Rover_Wow
09-15-2005, 01:05 AM
From weird British names to an Alcatraz-swimming dog to Massachusetts Wing Chun, this post has it all! Comments when I have them.
What’s in a name? Ask Philadelphia Bunnyface
Cornwall County records yield monikers from Truth Bullock to Gentle Fudge
Updated: 6:00 p.m. ET Sept. 12, 2005
LONDON (AP) - Horatio Hornblower is an odd name, but consider his siblings: Azubia, Constantia, Jecoliah, Jedidah, Jerusha and Erastus.
Rene Jackaman, archive assistant at Cornwall County Record Office, found all those names after coming across a real-life namesake of C.S. Forester’s fictional naval hero in county census records. The Hornblower name has been on record for centuries.
Inspired by that discovery, staff and researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names found in censuses as well as in births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century.
“My all-time favorites are Abraham Thunderwolff and Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane,” she said.
Other discoveries included Boadicea Basher, Philadelphia Bunnyface, Faithful Cock, Susan Booze, Elizabeth Disco, Edward Evil, Fozzitt Bonds, Truth Bullock, Charity Chilly, Gentle Fudge, Obedience Ginger and Offspring Gurney.
Levi Jeans was married in Padstow, Cornwall, in 1797.
Other remarkable duos in the marriage records included Nicholas Bone and Priscilla Skin, joined in wedlock in 1636; Charles Swine and Jane Ham in 1711; John Mutton and Ann Veale in 1791, and Richard Dinner and Mary Cook in 1802.
Gambling on Miss America? Fine. Gambling on Miss Italy? Not so.
Place a bet on Miss Italy ... just don't tell her
Contestants say legal betting scheme sees them treated like 'racehorses'
ROME (Reuters) - A loosening of government gaming rules means that Italians will be able to bet legally on the Miss Italy contest for the first time, upsetting contestants.
“We’re people, not objects or, worse, animals,” complained Anna Prete, the “Miss Calabria” from the southern region of the same name and one of the many finalists unhappy with the government-sponsored scheme.
“Betting on Miss Italy is really bad,” she told Rome daily Il Messaggero ahead of Thursday’s final of the beauty pageant.
This next story reminds me of an ep of Wild and Crazy Kids (anyone remember that Nick show?) where they had a bunch of dogs swimming in a pool, and only one of them finished. I believe that dog was a golden too.
Dog beats most in swim from Alcatraz
Golden retriever 'Jake' first non-human in annual competition
Updated: 1:38 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - One of the swimmers in this weekend’s Alcatraz Invitational swim has dog paddled his way into the record book.
Jake is a 65-pound golden retriever and the only non-human in the tenth annual 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shore. The four-year-old pooch swam across the cold, choppy water in just under 42 minutes, finishing 72nd out of the more than 500 swimmers. Organizers say it was the first known crossing by a dog.
The crowd cheered as Jake made his way onto solid ground, shook himself and dodged a woman who tried to put a medal around his neck.
Jake’s owner, Jeff Pokonosky, says the two swim four miles a week and bodysurf together. His training secret? Jake always gets scrambled eggs before a big swim.
Folks, this is why they call 'em "cat burglars"...
Real-life cat burglar trashes German apartment
Feline broke in and destroyed furniture, ate fish in aquarium, police say
Updated: 2:16 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2005
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police called to a break-in at an apartment in the northern town of Itzstedt found the intruder still on the premises and hiding under a kitchen cabinet.
The “cat burglar” had somehow crawled into the ground-floor of the apartment, broken window blinds, torn down drapes and trashed furniture.
Police also found fish and fish remains from a broken aquarium scattered around the apartment, said Julika Reinhardt, spokesman for the police in the town north of Hamburg.
Two officers finally found the offender, a cat, hiding under a kitchen cabinet but the heavyweight male resisted arrest, biting one officer on the thumb before they both managed to overpower it.
Reinhardt said the cat, wearing a name tag, was returned to its owner who would have to pay for the damage.
“No one knows how the cat broke in,” she said. “But the damage was considerable.”
Apparently, exorcism is a real thing, according to the Pope.
Pssst...Where the devil is the exorcist meeting?
Pope greets convention members, urges them to continue good work
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Orthodontists have national conventions, as do lawyers and computer salespeople. So why not exorcists?
At the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday Pope Benedict greeted Italian exorcists who, he disclosed, are currently holding their national convention.
