704 lines
31 KiB
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704 lines
31 KiB
Plaintext
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____________________________________________________________________________
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*****NUMBERS 171 TO 175***********BY DANIEL BOWEN (tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu)*****
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"Backed-up Toxic Custard"
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//\\//\\ /\\// \\ // //\\//
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\/ // \\ // //
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\/ o x i c // u s t a r d \\ /\ // o r k s h o p //\\ i l e s
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\/ \\ \\ /\ // //
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\/Number 171\\//\\2/11/93 \\//\\//by Daniel Bowen//
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TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA - VOLUME 4
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DATABASE
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Developed in the early 1800's, by Rodney Database of Darlington,
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the database is a marvellously efficient way of putting large
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amounts of information into one central repository, never to be
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seen again. The design of the database is now an art form in
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itself, and will usually include:
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- just a dash of normalisation
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- a whole bunch of useless information
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- a whole bunch of fairly important information that no-one will
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ever actually ask to see
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- a whole bunch of very important information which will get
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unexpectedly lost when a hardware fault occurs (eg someone
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presses the wrong button) and the whole of your disk gets
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wiped / paper files get burnt / tape gets melted down into a
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large pudding, thrown out, buried in landfill and split in
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two during an earthquake
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DEATH
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Death is the ending of life. But do we really know what death
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involves? No, of course not, that's a stupid question. Only a
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completely brainless nerk with an intellect the size of an atom
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would ask a question like that. But in fact, I have recently
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experienced a near-death experience, when I went to Ballarat. On an
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Easter weekend. During an opera festival. (Okay, so it wasn't
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recently except maybe in a universal cosmic historically vague
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sense).
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DEVIL
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A popular character in mythology, commonly blamed by Christians for
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everything from plagues to burnt toast. Of course, if the devil
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ever actually appeared, it would scare these people shitless.
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DEWEY, MELVIL (1851-1931)
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American librarian who invented the Dewey Decimal system for
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categorising books in libraries. Unfortunately, he died long before
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the widespread use of computers, meaning that all the zillions of
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books on this subject have to be squashed into 001.64
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DEBUSSY, CLAUDE ACHILLE (1862-1918)
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French composer/performer. His confrontational politics and total
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scorn for the status quo led many to believe that this pioneering
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hardcore performer was the only punk act to be on a par with the
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Sex Pistols. Debussy's frenetic rave-ups offer little more than a
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cluttered cacophony of speed and noise.
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DICKHEAD
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A close relative of the penis brain, dickheads can be found in all
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the major centres of the universe, doing really irritating and
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stupid things. The term "Dickhead" was coined by explorer Sir Jimmy
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Criquet, who had visited the island of Dikhedos, just off Greece.
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There lives a race of people who spend their entire days getting in
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people's way on footpaths, driving in tram lanes, writing articles
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for the Melbourne Agenda, raising money for the IRA and/or Ulster
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Freedom Fighters, voting in support of French Farmers, evicting
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people one week late with rent, etc etc etc.
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DICTIONARY
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A book, generally in alphabetical order, which lists the
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definitions of a number of words. It is often postulated that
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persons who are unfamiliar with the spellings of words should refer
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to dictionaries. This is of course bullshit, 'cos if you don't know
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how the word's spelt, how are you going to find it? The people that
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make this sort of suggestion are probably child-molesting Osmond
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fans who enjoy anal sex with kangaroos in the corridors of mental
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hospitals...
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I'm sorry. But it's been bothering me lately.
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DISCOUNT
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The art of making shoppers feel happier about having just bought
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something by letting them know that they didn't get as badly
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ripped-off as they would have if they'd bought it when the discount
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didn't apply.
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DONATION
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Often promoted as the best way of getting rid of your money while
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feeling good about it, donation in fact has the opposite effect.
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The vast majority feel awkward as they hand over the money,
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clumsily trying to avoid the $50 note in their pocket.
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A much better way to get rid of money while feeling good is to
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go out and by a whoppingly expensive consumer appliance.
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DULL
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Yes it is, isn't it.
