July 19, 2001

9:07 AM

Run away! Run away!
this is so monty python-esque. once again life imitates art.
posted by bwg (11 comments total)

Medieval sling used to hurl dead farmyard animals . . . "Not all of them burst on impact - but when they do, the local kids love paddling in the guts."

Enough said.
posted by jennaratrix at 9:12 AM on July 19, 2001

Reminds me of that old SNL commercial for "Yard-A-Pult."

Dad: [To daughter after loading dead family dog into Yard-A-Pult] We're just helping Rex get to heaven, honey.

Fling!
posted by lawtalkinguy at 9:38 AM on July 19, 2001

Fechez la vache!

I wonder if this guy had something to do with that Northern Exposure episode where Chris flung his dead biker friend on a giant trebuchet. If memory serves, I think they also launched a piano on that bad boy.

There was also a Junkyard Wars episode where they built those things. I think Age Of Empires has just been a terrible influence. Next thing you know, your neighbor doesn't return your lawnmower for a week and you feel justified building a Scorpion to skewer his Volvo.
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2001

This looks like something out of the On.. *thud*
Hmm, I wonder how this concert grand piano ended up on my roof?
posted by Octaviuz at 10:10 AM on July 19, 2001

Fetchez la vache!

Quoi?
posted by fidelity at 10:13 AM on July 19, 2001

If I remember my high school French correctly, the French don't say "Quoi?" the way we say "What?". They say "Comment?" (How?). Just FYI.
posted by jpoulos at 11:45 AM on July 19, 2001

They also don't say "Fechez" which is what I guess Fidelity was asking about....it's from the Holy Grail.

Twelve years of French classes taught me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that any French passerby will be more than happy to tell me where the bibliotheque is, instead of looking at me as if I had just shat upon one of their children, which is the common French reaction to such questions, along with the inscrutable "Euh?'

Or to put it in French In Action terms: "Mireille, ou est la bibliotheque? Thierry, ou est la bibliotheque? Ou?"
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:57 AM on July 19, 2001

They built one for the recent season of NOVA, and used it to fling stone balls at a stone wall. It worked pretty well, just outside of arrow range, too.

There is actually a minor subculture that's sprung up around the trebuchet. For one thing, until recently, nobody was quite sure how they worked. These guys have figured out little tricks that we can determine in advance might work because of our knowledge of physics, but which the designers themselves may have discovered through laborious trial and error.

Kafkaesque, my favorite is the Berlitz language guides, which always included a page of pick-up lines. "Excuse me, but may I light your cigarette?" "Should we go back to my hotel?"
posted by dhartung at 12:57 PM on July 19, 2001

"They also don't say "Fechez" which is what I guess Fidelity was asking about"

No, Fidelity was continuing the dialog from the Holy Grail.

Frenchman: "Fechez la vache."

Other Frenchman: "Quoi?"

Frenchman: "Fechez la vache!"
posted by CrayDrygu at 6:31 PM on July 19, 2001

"He's allready got one, you see?"
posted by Espoo2 at 10:34 PM on July 19, 2001

ohhhh I get it CrayDrygu.

Little slow on the uptake today .

"I told them he's already got one...pfffff!"
posted by Kafkaesque at 9:49 AM on July 20, 2001