bits of advice as names. Names are constantly repeated all day, so it's a good way of subliminally reinforcing the message through repetition.

Cross At The Green Man McGill.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Robinson.
Don't Drink Paint Stripper Jenkins.

It's a great idea!

Northern Ireland sounds at least as weird as Sussex. Let not have pots calling kettles black!

You people are impossible.

I think a friend of Elektra's had a sister named something like 'Build More Tractors Chan'. She was born during the Cultural Revolution in China.

So it's a good Socialist plan, KB.

As for More Fruit Fowler, I can just imagine this... I'm sure Nigel had a great-great-great-great-uncle named Count-the-Stars Fuller...

Nothing wrong with a catchy name like Potcalling Kettleblack, if you ask me

The one about the Cultural Revolution rings a bell about the French Revolution. I can remember reading about a few interesting names that came about after that, but details escape me...

A quick google gives this list: http://www.nancy.cc/2011/09/09/revolution-era-names-in-france/

Great list! Revolutions are hard on everybody.

I feel really sorry for the kid who grew up with the name Thermidor. He could never order lobster in a restaurant.

Also, Fructidor is the silliest month name I've ever heard of.

My great-grandfather's first and middle names were Robert Lee. Of course, that tells you more about what side of the Civil War his father and uncles fought on, than about him...

http://tekeli.li/onomastikon/England-Medieval/Surnames.html

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oel/givennames.html


forenames

Bin day is Tuesday Smith. - Went to school with him... Never found out if he changed his name when he moved to a differnt town.... with its associated differnt bin collection day...

I heard they ran him out of town for confusing everybody. There were so many rats among all the uncollected bins, they had to call in the pied piper.

ahhh, thought I heard something to that affect too, on the grapevine.... I've now had to alter my tag-line/nic on here, now, as a consequence of this thread...