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

*sigh*. The description of shovel as idiot stick should, of course, read "A stick with an idiot at one end and a shovel blade at the other". How I could have missed this GLARING mistake when I was writing and submitting this Entry I have no idea.

Editorial staff, please fix this up the next time this Entry is revised. Thanks.

Well, the mistake may remain. But at least it has an attention-grabbing forum discussion at the bottom with a note in it that explains an extraordinarily puzzling bit of the article. It all makes *so* much more sense now...

Here's hoping everyone else who doesn't have any idea what an idiot stick is also pops down to the forum.

hello there,
i just wanted to share that in my school, an "idiot stick" is another term for a major idiot ( makes sense, really ). just thought i'd say something.

Couldn't it have roots in the comic prop used by European Court Jesters of the Middle Ages, which was a short stick with a balloon attached at one end?

They had balloons in the middle ages?

Yep, but not rubber ones. I think they were made of sheep's bladders.
Where's a link to Casanova's contribution to the development of the condom when you need one?

Mmmmm....sheep's bladders.

Woo..that could possibly be the singlemost disturbing posting imaginable...

Dear god, I did actually say that....I assume that I was either really tired or was thinking in some really strange context..but I'm always doing that, so it may not work as an excuse THIS time...

hahaha...no excuses necessary! Tell you what, though, when you're reading a message, do you try to put a voice to it? The first two that came to my mind were Homer Simpson, then Hannibal Lecter ("...with some Fava beans and a nice Chianti, thhth, thhth, thhth").

Occasionally, although I'd never really thought of it that way. I will assure you, however, that I don't sound like Homer simpson OR Hannibal Lector.

Is that good or bad? btw, why the name change? Personally, I never travel without it (a roll of duct tape).

Oh, I change the end tag on my SN every couple weeks. How can you be happy with jsut one name? I'm always Penguin girl though.

Another use for the term Idiot Stick is similar to the phrase Ugly Stick. "That person looks like they got beat with an Ugly Stick" for example. It seems only fitting that if there is an Ugly Stick there should also be an Idiot Stick with a similar function. If this is the case then I think far too many people were abused with the aforementioned Idtiot Stick as children.

What about the other ones, like the genius stick, or the kinda-cute-in-a-way stick or the she'd-be-pretty-if-she-only... stick or the pervert stick, which every teenager is apparently hit with on their 13th birthday(I feel justified in saying this because I am a teenager) or the good-at-sports stick or the looks-like-awild-boar-but-really-has-a -great-personality stick or the...

All interesting sticks to be sure, but "Ugly Stick" is the only one I am familier with.

There is always that mythical stick that finds it's self inserted intp the back end of some people... but now I am getting off the subject.

yeah, let's not go there.

Probably the stick would prefer not to go there either, but it hasn't got much of a choice now has it?

Has anyone else heard a phrase used about someone who looks like they were not only 'hit with the ugly stick', but 'fell out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch on the way down'?
I'm still amused by that phrase...

In the (mostly) computer industry, there is a term LART - a Looser Attitude Readjustment Tool; possibly substitute Looser with L-user, the user being the most likely person to whom the LART would be applied. Does this count as an Idiot Stick?