Wasdale is a remote valley in the English Lake District. It boasts England's deepest lake, highest mountain, smallest church...and
biggest liar.
[more inside]
posted by reynir
on Nov 22, 2010 -
24 comments
For Men by Men, the Stag Cookbook helped those who had previously tried their hand at cooking, but "weakened under a fire of feminine raillery & sarcasm." Contributors included: William Jennings Bryan, Warren G. Harding, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Jules Jusserand, Reed Smoot, Jerome Kern, and Houdini.
posted by OmieWise
on Jun 8, 2009 -
106 comments
In the late '90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious
10-year-old named Billy.
posted by snsranch
on Apr 29, 2008 -
21 comments
OpenCongress.org is a site that aggregates data about the United States Senate and House. Keep track of your senators or representatives through rss feeds, read bills on topics that are important to you, and find out what industries are behind the scenes providing money to your politicians in Washington among many other uses of this new resource.
posted by rfbjames
on Feb 27, 2007 -
18 comments
The family trees of American politicians - There are those with
very long blue blood pedigrees, and there are those with
very short and unknown pedigrees. There are also some surprises, like a
certain Democratic senator and possible '08 Veep pick being somewhat closely related to the current
Veep, or that
certain ex-mayors have family trees that were apparently a bit inbred back in the old country. Other fun tidbits:
Newt Gingrich's father was illegitimate,
John Kerry is related to the rabbi who created the Golem of Prague,
Pat Buchanan is related to both FDR and Marilyn Manson, Wesley Clark's father was a
Kohan,
Martin Luther King was born Michael Louis King, and
Gary Hart was born Gary Hartpence, which was in turn derived from an ancestor named James Eberhart Pence. (more non-politicians
here)
posted by Asparagirl
on Oct 3, 2005 -
18 comments
"Now members. Let me firm up my position..." --from part of a speech in the Texas Legislature, by the unfortunately named Gene Seaman. Practice What You Preach will be airing this ad (with commentary) in Texas, trying to stop the proposed Anti-Gay-Marriage Amendment. (embedded WMP)
Practice What You Preach believes that the institution of marriage is under assault in Texas from the twin epidemics of divorce and domestic violence. We are not a gay-rights group. We are mainstream, straight Texans who want the legislative leadership to stop making cheap political points by ignoring real problems.
posted by amberglow
on Apr 13, 2005 -
39 comments
Bush directing Homeland Security to Stage Photo-Ops? This article from next week's
Time is in itself a well-detailed examination of the campaign strategies for both sides in the 2004 race, but
some bloggers have caught a disturbing paragraph in the middle of the article:
"As the Bush team sorts out its internal mechanics, it will press the advantage of incumbency. Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month. "
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Mar 15, 2004 -
46 comments
Statesman or Skatesman "Last Christmas my Dad and me had a big argument. He'd found a picture of
Enoch Powell on a pogo stick and claimed that politicians weren't as interesting as that any more ... " Jason Whiley disagreed and wrote to as many politicians as he could asking them if they'd ever used similar transport, such as skateboards, gokarts, BMX bikes and Space Hoppers. Over Eighty responded including "three Prime Ministers, five Chancellors, six Foreign Secretaries, four Home Secretaries, and three Speakers of the House of Commons. " [via
B3ta]
posted by feelinglistless
on Aug 15, 2003 -
5 comments
Our drunk-driving premier has refused to resign because it "was on personal time." What kind of standards does your state or province demand of its leaders? Do your politicians get to sleep around, drunk drive, snort coke, cheat on their taxes, and so on? (Or, rather more to the point,
are they allowed to continue in office once caught?)
posted by five fresh fish
on Jan 13, 2003 -
48 comments
One-in, one-out: the nominations. "Who should be granted honorary British citizenship and who should have it revoked?" The BBC's Today programme has its annual poll and this year, it claims, is a little different. Various celebrities, politicians etc will be giving their opinions and the result will be announced on New Year's Day. Who will you be voting for?
posted by Kiell
on Dec 18, 2002 -
6 comments
Governor of Maryland married his deputy chief of staff; she resigned (effected immediately) from her $103,588 position on Friday, the day the couple were married. I'm sure boss/subordinate relationships go on all the time, but isn't it a problem when the boss is the governor of a state? I'm not one to focus on the personal lives of politicians, but this does raise my eyebrows. What do you think -- should state employees be subject to a dating policy simply because they work in the government? Or is this no big deal?
posted by jennak
on Jan 29, 2002 -
26 comments
