UNLIMITED WORD STORY THREAD

[LazyEagle]

Awesome post Dintbo!

Keep those interesting tidbits coming!

[DragoonKnight]

Uncle Fester is a completely hairless, hunched, and barrel-shaped man with dark, sunken eyes and often a deranged smile. He always wears a heavy, full-length fur coat. Fester was derived from a character drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams, although these were single page cartoons, with no stories or character names. Nevertheless, the character is recognizable in a number of cartoons, both by his appearance (bald, stooping, sunken eyes) and behavior (e.g. turning the shower to a special "scalding" setting, feeding his garden plants on blood plasma, or releasing an eagle on the neighbor's homing pigeons). However, he is almost never seen in the same cartoons with the rest of the family, even for family celebrations like pouring boiling oil on carol singers (though he was in one cartoon with the two children—going fishing with dynamite). (It may be that he was introduced to the family at the time of the sitcom for dramatic convenience.) It is known that the name "Fester" was chosen by Addams for the sitcom.

Fester has a strange ability to conduct electricity He would often demonstrate this by putting a light bulb in his mouth, which would illuminate, accompanied by a loud, crackling noise (in the TV series the bulb's wire is sometimes clearly visible). He claims to possess 110 watts of power in one episode of the sitcom, while in another episode he demonstrated his "magnetic" quality by levitating a metal paperweight up to his hand. When struck directly on the head by a fired cannonball, he appears only mildly dazed, while the cannonball literally bounces off his head.

[DragoonKnight]

Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming") is a season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, in other words, the period immediately before Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western Christian year and commences on Advent Sunday. The Eastern Churches begin the liturgical year on 1 September.[1] The Eastern equivalent of Advent is called the Nativity Fast, and differs both in length and observance

[MountieXXL]

now I know you're all just waiting to copy paste big stories in here, but I just want to say, that back scratchers are totally wizard (yeah, you heard me)

[dintbo(aka bosco)]

I find it very interesting how people's attitudes towards food changes over the years. My dad told me one time that,when he was a young boy, on a very special occasion the big treat for dinner would be a pigs head. Its no wonder that even today he is still a big fan of crubeens. For those who don't know, a crubeen is a pigs foot which is boiled and eaten. Some of the British folk might know them as trotters.

Many years ago it was quite common for people to sell cooked crubeens on the street when the pubs closed. They would set up a gas fuelled camper stove and boil a load of them in a big pot. I have heard two stories about this, one I believe, and one I don't. Here's the one I believe first:
A man staggered out of a pub in Waterford one night very drunk. Realising he was hungry he bought a couple of crubeens on his way home. He scoffed them and went to bed without washing his hands. Anyone who has seen crubeens will know that they are mostly fat, and eating them with your fingers will leave you very sticky indeed. As he didn't wash his hands before going to bed, when he woke, all the fat on his fingers, and mouth had congealed, and he was unable to move them, or speak. His wife, thinking he had had a stroke during the night immediately called for an ambulance! As soon as the ambulance men arrived they saw him and realised what had happened, leaving both the man and his wife feeling very foolish indeed.

And now for the one I don't believe:
Crubeens take a long time to cook, so the people making them are out on the street for quite some time, while their prospective customers enjoy a pint or nine. One night, as a gang of people left the pub, they noticed an unusual smell, mingling with the smell of cooked crubeens. As they got closer to where the gentleman was cooking, they realised what had happened. The man had a heart attack while working, and had landed, head first, into the pot of boiling water. The unusual smell the people had noticed was the smell of the man's boiling head

[DragoonKnight]

History of Toco
Not much activity took place in Toco after the Spanish colonized Trinidad in 1531 until 1631, when Sir Henry Colt and English forces entered the territory without the knowledge of the Spanish. In 1637, the British were expelled by the Dutch, who had formed an alliance with the Amerindians in the area and were, not too long after, expelled by the Spanish.

One hundred years later, Capuchin priests from Spain came to convert the Amerindians to Roman Catholicism. The mission village in Toco was named Mission Village and existed even after the British came. There was another mission near Cumana and was adjoined to the mission in Toco by way of the Anglais Road.

The French also had a big part to play in the history of Toco. They flocked to the region a few years after 1783, when the Cedula of Population came into effect encouraging French islanders immigration into Trinidad. In an attempt to seal off the northeast and the eastern areas, the six parcels of land (the Toco area) were sold. Some of these settlers included the D'Godet's, the Monique's, the Ponne's, the Traille's, the Narcise's and the Rotan's.

