Yep, no more Woolies! :( Also, no more MFI (which means we shall have to restrict jokes about dodgy flatpack to IKEA now). Currys/PC World/Dixons and Borders are all having trouble, and if the Icelandic factor was important in the collapse of Woolies and MFI, then it might be curtains for Hamleys, House of Fraser, Iceland, Somerfield and Oasis too!

I will miss woolies too and while we are finally getting an Ikea in this deprived area ;) it doesn't have the scope for MFI/MI5 puns about being really badly fitted up:p

Lindale

To me it isn't as bad if it's family or friends. It's not as embarrassing if it's someone you know, as it would be for a stranger.

Hmm. Unless you think that you'll never meet that stranger again, Inziladun, and chances are they won't remember you either. My cousins still tease me about laughing and telling the story of Don Quixote to the soapy dishes. Yet I think it's all part of the family bonding, the stereotyping of relatives, and I just have to live with being the insane girl telling stories to the dishes.

I shall overlook most of my current irritants in favor of the tragedy that is:

having - by necessity - to include words and phrases in other languages (mostly French and Latin) in my research papers. Dear World of Theory and Criticism: stop.

Death.

It just sucks.

Or maybe people dying too young... But agreed nevertheless.

What happened?

One of the teachers in our school died yesterday totally unexpectedly. She was only around 30 years old and certainly one of the teachers I liked (and knew) the best - a very lovely and warm personality. We'll miss her.

I'm sorry to hear that. It's very sad when someone you know and care about dies.

Black ice - it rained and then it froze this morning and I had a journey to rival Frodo's in order to walk to nursery and work. I won't be doing that again - it might be OK for me to struggle into work but I think I put the lad's life at risk attempting that! :eek:

Waiting for werewolf deadlines! I can start a Day early as long as everything's to me on time, but it's not at all nice to end one before it's supposed to be over.

At least the 'Downs clock is fixed again. :D

Black ice! Phenomena I've never experienced in my comparitively warm clime. From what you say, Lalwendë, I'm not a bit envious.

I assign the writer of this article. Well, you might want to skip everything else until you get to the last paragraph. Such an ignoramus. If you're lucky (or otherwise) you might see my comment and people who have commented on that comment.

Uh... Lindale... there are nearly 3,000 comments!

I'm so sorry, Lommy and Greenie. That's way too young to die.:(

Lindale

I looked at 20 pages of the comments but didn't see one I thought to be yours. The name that is apprarantly the point of your ire is not nearly as bad as many of the others listed.

I actually read and enjoyed that article, Lindale

If I ever start an emo band it's name shall be Projected Helicopter Valentine, according to the 'emo band name generator'. Worse than Hitler! What in the name of Mordor is "emo" though? I hear all the kids talk about it, often with vitriolic contempt, but I'm not quite sure what it stands for? Name a famous typical emo band someone!

I assign to Mordor the financial crisis and economical downturn, caused by greedy men in banking and finance, but payed for by normal people like us.

Bright Eyes. My Chemical Romance. Blue October, a bit. Breaking Benjamin. Peter Murphy, but he's more goth than emo.

I'd say Bright Eyes produces the most fundamentally emo music I've ever heard, if you want to track down some tell-tale songs.

Of those bands you mentioned, I'm only familiar with My Chemical Romance and the little I've heard from them is truly horrible. They also look silly and have a stupid name. Reminds me of all that is bad about The Smashing Pumpkins without all that's good about Smashing Pumpkins, they do.
Nah, I think I stick to my old Dylan-vinyls. Thanks though. :)

Peter Murphy's a vampire. :)

Oh, lucky you then. My brother's a big fan, and I remember going with him to their concert because the parents paid me to do it. I still assign that to Mordor, because no amount of petty cash can make me willingly go to an emo gig.

But the article, it made my blood boil when I read that among the most stupid band names, according to it anyway, includes Hobbits from the Shire. That's where the Ignoramus bit got in. Maybe that writer's not familiar with metal bands named after less-known Tolkien words such as "Menegroth" or "Nazgul". But they're both black metal, so maybe I can assign that to Mordor as well. :Merisu:

As a matter of fact, I think Hobbits from the Shire is quite a stupid band name. It reminds me of this year's Eurovision Song Contest participant from, err, it was either Latvia or Lithuania: the band was called Pirates of the Sea and their song was Wolves of the Sea. So imaginative.