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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"LOSING MY CONNECTION" REM / "STATEMENT"
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Oh disk, is smaller
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Smaller than you and you are not me
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The backups I will go to
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The distance between tapes
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Oh no I've filled the disk
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I filled it up
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That's me in the system
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That's me at the login
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Losing my connection
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Trying to stay logged in
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And I don't know if I can do it
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Oh no I've grepped too much
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Couldn't grep enough
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I thought that I heard deleting
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I thought that I heard you say
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I think I thought the files were safe
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Every print-out of every waking hour
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I'm dumping all my data
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Trying to keep my files on you
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Like a hurt lost and blinded LAN... LAN
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Oh no I saved too much
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I saved it all
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Consider this
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Consider this bug of the century
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Consider this the bug
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That brought DOS to its knees
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What if all these data dumps come spewing out
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And now I've printed too much
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I thought that I heard you printing
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I thought that I heard you swear
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I think I thought I saw you print
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That was just a ream
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That was just a ream
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That's me at the printer
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That's me in the print queue
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Losing all my source code
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Trying to keep coding
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And I don't know if I can do it
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Oh no I've saved too much
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I haven't saved enough
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I thought that I heard you PRUNEing
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I thought that I saw me save
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I think I thought I saw the files
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But that was just a dream
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File, line, byte, die
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That was just a dream
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Just a dream, dream
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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And that's all until next week, when we return with
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"Winners of the 80's". We'll be profiling Ivor
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Fleming, who, while pissed on New Years Eve 1985,
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bet all his money and his house that the Space
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Shuttle would blow up in 1986.
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If you'd like to get your mitts on back-issues
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of the Toxic Custard Workshop Files, just reply to
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this message, or send email to tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Copyright (c) 1993 Daniel Bowen
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--
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Daniel Bowen, NTC Systems------| Any opinions expressed here have
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Telecom Australia, Melbourne---| resulted from accidental stimuli
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dbowen@vcomtelc.telecom.com.au-| in my brain, and are not necessarily
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TCWF stuff: tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu| those of Telecom Australia.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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"Ecstatic Toxic Custard"
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______ ___ ______________ ____________ __ ______ ______
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/ \ / __\ \ / \ _______/ | |___ |___ |
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/ \ / / \ / \ \_____ | | | |___| |
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/___ ___\ / / \ / \ ___/ | | | | ___|
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| | / \____ \ /\ / \ \ | | | | |___
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|__|oxic /______/ustard \/ \/orkshop \__\iles |__| |__|______|
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TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA - VOLUME 5
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EAT
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Eating is often advised for the hungry, and can often alleviate the
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problems caused by starvation. Many theorists and scientists have
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proposed that eating generally be limited to food. Civil
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libertarians have naturally attacked this as an infringement of the
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rights of the citizens to do really stupid things. In fact the
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Stupid Now! movement has held demonstrations in many major cities.
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Last week's demonstration here in Melbourne was estimated by Stupid
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Now! to be a crowd of twelve, although police estimated only two or
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three people attended. When confronted with the discrepancy, Stupid
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Now! admitted that they had counted an old lady with her shopping
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cart who had stopped to watch the street theatre, two kids running
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along the pavement parallel to the march, and a guy waiting for a
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bus. But they still maintained at least eight people had marched in
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"unity and oneness with the entire strength of the human voice".
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Yeah. What has this got to do with eating? Not much.
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ECONOMICS
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Economics is the study of the movements of imaginary monetary
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values around the place. The financial world of the 1990s relies on
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the whims of a bunch of stock-market analysts who enjoy bumping the
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dollar up and down for a laugh. No really, it's true. Last week one
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of them pressed the wrong button and bankrupted a moderately sized
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African country!
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But actually, the study of economics is all about supply and
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demand, import, export, GDP, GDT, GMT, and all that stuff. And then
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of course there's microeconomics, which is when you don't have very
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much money.
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EDISON, THOMAS ALVA (1847-1931)
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American inventor. Apparently he was expelled from school for being
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retarded. I wonder if the descendants of whoever made that decision
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have erased this person from their family tree out of embarrassment?
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Edison took out more than 1000 patents during his life,
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including the gramophone, the light bulb, and the megaphone.
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Amongst his lesser known inventions were the electrical powered
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nose cleaner, the inverse heat sensor wok, and the unfortunately
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flawed hand stapler. Mind you, three duds out of 1000 ain't bad.
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EGG
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An egg is an oval-shaped object commonly found in saucepans being
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boiled. And perhaps one of the most asked questions of the whole of
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humankind is "How does one time the boiling of one's egg?" Well,
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okay, it's probably not usually that pretentious. But it does
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remain an important and unanswered question, something which is not
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going to be solved by reading some pathetic little electronic
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journal churned out by some guy in Australia who thinks he's still
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at university.
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ELASTIC
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Long known for its stretchy qualities, elastic is related to
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rubber, which, should it manage to hold this joke together, can be
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used to mould various shapes. One of the recent movie hits used
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this to good effect, with giant rubber dinosaurs terrorising a
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bunch of rubber actors in an amusement park after breaking out of
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their elastic enclosures. "Elastic Park", that one was. Didn't
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really work, did it? Filled up eight lines though.
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ELECTRICITY
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Electricity is a marvellous discovery, enabling mankind to harness
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its power to generate huge fuel bills.
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ELTON, JOHN
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John Elton was born Harry Webb, and burst onto the music scene in
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1963 after being "discovered" praying in the Cavern Pub, in
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Liverpool. His first major hit came in 1965 with "High Generation",
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in which he encouraged listeners to "blade away", a prediction of
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the rollerblade craze of the early 1990s. Elton's lyrics coupled
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with paint magnate Bernie Taubman's music continued to produce hits
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into the 1990s. By this time, however, the two had decided to give
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up on music, becoming caretakers, and the final album of their
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songs was a tribute by other artists, entitled "Two Brooms".
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END
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No, the end is down the bottom. The end can be defined as the final
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moments of existence of something. There is a healthy employment to
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be made in the prediction of the end of the world, especially at
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the moment, as the millennium freaks gear up for the big 2 triple
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zero. Stand-by for the raining frogs, boiling acid, Dante poems,
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etc.
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ENTITY
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A word far too cosmic sounding to be involved in systems analysis.
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EXTRA
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Well, that's like... extra, innit. More than what would have been
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if there hadn't been extra, if you see what I mean.
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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I was looking through the biographical dictionary looking for
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material, and it struck me what cool names people used to have, eg:
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John The Fearless, Peter The Cruel. Why can't people nowadays have
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names that describe their personalities or jobs...
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"Who comes hither, friend or foe?"
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"Tis I, Eric the Analyst!"
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"And who be this with thee, O Eric?"
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"Tis Kevin the Prat! We come in search of thy sales
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receipt ledger specifications!"
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"Then enter, friends! But beware of Daniel the Not Very Good
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Writer."
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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That's the end of another Toxic Custard. Some of
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the back-issues are available by ftp. Send email
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to tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu for details
|
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Copyright (c) 1993 Daniel Bowen
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--
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Daniel Bowen, NTC Systems------| Any opinions expressed here have
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Telecom Australia, Melbourne---| resulted from freak activity in
|
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|
dbowen@vcomtelc.telecom.com.au-| my brain, and are not necessarily
|
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TCWF stuff: tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu| those of Telecom Australia.
|
||
|
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|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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"F'd Toxic Custard"
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FIF N 1 3WRITT B WENFI E E WRI
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TTENBY NIEL WENFIF ENTHOF V BER1993WRITT BYDANIEL WENFIFT NTH
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OFNOVE ER19 WRITTE YDANIE O EENTHOF VEMBER19 WRI DAN
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IELBOW FIFT NTHOFN EM R1 3 ITTENBYDANIE OWENFIFT NTHOFNO MBE
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R1993W TTEN L E HOFNOVEMBER1 3WRITTEN D ENF
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TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA - VOLUME 6
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FACE
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The mass of skin, teeth and other parts that form the front section
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of the head. Faces can be arranged in any number of combinations,
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for differing reactions, such as horror, nausea, and laughter.
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Facial hair can be allowed to grow, principally by men who:
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- want to look like folk-singers
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- make up for the lack of hair on the rest of their head
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- just can't be bothered shaving.
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The increasingly popular "goatee" beard still looks really silly to
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me, I'm afraid. The remainder of the face is generally made up of
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two eyes, a mouth, and a nose. Someone should tell the people who
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make Lego.
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FALL
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To drop in altitude rapidly. Audible responses to sudden falling
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should be made as follows:
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IN THE FIELD OF RESPONSE
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----------------- ----------------------------------------
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Mountain climbing Oh shit, I'm going to die
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Aeronautics Oh shit, we're all going to die
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Stockmarket Oh shit, we're all going to have heavily
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reduced equity
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FAT
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Research has now shown that Fat is actually an alien life-form
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that travels the galaxy, looking for other beings to attach itself
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to. Fat beings first arrived on Earth in the late 1960s, attracted
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by signals sent into space by the Graceland Observatory in the US.
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Fat beings are now found in most areas of the world, but mostly
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attached to Maggie Tabberrer. There are theories that the
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dispersion of Fat beings from one's body may be achieved by
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performing diet and exercise rituals, but this is pure speculation.
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FARTBOROUGH, LORD (1783-1827)
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English statesman. He lived all his life at Fartborough Hall, in
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Essex. Fartborough is best remembered for his resounding posterior
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evacuations, from which the most obvious word is coined. Their
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resonation with the brickwork of Fartborough Hall eventually caused
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its collapse, burying Lord Fartborough at last with his revolting
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odour.
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FINE
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Term used by weathermen when they don't really know what it's going
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to be like. Of course, if the rest of us made as many mistakes in
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our jobs as weathermen do in theirs, the entire world would be a
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disaster area. "Well guv, I expect if we use this plastic pretend
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bolt to hold up this building, the structure will be FINE with
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possible later collapse on Thursday."
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FIRE
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Red and/or yellow hot thing. Don't touch.
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FIVE
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The fifth number, except for computer people, who always seem to
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count from zero. The number five was first conquered in the sixth
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century BC by Pythagorus, who was taking time off on his theorem to
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enter a counting competition. He came first, breaking the world
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counting record of the time, and subsequently appeared in the
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Ginthorus Book Of Records.
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FREUD, SIGMUND (1856-1939)
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Austrian gynaecologist and founder of psychoanalysis. And a
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down-right pervvy.
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FRICK, MR
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The most unfortunate name for a school teacher in the universe.
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FUCK
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|
You've just been waiting for this definition, haven't you. Here is
|
||
|
how to use the word 'fuck' in almost any conversation.
|
||
|
NORMAL EXPRESSION FUCKING EXPRESSION
|
||
|
--------------------- ------------------
|
||
|
I am surprised Well, fuck me
|
||
|
Please go away quickly Fuck off
|
||
|
My condition is one of fatigue I'm fucked
|
||
|
You seem to have made an error of judgement You fucked up
|
||
|
Stop engaging in frivolous activities Stop fucking about
|
||
|
He is a person of below average intellect What a dumb fucker
|
||
|
That option is not a suitable choice Fuck that
|
||
|
I have not made significant progress I've done fuck all
|
||
|
|
||
|
PHOENIX
|
||
|
This shouldn't be in here. It just sounds like it starts with an F.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
||
|
|
||
|
A quick moment of reflection. .noitcelfer fo tnemom kciuq A
|
||
|
|
||
|
Have you ever wondered why we're here? What are we doing? And where
|
||
|
are we going? If you have, and God knows, most of us feel pretty
|
||
|
existential at times, then why not consider a trip to the Most Holy
|
||
|
Church Warehouse Of The Prophet Fred.
|
||
|
Fred is not just your average priest. He can and will provide a
|
||
|
full range of ecumenical services at BELOW COST! Direct from the Lord
|
||
|
to you!(*)
|
||
|
All this week, if you quote this ad, you'll receive seven sins
|
||
|
for the price of five! And a free tenth commandment with every nine!
|
||
|
Trade in your old Testament on a shiny new one! These miracles can't
|
||
|
last, so ride your camel, walk on water, however you get here, just
|
||
|
rush down to the Most Holy Church Warehouse Of The Prophet Fred.
|
||
|
|
||
|
MOST HOLY CHURCH WAREHOUSE
|
||
|
OF THE PROPHET FRED
|
||
|
"Beware ye the Bargain Basement of Beelzebub"
|
||
|
|
||
|
(*) via Fred
|
||
|
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Unfortunately, that was another Toxic
|
||
|
Custard. And even worse, there'll be
|
||
|
another one next week. But worst of all,
|
||
|
you can get back-issues! Oh God no! Send
|
||
|
email to tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu for details
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Copyright (c) 1993 Daniel Bowen
|
||
|
--
|
||
|
Daniel Bowen, NTC Systems------| Any opinions expressed here have
|
||
|
Telecom Australia, Melbourne---| resulted from random keystrokes into
|
||
|
dbowen@vcomtelc.telecom.com.au-| a keyboard, and are not necessarily
|
||
|
TCWF stuff: tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu| those of Telecom Australia.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
"Assassinated Toxic Custard"
|
||
|
|
||
|
_ _ _ _
|
||
|
/|\ / |_> | \ \ /\ / / Number 174, already?!
|
||
|
|oxic | ustard | \ook | |epository / / \/ by Daniel Bowen
|
||
|
| \_ |_/ |_/ \ / / 22nd November 1993
|
||
|
----------------------------------------------- Hey, keep that insect
|
||
|
away from my chocolate!
