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Questions and Answers - Part 3

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Whisky Priestess

14:10 / 20.05.08

I believe that's the Void-Kampf test for detecting replicants.

WTF? What an incredibly intrusive question! I can't believe people would answer that sort of thing, however desperate they were for employment.

Dark side of the Moonfrog1

14:23 / 22.05.08

Postman Pat's cat Jess... Boy-cat or girl-cat?

Personally, I'd always considered it to be a girl, but i can't find any conclusive evidence of gender anywhere.

Would be interested to see what other 'lithers think...

14:50 / 22.05.08

Does anyone know who to reattache those decorative furniture buttons? I dont want to have to take it to get re-uplholstered.

All Acting Regiment

15:41 / 22.05.08

The cat's a girl.

Use superglue for the buttons.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

15:18 / 26.05.08

It's a holiday here in the States and I'm opting to celebrate by putting my feet up, renting some movies and just making a day of sitting on my arse. Trouble is, I can't think of what to rent and really don't want to spend what I am sure will be an amazing amount of time staring dumbly at the expansive wall of choices and generally feeling my brain freeze from options. (Because then, I know this in my gut of guts, I will choose something that will have me cursing that I spent the time and money watching.) I am asking you guys to select a couple of films that are worth my time for the afternoon.

17:27 / 26.05.08

Hi Kali...
Seen Children of Men?
Other than that, what do you like? There are a billion good films...

Time for my ignorance: In the Barbelverse, what's a Buster?

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

17:44 / 26.05.08

I rented Ghostbusters because I hadn't seen it in, well, try 1988 or somewhere around in there.

I nixed anything with drama or overt seriousness today. Sci-fi or horror or comedy is where I'm aiming to go.

17:53 / 26.05.08

I have a big weakness for "The Princess Bride" on sick-days...
My name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my Father, prepare to die...

Do you know what a "buster" is or refers to?

18:13 / 26.05.08

It´s Inigo, not Indigo.

I saw Dazed and Confused a couple of days ago. That movie is fun. Last day of school, lots of beer and pot, Ben Affleck playing an ass, Matthew McConaughey playing a sleazy car freak and Milla Jovovich plucking guitars and looking bored.

Other Richard Linklater films are fun too, of course (Waking Life, Slacker, A Scanner Darkly ).

18:31 / 26.05.08

Do you know what a "buster" is or refers to?

To quote TLC: A scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly; he's also known as a "buster"...

So likely refers to somebody who hangs out of the passenger side of his best friend's ride, trying to holler at... erm, you. In this or any context, really.

18:38 / 26.05.08

Cheers...

Inigo. I Stand corrected.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

14:42 / 27.05.08

re: buster: I'm pretty sure I still don't get it. I suspect it's because AG is almost the only one who's using it, and everything in hir posts are always triple-obfuscated with various layers of sarcasm.

while we're at it - I keep seeing ITT: on 4chan, and can't get it from context. "I think that"? "It's time that"?

18:16 / 28.05.08

I think this'll be one for the newspaper people here, but there might be others who could help.

A friend of mine told me the other day that, as a teenager, her mother used to perform a circus and stage roller skate act. We're talking 1930s here, from the looks of the photos and couple of promo bits I've since seen. All she's got of this period of her mum's life are a few photographs that were taken by somebody from the Mancheser Daily Express and a clipping from the same paper - undated, unfortunately, but I can work the year out if I remember to ask when her mum was born.

There's also an entertainment supplement from The Star - from a few years earlier than the rest of it, so possibly mid to late 1920s - which has her mum's act (the St Valais Skaters) performing in London, along with other such joys as The Four Okey's (sic), Agube Gudzow: A Brilliant Equestrian, and The Chinese Contortionist ("who can wriggle through the rungs of a chair - and pack himself up into quite a small box").

And that's it. There's nothing else. But her mum was doing this for at least six years - the clipping has her at 17 and says she'd been performing since the age of 11 - so there's got to be more stuff out there. I just don't know how it'd be posisble to find it, beyond trudging into a reference library and spending a few weeks scanning through endless reels of microfiche. I'd love to be able to come up with some more photographs or bits of promotional material. Any other ways anybody can think of to try and find some? I currently only have the name of one venue she performed at - have no idea which circus troupe she might have been with, for example. Everything that she might have kept was lost years ago.

18:25 / 28.05.08

grant, I'm looking at you.