The pope encouraged them to “carry on their important work in the service of the Church.”
Problem was that until the pope spoke few people outside the inner circle knew that a convention of Beelzebub-busters was going on, presumably in Rome.
And where were they holding it? In a church, a hotel, a graveyard?
“They try to keep these things quiet,” said a Catholic professor who has dealings with exorcists.
The devil is still at work
The Roman Catholic Church has shown growing interest in exorcism in Italy.
In 1999, the Vatican issued its first updated ritual for exorcism since 1614 and warned that the devil is still at work.
The official Roman Catholic exorcism starts with prayers, a blessing and sprinkling of holy water, the laying on of hands on the possessed, and the making of the sign of the cross.
It ends with an “imperative formula” in which the devil is ordered to leave the possessed.
The formula begins: “I order you, Satan...” It goes on to denounce Satan as “prince of the world” and “enemy of human salvation.” It ends: “Go back, Satan.”
Course on exorcism
A Vatican university announced last Thursday that for the second year running it will hold a course on exorcism and Satanism for Roman Catholic priests.
The course starts next month at the Regina Apostolorum, one of Rome’s most prestigious pontifical universities, and this year participants can take it not only in person at the Rome campus but via videoconference from other Italian cities.
This, a university statement said, was because of great interest after last year’s course, which was attended by nearly 130 people.
The four-month course, which begins in October, is what the university calls inter-disciplinary. It includes medical, psychological and religious aspects of Satanism and exorcism.
Italian youth attracted to Satanic cults
According to some estimates, as many as 5,000 people are thought to be members of Satanic cults in Italy with 17-to 25-year-olds making up three quarters of them.
Interest in the devil and the occult has been boosted by films such as “The Exorcist” in 1973 and last year’s “Exorcist: The Beginning."
Last year, Italy was gripped by the story of two teenage members of a heavy metal rock band called the “Beasts of Satan” who were killed by other band members in a human sacrifice.
The deaths horrified Catholic Italy, with pages of newspapers given over to descriptions of the black candles and goats’ skulls decorating one victim’s bedroom and witness statements of sexual violence.
An Indian girl weds her lover’s brother. Straight out of a soap, maybe (or more appropriately Bollywood flick), but the girl's got a reason.
Indian girl weds lover’s brother to beat the law
Move allows 19-year-old to live in same house as boyfriend until he is 21
Updated: 3:23 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2005
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - An Indian college girl has temporarily married her teenaged boyfriend’s elder brother so she can live in the same house as her lover until he is old enough to marry her, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
Sneha Patel, 19, a resident of the western Indian state of Gujarat, was in love with Yash Kishan Parmar, also 19, and wanted to marry him despite her parents’ opposition to the match, the newspaper said.
But the legal age for marriage in India -- 18 for girls and 21 for boys -- put a spoke in their plans. Live-in relationships are not very popular in the tradition-bound country.
Patel and Parmar eloped briefly but, not wanting to be on the run until Parmar was 21, Patel proposed that she would marry his elder brother and divorce him two years later.
The elder brother even agreed to sign a contract saying he would divorce Patel after two years and treat her as his younger brother’s wife until then, the newspaper said.
This next story is straight out of The Bachelor. Not the reality show sweeping the nation, but that subpar Chris O'Donnell flick (what's he been up to lately, BTW?)
Bachelor’s billboard a sign of desperation?
Utah man’s friends use roadside ad to find him a date
Updated: 10:26 p.m. ET July 24, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Friends say Lance Archibald is a tall, handsome former college basketball player and graduate of Harvard business school.
He’s also still single at 31, and so they’re hoping to speed things up with a billboard and Web site.
“I’m Lance, Let’s go out!” reads the billboard on an interstate near Lindon, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
“It kind of came out of discussions we had, that Lance is such a good guy but not married,” said Morgan Lynch, CEO of LogoWorks, where Archibald is the director of marketing. “Someone threw out the idea of getting a billboard.”
So why the concern over Archibald’s marital status? As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members typically marry in their early 20s, the 31-year-Archibald is approaching the male-equivalent of an “old maid.”
Friends say they’re not sure what the Brigham Young University graduate and former Mormon missionary is looking for but tease “it’s taking a little longer than usual for a guy with these credentials.”