I assign it being dark both when I go to school and come home from school. Snow would make it much brighter but guess if we have any. :(

Aganzir

When you think about it, it has to be really difficult coming up with a band name that isn't dumb, or hasn't been used a dozen times before. After so many years of rock/pop/indie/emo music, there can't be that many alternatives.

I may be wrong but I think Nog or someone once came up with a band name Saruman & the Sarumen. I think it was fabulous. :cool::D

One of my favorite bands was Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mirkwood.

Oh wait, I'm mixing my cultural touchstones again, sorry.

Now that is a bad name. . .

The Pirates of The Sea miight be unimaginative, but it was better than many other songs in that contest.

Some of my friends used to have a band and they changed name at almost every gig they played, the name I liked the best was "Laika and the moon-dogs"

Pirates of the Sea were hilarious! However I assign to Mordor the travesty that was Sebastien Tellier not winning by an enormous margin, the man is a genius.

We used to have a band and our spin-off band was called The Derek Hatton Toupee Experience. I might start it up again. We used to do percussion with snooker balls.

Bureaucrats.

I bet Mordor is filled with them; power-crazed little men and women dismissing any attempt of a constructive dialogue by referring to a rule or regulation they alone can interpret correctly, saying 'it's not my fault it's like this' or 'There's nothing I can do, my hands are tied', with ill-concealed glee.

I assign the lousy student who kicked our lovely college cat! And all those who are needlessly cruel to animals. I'm no vegan or something, I don't object to slaughtering pigs or what, but kicking a cat for the heck of it is just pure evil. Especially if you know that the cat is loved by a certain group.

And those who tear off pages from library books. Lousy little creeps who deserve to be cooked in the fires of Mt Doom.

See, that reasoning I can't quite understand. How is kicking at a cat, or a dog, and giving it a few unpleasant moments, often in retribution to an unwanted behaviour, somehow worse than slaughtering pigs on an industrial scale after having spent their brief life in a cramped dark space, and these are animals capable of feelings and of intelligence similar or more developed to that of a cat or a dog?

Lindale

I agree. Senseless violence toward animals is certainly a Sauronian characteristic. For the same reason, I have a problem with fishers and hunters who don't eat what they catch and kill.

skip spence

To be sure, food animals deserve to be treated as humanely as possible and should be spared needless pain and discomfort.
That said, I don't consider slaughtering cows and such to be evil in itself.

The pig, cattle, chicken, lamb, you eat. It goes somewhere, for want of better term, productive. Kicking a cat or running it over with your brand-new SUV is a useless act, unless that cat had hurt you or done some damage. But a cat that is obviously a pet, which you kick just for the heck of it, does that act not make you evil?

Not evil, but cruel.

Rock singers who think they can sing traditional Christmas Carols.

The comedian Denis Leary put the dividing line between animals that we 'save' and animals we 'eat' quite succinctly:

*WARNING: PARTIALLY EDITED FOR OBSCENITIES

Good one, Morth.

I don't think Lindale or anyone else is evil because she eats meat. Human beings have done so for millions of years. I too eat meat. Nor do I condone harming pet animals without cause, it's indeed unnecessary and cruel. What does bother me is the blatant hypocrisy regarding the animal we keep. Ms. Animal Friend hates her neighbour for kicking his dog who did the deed on the carpet, and is willing to donate hundreds of dollars to help Boris the Zoo-bear undergo advanced plastic surgery, while at the same time gulps down pork chops without a second thought and wears make-up that hundreds of lab-monkeys lost their eyesight testing out. Yeah, we only care about the cute animals with names, those we see in plain sight. What goes on behind closed doors we don't want to know about.

I have respect for the hunter who goes out in the woods with a gun, shoots Bambi's mum and butchers her himself. I have zero respect for the air-heads who protest fiercely against the fur-industry wearing leather boots, or gets furious if Bob the Monkey has to move to a smaller cage at the Zoo, while happily munching cheap sausages.

I know what you mean.

That was funny, Morth.

Cretins driving cars with loud bass systems through your neighborhood. If that's not an invention of Mordor...

Being too busy.

Cretins with a loud bass system who live above you and turn it up to shake all of your belongings intentionally just to see if your hot room mate will come up and yell at them. :mad: