[atlanticist quiz] questions across the pond [second round]

You ready there? OK, let's go:

1 Which two northern English counties are misnamed - they should retain the old suffixes -ria? [My opinion of course]

2 Bix Beiderbecke, Bill Bryson, Herbert Hoover, Cap Anson - need any more? Corn! Which state?

3 Which county adjoins seven others, inc. Shropshire and is landlocked? It's famous for a type of bull-terrier.

4 The twelfth-largest state by area, 60% live in the Twin Cities and the state is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes". Which state?

5 Which county, in Sassenach form, was Forfarshire? Some towns include Arbroath -- largest town, Auchmithie, Brechin and the Bridge of Craigisla?

6 America's Cup 1983, don't forget "Providence Plantations"; it's not an island and the state officially adopted the nickname “the Ocean State" as nearly one tenth of its inland area is covered by salt water. Which state?

7 One of the thirteen historic counties, most of it became Gwynedd later. Waterfalls and small lakes are numerous, the largest being Bala Lake. What was its name?

8 Big Kahuna. Which state?

9 This county was the traditional stronghold of the various O'Neill clans and lost much of its territory to Londonderry.

10 Area code is 907 and its name means "alaxsxaq", literally meaning "object toward which the action of the sea is directed". Which state?

Answers here.

[under construction] blogrolls changing

Sick as a dog today [genuinely] with stomach spasms so a golden opportunity to do the blogrolls which have been on the mind.

They're basically done but there'll be movements now they're in place. Please don't judge anything until late this evening - I'll be going over and over them, remedying errors and shifting bloggers around in the rolls.

[he's back] the wanderer returns

He's back!!!! With chutzpah.

[anatole kaletsky] keep your eye on balls and osborne too

Another interesting snippet from UK Daily Pundit:

Future Chancellor Ed Balls and future Prime Minister, George Osborne, must have behaved themselves at last year's Bilderberg conference - they've been invited back.

UKDP links to the full list, under the title: Welcome to the Lunatic Fringe.

Despite the accurate description - it is indeed madness to pursue an agenda of the financing of wars and the reduction of the population in holocaust proportions and why you'd wish to enslave mankind is beyond me if we can't even get our own lives in order - it seems to me to be a little different.

The Bilderbergers are not the only group - the CFR and Trilateral spring to mind but one can add Club of London, Club of Paris and International Adjustments - and if you're a young, say, Ed Balls and have your eye on the prize, the talent spotters will contact you.

It seems not unlike the things we do as bloggers. To further ourselves, we do Facebook, MyBlogLog, RSS feeds, bloglines and all the little tricks to get the traffic moving.

It's also a series of clubs. As GK Chesterton put it:

You did not have to be anyone in order to be one of the Twelve Fishers; unless you were already a certain sort of person, you never even heard of them. It's president was Mr. Audley. It's vice-president was the Duke of Chester.

There was a brief time when I was a young man of promise [later to be a young man of promises, as Churchill put it]. One didn't belong to one group - one hoped to belong to all.

There's a certain kind of man [and woman] for whom exclusivity is an end in itself. This is what these people play on - the carrot is the clubby hush-power and the cut and thrust of repartee with the highest and the best.

The stick is the constant reminder of the great unwashed and where you'd end up should you not play ball. Cleese's skit about the Architects is right on the money.

Mr. Kaletsky and Mr Balls are playing ball. Mr. Osborne appears to be doing so as well.

[medium is the message] fora and blogs

A non-blogger asked why to maintain a blog when a person could just use MySpace or whatever to meet people. I think the best answer I can find is to quote from a forum. The question was:

Do you ever get over your first love?

Here were some of the replies:

Hey Madonna, wanna join a harem?

Posted by: northofriverman (hopeless flirt) at May 22, 2007 1:23pm

That depends. What's in it for me?

Posted by: Lady Madonna at May 22, 2007 6:41 PM

Email me at northofriverman@yahoo.com.au and you shall find out ;)

Posted by: northofriverman at May 22, 2007 9:21 PM

hey!!!...what's with nicking all our eastern state ladies, huh??? from my 3 years of living in the west...there's PLENTY of potential harem dwellers already over there... the wittle weagles must be getting a widdle nervous about a game in a few weeks...hehe

Posted by: ecboy at May 22, 2007 10:10 PM

Sure I took a vow not to discuss footy anymore. Must fight the temptation, arhhhh, don't give in ,must not mention we look forward to percentage boost from the Bombers. Phew, nearly weakened. As for the eastern states ladies, well if you are not up to it, that's not my problem.

Posted by: northofriverman at May 22, 2007 10:56 PM

Have a great holiday beachy! I'll have to get back to you all on the first love - as yet to meet mine.

Posted by: Anna at May 23, 2007 8:30 AM

Morning Groovers..

Was watching 20 to 1 last night and they did the love song countdown, the one that got me was that song "Your Beautiful" The singer (cant remember who) was on a train in the London underground and he saw his ex with her new boyfriend which cut him pretty bed, nice song though

Posted by: Puppy Love at May 23, 2007 10:30 AM

To steal a line: "For those who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like."

Am I a snob?

[society] the blame game

From Laban:

In order to tackle what is in effect the breakdown of families - Britain's major social crisis - the Government has introduced 42 new Asbo-type powers. And that figure is no misprint. How can anyone implement a strategy that is changing on this scale? Here is a real test for Gordon Brown in his intent to pass power back to the people.