|
||
|
|
||
|
TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA - VOLUME 7
|
||
|
|
||
|
GARDEN
|
||
|
The garden is where all the nasty bugs and insects that you see on
|
||
|
those wildlife documentaries are. A succession of features on
|
||
|
spiders, ants, bees and wasps, all filmed using really expensive
|
||
|
lenses, have left me scared shitless of the slightest bit of
|
||
|
greenery. I've even been giving the plastic Christmas tree some
|
||
|
funny looks. Are those sparkly things meant to be on it? Tinsel,
|
||
|
eh? What genus is that?
|
||
|
I'm not sure why David Attenborough et al are convinced that we
|
||
|
need to see a giant 17 inch Huntsman crawling across our screen to
|
||
|
devour another garden inhabitant. Lucky we haven't got a bigger
|
||
|
telly. And why do those programmes always concentrate on only two
|
||
|
events in the species' day? Humping and eating. Don't they get to
|
||
|
do anything else? Imagine what would happen in a documentary about
|
||
|
humans. All we get to see is your average human eating Maccas,
|
||
|
doing the mating dance in the nightclub, followed by the quick
|
||
|
grope back at his place. It wouldn't exactly cover the full gamut
|
||
|
of human existence, would it?
|
||
|
|
||
|
GAS
|
||
|
What liquid turns into if you boil it. The basis for Kernigan's
|
||
|
Third Law. Kernigan's Five Laws of children's science TV programmes
|
||
|
are as follows:
|
||
|
1) Dried ice is interesting
|
||
|
2) An egg can fit through a milkbottle
|
||
|
3) Steam looks good and is cheap to make
|
||
|
4) Mirrors never fail to delight
|
||
|
5) Magnets the compass maketh
|
||
|
|
||
|
GENERATION, OLDER
|
||
|
The people that don't understand you.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GENERATION, YOUNGER
|
||
|
The people that you don't understand.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GENITALS
|
||
|
The bits of the body that are used specifically for rude purposes.
|
||
|
They come in varying shapes and sizes, and are used in varying
|
||
|
ways. Please don't expect a detailed biological examination of
|
||
|
these most enormously complex body parts, or even a cheap joke
|
||
|
about the size of penises.
|
||
|
However, as a tribute to the late, great, Mario Innuendo, from
|
||
|
here, we will substitute the word "the" with the word "penis" in
|
||
|
capital letters for the remainder of this TCWF. Nah, on second
|
||
|
thoughts...
|
||
|
|
||
|
GERM
|
||
|
Another of those tiny tiny organisms that you can't see, and often
|
||
|
wonder if they haven't just been made up by scientists to hold
|
||
|
together the fabric of society. Rumour has it that germs were
|
||
|
simply designed to get you to wash your hands after going to the
|
||
|
lav, to keep soap manufacturers in business.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GLASS
|
||
|
Container which shatters at the most inconvenient and unexpected
|
||
|
moments. Glasses are known to have properties that cause them to
|
||
|
throw themselves out of people's hands. Glasses are also specially
|
||
|
designed not to bounce. On anything.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GOAT
|
||
|
A horned beast, known to cross troll-infested bridges in packs of
|
||
|
three. Goats are unable to eat flowers, lest they explode. The
|
||
|
goats, I mean. It'd be pretty silly if flowers exploded. Then they
|
||
|
couldn't have florists. They'd become explosists. "Anywhere in the
|
||
|
world, send a message to show you hate. Intexploder."
|
||
|
|
||
|
GOLDFISH
|
||
|
Small orange coloured fish designed to fit easily into cat's claws.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GOOD
|
||
|
The opposite of bad. Just down the road from nice. Around the
|
||
|
corner from great. A world away from nasty. And simply not related
|
||
|
to flowerpot.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GRASSY KNOLL
|
||
|
It's so lucky that someone happened to be filming when JFK got
|
||
|
shot. Ever since then, they've made sure that there is a camera
|
||
|
trained on the President 24 hours a day. Which is why we always see
|
||
|
Bill Clinton jogging, eating McDonalds, etc. About the only thing
|
||
|
we don't get to see him doing is having a crap in the White House
|
||
|
Out House.
|
||
|
|
||
|
GREATBIGOSAURUS
|
||
|
Last of the great dinosaurs, the Greatbigosaurus became extinct
|
||
|
just last week, when it got run down by a film-crew on its way to
|
||
|
film a Traffic Accident Commission commercial. Well, come on, if
|
||
|
you were 65 million years old, you'd be a little slow crossing the
|
||
|
street too.