“Team DateLance,” the cadre of friends and co-workers behind the scheme, are screening date applications. The site asks interested women to describe themselves, including age, occupation and personality, and to describe their ideal date with Archibald.
So far, the Web site has received more than 1,500 hits, with several women vying for a date.
“We’re still taking submissions,” Bates said. “As much as we thought it’d be funny, we’re serious about this.”
Archibald is taking the attention in stride, although he says he’s spent a good amount of time explaining to others what his friends have done. And he says he’s not bothered by singlehood.
“I’m not overly concerned about (marriage). I’m pretty happy right now,” Archibald said. “I’d like to get married, but it’s not a concern.”
And to conclude this post, some short news.
Man survives snooze under moving train
Drunken sleeper apparently OK after incident in Russia
Updated: 6:23 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Even a goods train rumbling over a Russian man’s head failed to spoil his peaceful slumber between the tracks, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
The train driver saw somebody on the line and braked sharply. Rescuers tried to pull the drunken sleeper from underneath the carriages, but failed, and the train had to carry on driving to free him.
“The young man lying between the rails did not wake up ... which apparently saved his life,” said railway policeman Vladimir Slaby.
Must have been really plastered eh? ;)
Kung Fu Comes to Paper City
By 22News
WWLP-TV
HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - There's a new business in Holyoke and, it's putting some kick into the city! It's called the Massachusetts Wing Chun Kung Fu Council. The 5,400 square foot space features group classes, private lessons and both adult and children's classes in kung fu.Classes also include instruction in self-defense, physical fitness, weight control, and self-discipline. So why did the nationwide organization choose Holyoke for its Massachusetts headquarters. "I chose Holyoke because I think it's a great place to live. I live and work here. I wanted to put Holyoke on the map by putting the Massachusetts headquarters here and have different personalities from around the world," said Juan E. Fernandez, Instructor, Wing Chun Kung Fu Council. One of those personalities is Master Ron Heimberger. He was on hand at Tuesday's grand opening. Heimberger is 1 of 3 masters in the United States who is fully certified in kung fu. He is recognized in national and international circles as an expert in Wing Chun.
Why do they call Holyoke "Paper City" anyway? And don't you think that kung fu is a bit dangerous in a paper city? ;)
And that's the way it was, around the world. (BTW, the date in the title is in case I do this regularly.)
What’s in a name? Ask Philadelphia Bunnyface
Cornwall County records yield monikers from Truth Bullock to Gentle Fudge
Updated: 6:00 p.m. ET Sept. 12, 2005
LONDON (AP) - Horatio Hornblower is an odd name, but consider his siblings: Azubia, Constantia, Jecoliah, Jedidah, Jerusha and Erastus.
Rene Jackaman, archive assistant at Cornwall County Record Office, found all those names after coming across a real-life namesake of C.S. Forester’s fictional naval hero in county census records. The Hornblower name has been on record for centuries.
Inspired by that discovery, staff and researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names found in censuses as well as in births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century.
“My all-time favorites are Abraham Thunderwolff and Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane,” she said.
Other discoveries included Boadicea Basher, Philadelphia Bunnyface, Faithful Cock, Susan Booze, Elizabeth Disco, Edward Evil, Fozzitt Bonds, Truth Bullock, Charity Chilly, Gentle Fudge, Obedience Ginger and Offspring Gurney.
Levi Jeans was married in Padstow, Cornwall, in 1797.
Other remarkable duos in the marriage records included Nicholas Bone and Priscilla Skin, joined in wedlock in 1636; Charles Swine and Jane Ham in 1711; John Mutton and Ann Veale in 1791, and Richard Dinner and Mary Cook in 1802.
Gambling on Miss America? Fine. Gambling on Miss Italy? Not so.
Place a bet on Miss Italy ... just don't tell her
Contestants say legal betting scheme sees them treated like 'racehorses'
ROME (Reuters) - A loosening of government gaming rules means that Italians will be able to bet legally on the Miss Italy contest for the first time, upsetting contestants.
“We’re people, not objects or, worse, animals,” complained Anna Prete, the “Miss Calabria” from the southern region of the same name and one of the many finalists unhappy with the government-sponsored scheme.
“Betting on Miss Italy is really bad,” she told Rome daily Il Messaggero ahead of Thursday’s final of the beauty pageant.
This next story reminds me of an ep of Wild and Crazy Kids (anyone remember that Nick show?) where they had a bunch of dogs swimming in a pool, and only one of them finished. I believe that dog was a golden too.
