News You Can Bruise for 2003 July 11

For no real reason, Kevin sent me some funny reminiscence essays on post-Communist Czech culture.

Inspired by a spam Sumana got:

Q: What has four legs and is a dog?
A: A dog.

Jason exceeds analysts' expectations in regards to Which Is Funnier?

Definitely supervillain and superhero. Their marital problems could be expressed in their super activities or interpretations. E.g., "This diamond thief has no taste in jewelry, just like my husband. And, he rushed in with inadequate preparation, then once he was satisfied with the booty, he selfishly withdrew and rolled over to the dark side of the city. He's probably snoring away over there right now."

It might also be funny to have a mother/daughter relationship. E.g., "What kind of a supervillian would pierce the noses of Mt. Rushmore? And, this villian is leaving clues all over, just like my daughter leaves her clothes on the floor." "Missy Mid-drift may be misguided, but why would she break Lex Loser out of prison? I don't know, but one thing is sure: Lex is going to be a bad influence on her." Missy Mid-drift: "When I block out the sun, curfews will be impossible."

Old obsessions never die. Remember the menanggalan? Remember the penanggalan? Remember how they were the same gross Filipino undead monster, as evidenced by my usage of the same link for both just now? Well, I never figured that one out until today, 2.5 years after the [mp]enanggalan first reared its ugly, bile-dripping head in the pages of NYCB. Today's the day I saw this Kuro5hin story on the folklore of the Philippines and read it for [mp]enanngalan information. It introduces two more spellings of the monster's name, but makes up for it by explaining that the "p" spellings are the Malaysian names of the same monster. Whew! Pretty weird that the Malaysia spelling would be penanggalan and the Philippines spelling would be menanggalan, unless it's a "French letter"/"capot anglais" thing.

The story also contains the hilarious sentence "They have a tube which comes out of their mouth to perform the feeding, like this (Warning: annoying midi music ahead)."