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

There are things that are rather fun once, slightly amusing the second time and a total irritant ever after. You know what I mean. Things like television commercials showing Sasquatch with his hand in a pan of warm water or a little piggy going wee wee wee all the way home. Don't get me started on that stupid chicken on the Dirt Cheap commercials they show constantly during the Cardinals games.

Anyway, I will concede that I'm old and cranky, but I have no desire to walk like an Egyptian, talk like a pirate or shimmy like my sister Kate. Neither will I anagram my h2g2 name for Halloween. Been there, got the tee shirt. Just a heads up. I find the entire event a nuisance. Half the time I have no idea who has just posted. I have to go to their PS to find out who they are and how to respond to them. This may be fun to a lot of you, but it just adds to the time necessary to keep up with conversations. It's become a real bore.

Ooh, Hyp, you sound really cranky, but I couldn't agree more, so I guess that makes me old(er) and cranky too more so than usual at the moment.

All but the BBC stations over here, both TV and radio, carry mindless adverts which treat us either as infantile morons or as simple minded s who need to be patronised. The adverts are beyond childish and they drive me crazy, yet my husband has them on as 'wallpaper' as he doesn't appear to like silence. He is not listening so it goes over his head, and through mine!

I have never joined in with the Halloween stuff on h2g2 either, haven't the time or patience So that makes two or us. I wonder how many more feel the same

I didn't recognise any of your adverts but then you probably wouldn't recognise ours either.

I am sure 'infuriating adverts' on YouTube would bring up plenty though.

Switch off from everything that annoys (mentally at least) I shall.

Websailor

Not sure if you can get this, but I think this is the one that really makes me mad. There would be nothing more calculated to make me *not* buy


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcKV1FwAugI

and there are loads more!

Websailor

I know what you mean Hyp. I generally just go with the flow, but I'm not really into Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I only recognised one of the ads, Hypatia. Full disclosure: Elektra and I actually *like* the little piggy one. But then, we watch 'Mad Men' these days, and love to analyse adverts. As a storyboard, I think that one is clever.

The one that tickled me pink was back a few years, when some 25-year-old genius decided it would be funny to advertise a car by having a baby named after the place where it was conceived. That thing got yanked soooo fast... (This is a person who does not realise the buying power of the Moral Majority.)

Hmpf, I assumed this was a warning that 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' was a yawn. I tend to agree - what hath Dave Barry wrought? - though I bothered to look up a talk-like-a-pirate servmon on the web, just in case everybody got started. It was on John Newton, and not too bad, just written in faux olde-speak.

It never occurred to me that the Halloween business could be annoying. This might merit discussion - otherwise, I'll just be sure to post my real username in anything I send you, because I will be participating, as usual, if we're doing it.

A suggestion, though - if you think the hoary custom is past its sell-by date, could you write us up 500 words or so on the subject, and we could put it in in advance of the holiday? This might have an effect, coming from you.

Perhaps you could suggest a less irritating, but light-hearted way, to mark the season?

OOoh! Dmitri has set you a challenge, Hyp!

That's why I generally just slightly change my name, like today (Ma-aargh-witch) or add a tag. If I change my name considerably I'll always end my posts with:

Mags.

I can be as grumpy as the next buggar, but I like to join in with the 'fun'

I like the Halloween anagrams, but can't relate to pirate talk.

However, Project Gutenberg presented a nice 'pirate' page today:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10705508@N05/5004841920/

That's much cleverer than the 'Arrghh me heartie' you get here on hootoo.

Heck, with the challenges presented by the name limits (my normal name is now too long, and of course I can't have my punctuation), Halloween anagramming may die off by itself. I enjoy it, personally--if I can't figure out who said something, I don't usually don't bother to check. Then again, I do just slip into the costume I found when I first started, because it's just so apt

I'll just listen to a bit of Jimmy Buffet later, but the -talk would really have been out of place at the service commemorating the 70th anniversary of The Battle of Britain. Especially while carrying one of our flags ...

Do you have a masonic flag, then?

How did it go, with the Battle of Britain ceremony? I hope you had good weather.

The thing that makes me twitchy about 'Talk Like A Pirate Day' is that given that pirates came from all over the world, and from all walks of life, and that the 'ARRR me hearties' is usually an incredibly poor weewee-take of the Cornish accent, saying 'Arrrr' is pretty much NOT talking like most pirates. So I shall talk like the Home Counties posho I am and be at least twice as piratey as everyone else bothering with it. Ha ha.

Bob, I'm such a pedant.

Oh, is THAT where that accent comes from? I've always wondered.

So, er, it's really "Talk Like a Pirate from Penzance Day"?

I'm with you there, Ag. I wonder why people think that just one silly sentence makes them sound like a pirate. Yet you'll find this sentence (I won't bother to quote it again) in every second post here on hootoo.

Last week, I carried the RCAF Ensign, today was the Province of Ontario. They do reserve the lead and the Maple Leaf for the more dignified folks. Not the scarey ones like this dude ... http://revnick.fotki.com/just-stuff-/afac-winter.html

Air Force Association of Canada (previously the Royal Canadian Air Force Association), so no Masons in their duds, no secret hand-shakes ... Dang

Everybody needs a secret handshake.

But that is one seriously cool tie.

Ahem. If you have Avast! antivirus software, you can switch to...

Pirate talk.

Now my headings say 'Scour the ship', 'Gunnery and shields', and 'Swabbing the deck'. Of course, when it pops up and tells me that it's updated (Bel's does it in an annoying Bavarian accent), it will do so in 'aargh' mode.

I forgive them for this foolishmess. Their name is already in Pirate Talk. (And if they hadn't told me, I wouldn't have realised that I, too could get the Bavarian accent.)

I have the new version now. No Bavarian accent, and a female voice. No idea how to switch it to pirate talk, though.

Go to Settings, Language, and choose one. (If you don't have Pirate Talk, it only takes a minute to download.)

I'm sorry, Hypatia. I'm abetting this.