While I was away having a low carbon adventure in Europe (I’ve decided never to fly again) my travel buddies told me about…..the anarchic hand. This condition is a brain injury related syndrome where one of your hands performs actions against your will. Here are some of my favourite examples
Did anyone hear the story last week of a chap in New Zealand who said that if 100,000 people join his Facebook group, he will call his new born child Spiderpig? It turns out it was all a big scam, causing disappointment to thousands all over the world, and no doubt relief to his family, oh and of course a lifetime of humiliation has been prevented for the baby-to-be.
I wonder if he (or she) had been named Spiderpig, if he would have changed his name? I think it’s quite original, certainly better than Hipposlug or Chickenbear….. or Hagfish. Talking of name changes, many celebrities change their name. I suppose to sound a bit more wacky. For example…
Woody Allen was actually Allan Stewart Konigsberg, not so catchy now eh? Likewise, Jennifer Aniston was originally Jennifer Anastassakis. And Tom Cruise is really a shortened version of Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, a bit more grand. Marilyn Monroe, known as the most beautiful woman ever, was really a Norma (Norma Jean Mortenson). (goodbye Norma Jean… candle in the wind la la la)
Elton John was previously Reginald Kenneth Dwight. And the list goes on and on.
Writers often go under a pen name. George Orwell was really called Eric Arthur Blair. There is also the great authorship mystery surrounding William Shakespeare: was it actually just the work of another well known author at the time?
And on a similar note, many towns have gone through name changes. No doubt you heard of Nottingham, but did you know in Anglo-Saxon times it was actually called Snotingham? It was under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot, and so it was known as ‘the homestead of Snot’s people’. The only reason Snotingham is now called Nottingham is because the French were unable to pronounce the “sn”! Now there’s a story for good pub banter.
So let’s here it. What would you change your name to to spice things up a bit?
Have a lovely week chums,
Biggy Boris Raindrop V (aka Samuel William Smith)
Have you ever had a really terrible blind date? You’ve trusted your friend’s opinion and ended up with someone whose main area of interest is carp fishing (no offence to any recycling anglers out there). Well, I know I have. My most memorable being the person I met on a bus - you know, wooed by the chance-meeting, ‘oh isn’t London such a romantic city’ sort of blindness; we couldn’t speak to each other as I didn’t speak Portuguese and he didn’t speak full stop. He also came up to about my elbow (I’m quite tall though - that’s not a dig at short people - just my sitting down on a bus warped judgement). Well, anyway, here’s your chance to set all those bad memories aside.
The Laundry has gone all romantic this week and we thought we would offer up our newest recruit to our lovely customer-base, for a date (not as a sacrifice). By hooking up with Samuel Smith, The Laundry Volunteer and soon-to-be environmental master’s student you will also get the chance for ultimate fame in a write-up in the Laundry email next week. So our lovely volunteer Sam….
Sam is reasonably new to London and so hasn’t got a huge number of friends here - somewhere around 4.5 he says. He recently joined an ultimate frisbee club to keep himself in shape and also likes to spend his evenings strumming guitars. We have put a little photo of him on the website so you can see him.
So do you feel like doing something a little different this Tuesday night? Do you have 4.5 friends in London, and wanna make it 5.5?
If you, or someone in your office are aged between 18-24 and looking for a date with someone who’s just so fresh and so clean this Tuesday, please send us an email to recycle@thelaundry.biz with your answers to some or all of Laundry Man Sam’s mini-interview questions (below) and a photo by Tuesday at Midday. You can also ask Sam any questions you like too!
We will pick the winner and let you know by 3pm all in good time for a not-too-naughty-as-its-a-school-night date where you shall meet for a drink at 8ish and then go on to the classy Le QuecumBar in Battersea for an open-mic night of gypsy swing and jazz.
So here goes: -
1. (Just to warm you up!) Which is your favourite- a) The Blue Bag, b) The Orange Bag or c) The Stickers?!
2. What’s your idea of a perfect day?
3. Which album do you own but sneakily stash at the bottom of your CD rack?
4. What’s the best music act you’ve ever seen?
5. (The classic work- interview put you in the hot-seat question) How would you describe yourself using just three words.
6. Where in the world would you most like to live?
With love from Harriet, Sam and Gemma at The Laundry xxx
Rachel is away sunning herself in Hungary- she has taken an extravaganza train trip and so, dear Laundry readers, you are stuck with a little whitter from Harry, Gemma and Sam (Sam Smith that is- he shares his name with the respected pub-chain)
We have the very lovely volunteer Sam working for us at the moment, and its driven us to thinking about work experience experiences. Have you had some terrible, commical or otherwise, time during work experience, or, the other way around, someone getting experienecs working with you? (more…)
Whoa, blimey, who knew that Laundry customers felt so strongly about scones?? And Patrick, the angry Irish barman – funny, but problemo when it comes to Guinness?? Guinness makes me feel a bit irony, not sarcastic, I mean full of iron, have only drank it on seriously peculiar occasions.
So what else have we been talking about this week? ITV got in touch with us because they are making another series of Dating the Enemy. They want a super environmentalist to go head to head with a super er how do you describe it?– a climate change denier to make “interesting” viewing. So the post went on the intranet in the morning and come lunch time; everyone said – Rachel, why don’t YOU go for it?– most people immediately thought of me – WHY I ask you?