Sunday, May 21, 2006
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Critters (Wrong Bitch)
Snopes. com, the Urban Legend Page, has a new story. Something that, apparently, has been floating around in the email circles. Snopes shows that it is probably apocryphal.
Anyway, I found the story funny. If you want to read what Snopes had to say about it, follow the link above. If not, here is the story:
An American soldier, serving in World War II, had just returned from several weeks of intense action on the German front lines. He had finally been granted R&R and was on a train bound for London. The train was very crowded, so the soldier walked the length of the train, looking for an empty seat.
The only unoccupied seat was directly adjacent to a well dressed middle aged lady and was being used by her little dog. The war weary soldier asked, "Please, ma'am, may I sit in that seat?"
The English woman looked down her nose at the soldier, sniffed and said, "You Americans. You are such a rude class of people. Can't you see my Little Fifi is using that seat?"
The soldier walked away, determined to find a place to rest, but after another trip down to the end of the train, found himself again facing the woman with the dog.
Again he asked, "Please, lady. May I sit there? I'm very tired."
The English woman wrinkled her nose and snorted, "You Americans! Not only are you rude, you are also arrogant. Imagine!"
The soldier didn't say anything else; he leaned over, picked up the little dog, tossed it out the window of the train and sat down in the empty seat.
The woman shrieked and railed, and demanded that someone defend her and chastise the soldier.
An English gentleman sitting across the aisle spoke up, "You know, sir, you Americans do seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You eat holding the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road.
"And now, Sir, you've thrown the wrong bitch out the window."
Anyway, I found the story funny. If you want to read what Snopes had to say about it, follow the link above. If not, here is the story:
An American soldier, serving in World War II, had just returned from several weeks of intense action on the German front lines. He had finally been granted R&R and was on a train bound for London. The train was very crowded, so the soldier walked the length of the train, looking for an empty seat.
The only unoccupied seat was directly adjacent to a well dressed middle aged lady and was being used by her little dog. The war weary soldier asked, "Please, ma'am, may I sit in that seat?"
The English woman looked down her nose at the soldier, sniffed and said, "You Americans. You are such a rude class of people. Can't you see my Little Fifi is using that seat?"
The soldier walked away, determined to find a place to rest, but after another trip down to the end of the train, found himself again facing the woman with the dog.
Again he asked, "Please, lady. May I sit there? I'm very tired."
The English woman wrinkled her nose and snorted, "You Americans! Not only are you rude, you are also arrogant. Imagine!"
The soldier didn't say anything else; he leaned over, picked up the little dog, tossed it out the window of the train and sat down in the empty seat.
The woman shrieked and railed, and demanded that someone defend her and chastise the soldier.
An English gentleman sitting across the aisle spoke up, "You know, sir, you Americans do seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You eat holding the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road.
"And now, Sir, you've thrown the wrong bitch out the window."
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Where Are You Vacationing This Year?
It's that time of year again. Time to plan your vacation. Some place fun, some place safe, right?
The following figures were quoted by Rep. Steve King of Iowa on C-Span last week. He was quoting figures on violent deaths per 100,000 for several different countries, and US cities. He didn't say what kind of time frame this covered: annual, monthly or whatever.
Columbia is the big winner in the competition here, with 61.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The next country on the hit parade is South Africa with 49.6. Jamaica is in third with 32.4, and next is Venezuela at 31.6.
In comparison, this is how several major US cities fared: pre-Katrina beat all the countries cited, except Columbia, with 53.1 Washington D.C. is giving all of South Africa some competition with 45.9. Baltimore, with 37.7, and Atlanta, with 34.9, out strip Jamaica and Venezuela.
The point of Rep. King's recitation of all of these stats is that the rate for Iraq, including the war, is 25.71.
That's right. It is more than twice as likely that anyone will die a violent death in Columbia, and slightly less than twice as likely in Washington D.C. than in Iraq ... a war zone.
Here is a chart that I found laying all of this out:
The following figures were quoted by Rep. Steve King of Iowa on C-Span last week. He was quoting figures on violent deaths per 100,000 for several different countries, and US cities. He didn't say what kind of time frame this covered: annual, monthly or whatever.
Columbia is the big winner in the competition here, with 61.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
The next country on the hit parade is South Africa with 49.6. Jamaica is in third with 32.4, and next is Venezuela at 31.6.
In comparison, this is how several major US cities fared: pre-Katrina beat all the countries cited, except Columbia, with 53.1 Washington D.C. is giving all of South Africa some competition with 45.9. Baltimore, with 37.7, and Atlanta, with 34.9, out strip Jamaica and Venezuela.
The point of Rep. King's recitation of all of these stats is that the rate for Iraq, including the war, is 25.71.
That's right. It is more than twice as likely that anyone will die a violent death in Columbia, and slightly less than twice as likely in Washington D.C. than in Iraq ... a war zone.
Here is a chart that I found laying all of this out:
