Category Archives: Travel

a little internet drama for your weekend

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At one time, if you typed “Internet Drama” into the Yahoo search engine, my blog came up #1. It’s a long story, and I shall spare you, although it’s buried deep in the archives at VFB, unless Mickey has deleted it (50/50).

Still, it was thrilling to be number one at something.

But here is a man whose ability to piss off the Internet surpasses even my own. The key difference between us is that he was just trying to help.

Japanprobe has the full report. Seems that a major Japanese comedian has been arrested for raping a 17-year-old girl, and that has the country, quite naturally, in an uproar. A video of the scandal has been among the most popular YouTube videos, and therein lies the problem.

Seems the Aynglish speakers don’t like no Japs on YouTube. And, hoisting themselves onto their hind legs and jury-rigging opposable thumbs out of duct tape and old porno VHS cases, they have typed in many an angry, racist response to the video.

“It’s YouTube! SPEAK ENGLISH!” they cry, apparently unaware that Al Gore neither invented, nor reserved for exclusive American use, the Internet.

Now, this poor sod looked at all the bile his fellow citizens had spewed and he thought he’d post a rebuke, which he did here.

Alas, there is nothing on the Internet, no matter how innocent, that cannot and, indeed, will not be misinterpreted for maximum dramatic value.

Seems that some Japanese people with faulty ESL educations mistook his remarks for racism, and the clip was featured on the daily news, as “Prejudiced American Guy.”

This is his response. Forgive the earnestness; I’m a sucker for earnestness once I’ve had a few drinks.

review o’ the day: AA Gill on Barnes Grill

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It was a grizzly, vile thing, like chewing a vasectomy scar with a pustular, yellow skin — as nasty a burger as I’ve eaten this year.

Yeah, but tell us how you really feel.

I love AA Gill; he makes me glad to be a reader and very, very glad not to be a restaurateur.

He's coming for you!

check into the Paris Hilton

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Who don’t luv a good, dirty pun, eh?

zoology update: dodos still can’t fly

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Dodo, yo!A drunken Australian tourist, wandering the streets of our fair city (specifically The Drive) and suddenly going bladder-critical, decided that, rather than simply pee off the bridge to the railway lines 100 feet below like a thousand drunkards before him, he’d better climb up on top of the cagework surrounding the bridge and ascend a tree, presumably to pee therefrom onto the selfsame railway lines, now 200 feet below.

The cages went up a few years ago, after a fellow drunkard took a fatal dive off the bridge during … was it Greek Days or Caribbean Days? In any case, they are now holding their festivals farther north on The Drive, and prudently well away from anything bridge-like. But apparently, there is no deterring a drunken Aussie.

Tenacious isn’t the word.

Emergency officials say the man broke at least one bone, but will be OK, as branches slowed his fall.

Vancouver fire department Capt. Rick Matsen says it was obvious the man had been drinking until just moments before his fall.

“Well, it just so happens he had a beer with him when he was brought up,” he said.

“Still in his hands?” asked a reporter.

“Still in his hands, yup. He held on to it pretty tight, I’m thinking,” said Matsen.

Dumb Crime Followup: The Video!

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Got this from Christopher Slaughter, who was one of the people ripped off by the camera-toting con men I discussed in my earlier post. Here is the video they’ve made, showing two of the crooks who stole $200,000+ of their equipment. Contact info and reward details (yes, I said REWARD) are at the end of the film.