Dog beats most in swim from Alcatraz
Golden retriever 'Jake' first non-human in annual competition
Updated: 1:38 p.m. ET Aug. 2, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - One of the swimmers in this weekend’s Alcatraz Invitational swim has dog paddled his way into the record book.
Jake is a 65-pound golden retriever and the only non-human in the tenth annual 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shore. The four-year-old pooch swam across the cold, choppy water in just under 42 minutes, finishing 72nd out of the more than 500 swimmers. Organizers say it was the first known crossing by a dog.
The crowd cheered as Jake made his way onto solid ground, shook himself and dodged a woman who tried to put a medal around his neck.
Jake’s owner, Jeff Pokonosky, says the two swim four miles a week and bodysurf together. His training secret? Jake always gets scrambled eggs before a big swim.
Folks, this is why they call 'em "cat burglars"...
Real-life cat burglar trashes German apartment
Feline broke in and destroyed furniture, ate fish in aquarium, police say
Updated: 2:16 p.m. ET Aug. 30, 2005
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police called to a break-in at an apartment in the northern town of Itzstedt found the intruder still on the premises and hiding under a kitchen cabinet.
The “cat burglar” had somehow crawled into the ground-floor of the apartment, broken window blinds, torn down drapes and trashed furniture.
Police also found fish and fish remains from a broken aquarium scattered around the apartment, said Julika Reinhardt, spokesman for the police in the town north of Hamburg.
Two officers finally found the offender, a cat, hiding under a kitchen cabinet but the heavyweight male resisted arrest, biting one officer on the thumb before they both managed to overpower it.
Reinhardt said the cat, wearing a name tag, was returned to its owner who would have to pay for the damage.
“No one knows how the cat broke in,” she said. “But the damage was considerable.”
Apparently, exorcism is a real thing, according to the Pope.
Pssst...Where the devil is the exorcist meeting?
Pope greets convention members, urges them to continue good work
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Orthodontists have national conventions, as do lawyers and computer salespeople. So why not exorcists?
At the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday Pope Benedict greeted Italian exorcists who, he disclosed, are currently holding their national convention.
The pope encouraged them to “carry on their important work in the service of the Church.”
Problem was that until the pope spoke few people outside the inner circle knew that a convention of Beelzebub-busters was going on, presumably in Rome.
And where were they holding it? In a church, a hotel, a graveyard?
“They try to keep these things quiet,” said a Catholic professor who has dealings with exorcists.
The devil is still at work
The Roman Catholic Church has shown growing interest in exorcism in Italy.
In 1999, the Vatican issued its first updated ritual for exorcism since 1614 and warned that the devil is still at work.
The official Roman Catholic exorcism starts with prayers, a blessing and sprinkling of holy water, the laying on of hands on the possessed, and the making of the sign of the cross.
It ends with an “imperative formula” in which the devil is ordered to leave the possessed.
The formula begins: “I order you, Satan...” It goes on to denounce Satan as “prince of the world” and “enemy of human salvation.” It ends: “Go back, Satan.”
Course on exorcism
A Vatican university announced last Thursday that for the second year running it will hold a course on exorcism and Satanism for Roman Catholic priests.
The course starts next month at the Regina Apostolorum, one of Rome’s most prestigious pontifical universities, and this year participants can take it not only in person at the Rome campus but via videoconference from other Italian cities.
This, a university statement said, was because of great interest after last year’s course, which was attended by nearly 130 people.
The four-month course, which begins in October, is what the university calls inter-disciplinary. It includes medical, psychological and religious aspects of Satanism and exorcism.
Italian youth attracted to Satanic cults
According to some estimates, as many as 5,000 people are thought to be members of Satanic cults in Italy with 17-to 25-year-olds making up three quarters of them.
Interest in the devil and the occult has been boosted by films such as “The Exorcist” in 1973 and last year’s “Exorcist: The Beginning."
Last year, Italy was gripped by the story of two teenage members of a heavy metal rock band called the “Beasts of Satan” who were killed by other band members in a human sacrifice.
The deaths horrified Catholic Italy, with pages of newspapers given over to descriptions of the black candles and goats’ skulls decorating one victim’s bedroom and witness statements of sexual violence.
An Indian girl weds her lover’s brother. Straight out of a soap, maybe (or more appropriately Bollywood flick), but the girl's got a reason.