Unlike many other areas in Trinidad and Tobago, the land in Toco was not suitable for extensive sugarcane cultivation. Thus, by 1797, there was only one sugar mill in the entire district. However, the land was quite suitable for cotton production. In 1797, there were as many as 59 cotton mills and the population during that period consisted of 159 African slaves, 62 "free" blacks, 28 French settlers and 155 Amerindians who supposedly lived on the missions. Amerindians (Caribs) also lived in other areas of Toco and Cumana during that period.

There were no roads connecting Toco with the rest of the island. So, in 1818, Toco benefited from the round island steamer service started by Governor Ralph Woodford to accommodate the trade in cocoa and other goods.

In 1830, the Catholic Church made Toco a parish and dedicated the newly-built Our Lady of the Assumption Church at Mission Village to it. The Capuchins had established the first church in the area.

In 1849, Lord Harris was responsible for creating ward boundaries. Toco was also one of the earliest villages to receive schools under the ward system as early as 1862. Despite the supposed functionality of the ward system, residents of the area had refused to pay ward rates for developmental purposes and so by 1852, approximately 64 Toco estates were put up for sale. This and other factors could have contributed to the sparse population of the area.

However, by 1881, the population of Toco grew due to the popularity of the cocoa and coffee industry and the influx of workers from Tobago. In fact, at one point in time, Toco was mainly populated by people from the island of Tobago.

By 1930, the first road into Toco linking it with Sangre Grande was built ending the dependence on the round island ferry service and the influx of people from Tobago into the area.

Today, Toco remains sparsely populated, although the numbers have grown since the olden days. In 1980, census reports indicate that the population was about 1311.

With its serene atmosphere and picturesque beaches, Toco remains one of the most popular vacationing spots in Trinidad and Tobago.

[MountieXXL]

but you have to admit, even though ducks have the same tendency as chickens to shit all over the place, those little quackers just have more class

[Del]

I find it very interesting how people's attitudes towards food changes over the years. My dad told me one time that,when he was a young boy, on a very special occasion the big treat for dinner would be a pigs head. Its no wonder that even today he is still a big fan of crubeens. For those who don't know, a crubeen is a pigs foot which is boiled and eaten. Some of the British folk might know them as trotters.

I tried trotters once, I gagged. It was at a dinner hosted by a friends parents, one of which was Chinese, she was celebrating Chinese New Year, so it was all their traditional fare. To be polite I tried a bit of everything, the trotters being a tasty delicacy, apparently. I had to hold back the chunder and then watch as she tore into the trotters with gusto. Rest of the meal was ace, but trotters, no thanks.

[dintbo(aka bosco)]

An interval, in music, is the distance between two notes. For example C-E would be a third (C,D,E). One of the most important intervals in music in the octave, a distance of eight notes. As the 'musical alphabet' only uses 7 letters, A-G, the eight note has the same name as the original one. There's also a relation in the frequency notes an octave apart emit, but I'm fucked if I can remember it.

However, it is not the octave I wish to tell you about today, but the interval found at the halfway point in an octave: the augmented fourth (C-F#). The name Tritone is also used for this interval. as it is made up of three whole tones (take my word for it)The Tritone sounds very ugly when the two notes are played together, and its very awkward for a singer to go from one to the other. Due to its harsh dissonance, it was considered to be the interval of the devil, and was given the nickname 'diabolus in musica', which means the devil in music, by some of the more religious composers. It was not uncommon for composers to be excommunicated (banished) by the church for using it in their music. A little harsh me thinks.

Today it is often used in certain chords. As long as it is resolved properly, ie. is followed by the correct chord, it actually sounds quite pleasing. (G7-C is one common example of this)

[dintbo(aka bosco)]

I tried trotters once, I gagged. It was at a dinner hosted by a friends parents, one of which was Chinese, she was celebrating Chinese New Year, so it was all their traditional fare. To be polite I tried a bit of everything, the trotters being a tasty delicacy, apparently. I had to hold back the chunder and then watch as she tore into the trotters with gusto. Rest of the meal was ace, but trotters, no thanks.

Yeah I think their fucking horrible things. I can't even watch my dad eat them. A cousin of mine was over from England a few years back and said he'd have them with my father. He'd loved them so much he ate the bones and toenails as well. Nasty thing to have to look at!