Mysterious Transfer Student

18:28 / 28.05.08

ITT: In this thread. For example, 'In this thread, we discuss the reasons why Barbelith ain't as good as it used to be'; or if it's 4chan, 'ITT, we agree that women and foreigners are frightening and inferior'.
Tell me again why I go there....

18:42 / 28.05.08

A 1930s circus act?

Hoo.

That's tough - circuses were precisely the kinds of establishments that weren't really established, even in the 1930s. Seedy, fly-by-night, no permanent address, you know?

You might have to scout around for some kind of circus museum.

Newspapers going that far back tend not to have digital records, so microfiche is probably the only way to go.

Victoria & Albert Museum had a circus history exhibit a couple years ago, and there's this:
CircusHistory.org Collections & Research, which leads to one (1) site in the UK, Travelling Showmen Directory, from British Fairground Ancestors.

That collection seems to only go up to 1915, but might (might!) have something of use. At the very least, one could email either that site owner or the owner of one of the many fairground family sites linked to from that page.

Closed for Business Time

20:41 / 28.05.08

The London Times has digital records going back to 1785. But on the other hand chances are she was never in it. Can't hurt to try though, if you have ye olde access.

Closed for Business Time

20:52 / 28.05.08

Much the same text you found in the Star, Randy, is also in the Times from Wednesday, Dec 27, 1933; pg. 6. The circus gets great reviews. "Among the chief performers is Noni, King of Laughter, who has made many countries (! -ed) happy with his laughing; and now sets this tone again."

Could be a press release or poster text is'pose.

21:11 / 28.05.08

Wait, wut? What text and what circus? Sorry, I've not got access and it appears that I have to be an educational institution to gain access. Unfortunately, I am not an educational institution.

Although I might be able to blag it by putting my place of work in. Hmm.

grant> Cheers, that's kind of what I thought might be the case. I'm not totally convinced about the circus link, even though it's mentioned in the clipping - I may well be displaying my ignorance here, but I'm thinking 'circus', 'roller skate act' and '?'. That, plus the photo in the Star supplement - and the fact that the three of them in the act somehow managed to get a whole page in that supplement in the first place, which can't have been cheap - makes me think that 'has performed in circus' is simply misleading writing. I'll try and find out more first-hand tomorrow, but I think this is the sum total of what any of the remaining members of the family - all two of them - know about this period in her life.

1915's a bit too early, too.

I'm working on the basis that possibly the best lead, outside of the microfiche, might be to follow up on the clipping - it's advertising a two-person act that she was part of at the Birch Park Skating Palace in Manchester. Or digging up info on her partners, but these are things that are probably too involved for me to be getting into myself.

Closed for Business Time

21:23 / 28.05.08

"entertainment supplement from The Star"? That your friend had, not you, sorry. If found a very similar text in the abovementioned Times edition. The equestrian was mentioned using the exact same wording as in your post. And the St. Valians Skaters are mentioned. Apparently they performed in Crystal Palace.

I am not an educational institution either, but I am an employee at one. So access is MINE.

What makes you so doubtful that she was in the circus troupe?

21:37 / 28.05.08

Just that I can't really see a roller skate act working as part of a circus, but that, as I say, is most likely me displaying my ignorance and/or looking at the word 'circus' through an unsuitably modern lens.

That's wonderful, by the way - many thanks for looking. I was just coming to post again to clarify my previous comment to that effect - cheers for looking, and if you've found something that mentions her or the act then that's fantastic, quite honestly more than I was expecting to find. The thing in the Star doesn't mention venues or even dates - I was at a bit of a loss trying to work out exactly what purpose it was meant to serve, but now it sounds like it was advertising the collection of artists as a touring group and what we've got is missing at least one page to that effect. No page numbers on it, either, so it's difficult to figure out.

Any chance you could copy and paste the Times text for me? Or save it as an image and email it across (I'll chuck you my email address, if you'd be happy to go with this second option - let me know)? I'll see if I can wrangle the free trial access when I get to work tomorrow.

You, madam/sir, are a star. I'd give you a hearty thumbs up smiley, if we had one.

21:52 / 28.05.08

But, thank god we don't, really.

I would bet the tedious microfiche path would yield the best results. I've thought about trying to find out about my grandparents, they traveled in a carnival around the south in the 20s, my grandfather was the wrestler that anyone could challenge. If you beat him, you'd get 100 dollars, which back then was like winning the fucking lottery. He was a dirty-fighting old bastard, I don't think he ever lost. He had horrible cauliflower ears from all of the people trying to pull him down by his ears. I could imagine finding some kind of news item, but I've no idea where to look. I did find reference on the web, he started traveling around on the pro wrestling circuit when it was a big deal in the thirties, he wrestled at Madison Square Gardens a few times.