Indian girl weds lover’s brother to beat the law
Move allows 19-year-old to live in same house as boyfriend until he is 21
Updated: 3:23 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2005
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) - An Indian college girl has temporarily married her teenaged boyfriend’s elder brother so she can live in the same house as her lover until he is old enough to marry her, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
Sneha Patel, 19, a resident of the western Indian state of Gujarat, was in love with Yash Kishan Parmar, also 19, and wanted to marry him despite her parents’ opposition to the match, the newspaper said.
But the legal age for marriage in India -- 18 for girls and 21 for boys -- put a spoke in their plans. Live-in relationships are not very popular in the tradition-bound country.
Patel and Parmar eloped briefly but, not wanting to be on the run until Parmar was 21, Patel proposed that she would marry his elder brother and divorce him two years later.
The elder brother even agreed to sign a contract saying he would divorce Patel after two years and treat her as his younger brother’s wife until then, the newspaper said.
This next story is straight out of The Bachelor. Not the reality show sweeping the nation, but that subpar Chris O'Donnell flick (what's he been up to lately, BTW?)
Bachelor’s billboard a sign of desperation?
Utah man’s friends use roadside ad to find him a date
Updated: 10:26 p.m. ET July 24, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Friends say Lance Archibald is a tall, handsome former college basketball player and graduate of Harvard business school.
He’s also still single at 31, and so they’re hoping to speed things up with a billboard and Web site.
“I’m Lance, Let’s go out!” reads the billboard on an interstate near Lindon, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
“It kind of came out of discussions we had, that Lance is such a good guy but not married,” said Morgan Lynch, CEO of LogoWorks, where Archibald is the director of marketing. “Someone threw out the idea of getting a billboard.”
So why the concern over Archibald’s marital status? As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members typically marry in their early 20s, the 31-year-Archibald is approaching the male-equivalent of an “old maid.”
Friends say they’re not sure what the Brigham Young University graduate and former Mormon missionary is looking for but tease “it’s taking a little longer than usual for a guy with these credentials.”
“Team DateLance,” the cadre of friends and co-workers behind the scheme, are screening date applications. The site asks interested women to describe themselves, including age, occupation and personality, and to describe their ideal date with Archibald.
So far, the Web site has received more than 1,500 hits, with several women vying for a date.
“We’re still taking submissions,” Bates said. “As much as we thought it’d be funny, we’re serious about this.”
Archibald is taking the attention in stride, although he says he’s spent a good amount of time explaining to others what his friends have done. And he says he’s not bothered by singlehood.
“I’m not overly concerned about (marriage). I’m pretty happy right now,” Archibald said. “I’d like to get married, but it’s not a concern.”
And to conclude this post, some short news.
Man survives snooze under moving train
Drunken sleeper apparently OK after incident in Russia
Updated: 6:23 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2005
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Even a goods train rumbling over a Russian man’s head failed to spoil his peaceful slumber between the tracks, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
The train driver saw somebody on the line and braked sharply. Rescuers tried to pull the drunken sleeper from underneath the carriages, but failed, and the train had to carry on driving to free him.
“The young man lying between the rails did not wake up ... which apparently saved his life,” said railway policeman Vladimir Slaby.
Must have been really plastered eh? ;)
Kung Fu Comes to Paper City
By 22News
WWLP-TV
HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - There's a new business in Holyoke and, it's putting some kick into the city! It's called the Massachusetts Wing Chun Kung Fu Council. The 5,400 square foot space features group classes, private lessons and both adult and children's classes in kung fu.Classes also include instruction in self-defense, physical fitness, weight control, and self-discipline. So why did the nationwide organization choose Holyoke for its Massachusetts headquarters. "I chose Holyoke because I think it's a great place to live. I live and work here. I wanted to put Holyoke on the map by putting the Massachusetts headquarters here and have different personalities from around the world," said Juan E. Fernandez, Instructor, Wing Chun Kung Fu Council. One of those personalities is Master Ron Heimberger. He was on hand at Tuesday's grand opening. Heimberger is 1 of 3 masters in the United States who is fully certified in kung fu. He is recognized in national and international circles as an expert in Wing Chun.
Why do they call Holyoke "Paper City" anyway? And don't you think that kung fu is a bit dangerous in a paper city? ;)
And that's the way it was, around the world. (BTW, the date in the title is in case I do this regularly.)