Odd factoids

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Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Europ car is actually a cover for aliens from Jupiter who are based on the moon Europa. Some of them were originally based on moon base alpha in 1999, till a massive nuclear explosion blew it out of Earth’s orbit.
 

bruce1530

Guru
Location
Ayrshire
For centuries, there has been debate about the best form of onions. There are clear national trends - the Belgians like small round ones with green tails. The French like large onions with a mild flavour but strong smell. The British like them pickled, and the Greeks like them in kebabs.

To address this diversity, the Maastricht treaty of 1875 paved the way for the European Onion, which would be grown and sold in the Common Market.
 

roubaixtuesday

self serving virtue signaller
Obviously nobody would want to live on Britain's East Coast, a perpetually cold dank and foggy flatland enlivened only by an occasional nuclear power station.

The reason such settlements exist at all is the ancient tradition of "Easter" where at the vernal equinox the village would up sticks and move a mile towards the rising sun. However, eventually they reached the sea and the tradition died.

Don't believe me? How else can you explain Redcar?
 

bruce1530

Guru
Location
Ayrshire
Redcar is a cathedral city in the north of England. The Bishop of Redcar, the Very Reverend Austin Healy, commissioned Redcar Cathedral, which was indeed modelled on a Red Car - a 1970 Austin Maxi.

Modelling it on a British Leyland vehicle was a mistake. This huge Red Car dominated the city's skyline for almost 6 months before rust set in. It then gradually turned into a huge brown car, and eventually crumbled into a pile of rusty flakes, contaminating the whole area with engine oil.

Today, all that remains are the concrete foundations and the tyres.
 

Bonefish Blues

Banging donk
Location
52 Festive Road
Stinking bishop can only be bought on the Dark Web
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Gender was invented by the French. It was actually a system designed to categorise cheese based upon the amount of fungus, but it was misinterpreted by Dr Crippen and introduced over here.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
The traditional hat worn by the Gendarmarie, the kept, has its roots in ancient history.

Back in the 11th century most gendarmes were bakers, and the hats were used as a means of safely transporting wedding cakes to striking fishermen.
 

bruce1530

Guru
Location
Ayrshire
In 1982, in an attempt to gain some free publicity in the tabloid press, the Mayor of Redcar, Sir Edmund Hilary, declared that the city of Redcar would be known as "The Spiritual Home of the Red Car". By-laws were passed to give red cars priority at junctions, and free parking for red cars in council car parks.

This caused civic unrest, with angry clashes between motorists and armed traffic wardens over the definition of "red". In an unlikely alliance, owners of burgundy BMWs and pink Fiat 500s argued that their cars were "essentially red" and should be given the same privileges.

This culminated in local resident Esther Rantzen taking a case to judicial review , arguing that while her Morris Traveller may appear to be green, it identified as red and therefor should be exempt from all parking charges.

The law was scrapped in 1983.
 
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