I'm curious, what would one do in a skating act, anyway?

22:10 / 28.05.08

Acrobatics. The photo in the Star ad has the girl (I'm guessing she's fourteen or so here) doing the splits three feet off the ground, while each of her two male partners (in their early 20s, looks like) holds one of her feet and one of her hands. Presumably you'd get them doing this while spinning around and whatnot. Whatever, I can see it in my head and it's quite entertaining.

The Birch Park act is promoted as being - I love this - The Sensational APACHE DANCE: FOR THE FIRST TIME ON ROLLERS.

I'm weirdly fascinated by this, suddenly. I don't know if that's because it's genuinely intriguing, or if my interest in the early life of a dead person I never knew is a sad indictment on the current state of my own existence.

23:18 / 28.05.08

I don't know if that's because it's genuinely intriguing, or if my interest in the early life of a dead person I never knew is a sad indictment on the current state of my own existence.
Maybe both, but you've got to admit it's pretty fascinating. They would have to be doing all of this on those skates with steel wheels, right? And, the Apache Dance? I mean, I can see it inline, but on quads?
I don't know, there are plenty of interesting dead people. We think we're so great, but there have been maybe 100 billion people who came before us, no doubt some pretty incredible people went by unrecorded or leaving little trace. Finding out about them is the hard part (could be the fun part, though).

14:11 / 29.05.08

Im watching a movie but the subtitles have a horrid font. Is there anyway to change the font to something less eye hostile?

22:26 / 30.05.08

¿¿¿sǝuǝɔs ǝɥʇ puıɥǝq buıuǝddɐɥ ʎ11ɐnʇɔɐ s,ʇɐɥʍ ʇnq 'ʇı op oʇ ʍoɥ ʍouʞ ı 'uɐǝɯ ı ¿ʞɹoʍ buıddı1ɟ ʇxǝʇ sǝop ʍoɥ

22:29 / 30.05.08

Oh, and Keggers: are[/were] you watching the movie on a dvd or as some sort of computer file? if computer, does the file have a separate subtitle file? if yes, they might be alterable if you let us know what kind of sub files they are (what kind of file extensions they have).

14:53 / 31.05.08

Is anyone else experiencing slow speeds here in the last week? It's taking about 5-15 seconds for pages to load lately.

15:55 / 31.05.08

palace politics, i'ts a .sub file for an .avi movie.

18:31 / 31.05.08

i don't have any .subs lying around to experiment with, but if you're using VLC you can open the file via the "file--->open file" option, then choose your sub files in the box that comes up, and the subtitles box that pops up will have an option to make the subs bigger or move their position. you may have already tried this, but it's worth a try if you haven't.

18:38 / 31.05.08

also, in vlc you can go to "preference-->video-->subtitles" (sorry if that isn't totally acurate for pcs) and get some enlarging, moving, and recoloring options for subs.

All Acting Regiment

20:11 / 03.06.08

Right then. People around me keep making assertions along the lines of 'There needs to be an Enlightenment in the Islamic world'. It's clearly a tosh statement, but I could really do with a pithy answer to it. These aren't total idiots, and it's a common meme from being buzzed around a lot by various real wankers, so I'm not looking to do someone down, rather point out the flaw in their argument - in a way that doesn't involve me typing them 600 words of prose. Can anyone help?

21:04 / 03.06.08

I suppose you could try talking about banking.

13:03 / 04.06.08

Not being sarcastic; here's BusinessWeek on Islamic banking and Wikipedia on same.

Also, here's a piece on how popular it's becoming around the world. (Similar to Sweden's JAK bank, which you might have heard about.)

I recently read something about the US posturing toward Iran being REALLY based on the threat of Islamic-style banking to the current way of doing business (which is tied to things like subprime mortgages and the housing crash). I'm not sure I entirely buy that "REALLY," but it's an interesting idea.

15:57 / 05.06.08

In light of Brigitte Bardot's comments on halal butchering, what are peoples views on the traditional halal method of slaughter in comparison to the more modern stun gun thingy?

Is the stun gun method conclusively more humane than the halal method without the stun gun.

How sore is an electric stun gun to the eye? as was shown in the Jamie Oliver/Hugh Fearnley/ Gordon Ramsey show about chicken welfare.

I can see that the halal method is more prolonged but I can't quite shake the felling that the stun gun, although rather brief, may be very, very painful.

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