Oddities – Postcards

That Friday Siren Sound

November 13, 2022 No Comments

Ever hear that air-raid klaxon sound on a Friday afternoon? In fact, it is a “test general alarm”, according to Mick Duffy, company quartermaster of Cathal Brugha Barracks. It’s just for the barracks, not for the rest of us. If it were for real, and not just an every-Friday test, it would be a call to […]

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Arts Oddities

Exhibition of Unusable Objects

March 2, 2021 No Comments

A collection of failures, flops and surrealist design curated by Sylvie Sauvignet is opening virtually in Saint Etienne. From a wavy ping pong table to a watering can that waters itself, some of these items are wonderfully absurd, and some are flawed designs that just didn’t work (like the Delorean). The exhibition has dedicated a […]

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Arts Do Not Adjust Your Set Oddities

IT’S NOT ALWAYS SUNNY IN PYONGYANG

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021 No Comments

Rare glimpse of North Korea on a rainy day. Via digg

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Brexit Department of Whimsical Ideas Europe Oddities Politics

Union of Craic

January 25, 2017 No Comments

Toying around with ideas of what Scotland could do to stay in the EU, while also wondering what will happen to Northern Ireland which also voted to ‘remain’, a friend and I ended up considering if the twitter favourite ‘Union of Craic’ would actually work. The idea is that Scotland goes ahead and runs a […]

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Oddities

Just Askin’

October 8, 2016 No Comments

Good stuff from Donald Clarke in the IT: Somebody is always “just asking a question” about immigration, alien visitation or the “truth” behind 9/11. Back in 2009, the good people at South Park satirised the technique in an episode called Dances with Smurfs. “Because I’m brave enough to ask questions, I come under scrutinies,” the […]

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Humour Oddities Politics

“John Major warns” (again)

May 20, 2016 No Comments

The elder statesman has been wheeled out: The Former Prime Minister John Major is set to issue a thinly veiled attack on Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, warning that Tories leading the campaign to leave the EU risk “morphing into Ukip”. In a speech on Friday Sir John will say that as the economic arguments in favour […]

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Humour Internets Oddities

6th Jan 2016: The day the internet watched a puddle

January 10, 2016January 10, 2016 No Comments

Newcastle became famous for a day for being the location of a puddle. Streamed live on periscope, it seemed to catch the attention of everyone on what was an otherwise boring January afternoon. I freely admit I joined periscope just for this, as did quite a few others. It kind of ate itself when the […]

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Arts Oddities Sounds

Shovel Like Teen Spirit

September 8, 2015 No Comments

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Germany Oddities Wonderful World

Beamtenbagger

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015 No Comments

Germany and the “civil servant excavators” – the Paternoster lift: Jumping on to one recently with all the prowess of a veteran rider, the editor in chief of the Berlin-based leftwing paper Neues Deutschland referred to the juddering metal cage as “the socialist among elevators”. Together with a slim camera man, Tom Strohschneider squeezes into […]

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Arts Do Not Adjust Your Set Humour Oddities

The secret lives of the priests in Father Ted

July 30, 2015 No Comments

Fascinating. A potted biography of the miscellaneous other priests that populated life on Craggy Island. I’m guessing that everybody knows about the back stories of the famous actors who played Bishop Jim Brennan (Jim Norton) and Frs Fintan Stack (Brendan Grace), Noel Furlong (Graham Norton) and Todd Unctious (Gerard McSorley). And that Clare Grogan from […]

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Who?

Murf

That Friday Siren Sound

Exhibition of Unusable Objects

IT’S NOT ALWAYS SUNNY IN PYONGYANG

Union of Craic

Just Askin’

“John Major warns” (again)

6th Jan 2016: The day the internet watched a puddle

Shovel Like Teen Spirit

Beamtenbagger

The secret lives of the priests in Father Ted

Category: Oddities