|
||
|
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Another Custard is come and gone
|
||
|
So now it's time to soldier on
|
||
|
Stop reading for another week
|
||
|
Else you'll look like a complete geek
|
||
|
Old Custards they are still around
|
||
|
But not to be found on the ground
|
||
|
There's plenty more for you to see
|
||
|
All you do is f t p
|
||
|
Want to know where to ftp to?
|
||
|
Then just mail tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Copyright (c) 1993 Daniel Bowen
|
||
|
--
|
||
|
Daniel Bowen, NTC Systems------| Any opinions expressed here
|
||
|
Telecom Australia, Melbourne---| have resulted from atmospheric
|
||
|
dbowen@vcomtelc.telecom.com.au-| disturbance, and are not necessarily
|
||
|
TCWF stuff: tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu| those of Telecom Australia.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
"Hated Toxic Custard"
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
--------> ------> --> --> -------> --> ------> -------> ToxicCu
|
||
|
--> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> stardWor
|
||
|
--> --> --> --> --> -----> --> --> -----> kshopFile
|
||
|
--> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> --> s175,29thN
|
||
|
--> ------> ----------> --> --> --> ------> ovember1993
|
||
|
|
||
|
TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA - VOLUME 8
|
||
|
|
||
|
HAGGIS
|
||
|
A Scottish dish made of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep,
|
||
|
chopped up with suet, onions, oatmeal etc, seasoned and boiled in a
|
||
|
sheep's stomach-bag or substitute. I think I'm going to be sick.
|
||
|
Have you ever considered the argument that vomit is a lifeform
|
||
|
in itself, subject to the same foibles as the rest of lifekind?
|
||
|
Pretty stupid idea, huh? Well, I thought so too, until I was
|
||
|
convinced by a most holy and devout man, shouting very loudly in
|
||
|
the street one day. He told me that vomit was food that was reborn.
|
||
|
He gave me a leaflet about it, and - do you know - it changed my
|
||
|
life. Suddenly, I could look at vomit the way I had never looked at
|
||
|
vomit before. It became part of me. I could talk to it, express
|
||
|
myself to it, and before long, take it for picnics in the forest.
|
||
|
And the vomit would talk back. It would read me poems. It would
|
||
|
sing songs about regurgitation. And it would tell me jokes. Very
|
||
|
bad jokes. It would tell me jokes with incredibly bad punch lines.
|
||
|
And I eventually came to a conclusion. That vomit is sick.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HAIL
|
||
|
Like rain, but harder. Meteorologists have conducted studies about
|
||
|
the weather patterns relating to hail, and the likely occurrence of
|
||
|
it, and have concluded that it is most likely to hail when you are
|
||
|
walking down the street without even an umbrella for protection.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HAMMER
|
||
|
A tool for hurting fingers. Hammers are generally made of a
|
||
|
specially magnetised metal that is naturally attracted to skin.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HANDKERCHIEF
|
||
|
A piece of cloth designed specifically to be filled with snot.
|
||
|
Which must rather irritate it. I mean, I'm sure that you'd be
|
||
|
pretty pissed off if you had only come into existence to be wiped
|
||
|
on people's noses. I know I'd be annoyed if people left bogies on
|
||
|
me. Which is why hankies are fighting back: They endeavour not to
|
||
|
be in your pocket when you are suffering a sneezing attack.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HAREOKE
|
||
|
Japanese tradition. The practice of singing a song very badly in
|
||
|
front of lots of people, then killing yourself out of embarrassment.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HARVEY SMITH
|
||
|
The gesture made by the more careless visiting American presidents
|
||
|
to Australians. (Honest.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
HATE
|
||
|
To dislike something immensely. If you would are interested in
|
||
|
hate, and would like to take it up as a hobby, contact the Hate
|
||
|
Everything League. They hold regular meetings at Hate Hall, where
|
||
|
members read odes to Barry Manilow, sing songs about Volvo Drivers,
|
||
|
rip Cobol source-code print-outs to shreds, and burn effigies of
|
||
|
software company support line operators.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HISTORY
|
||
|
Look, there's no point dwelling on the past, okay? What's done is
|
||
|
done. It's much better left forgotten. No-one wants to know about
|
||
|
adolescent foolishness these days, do they? Just leads to
|
||
|
embarrassment in later life. After all, the damage wasn't all that
|
||
|
bad, and the RSPCA said they wouldn't press charges. So just forget
|
||
|
it. (And actually, I reckon the hippopotamus kinda liked it.)
|
||
|
|
||
|
HOLY
|
||
|
Something containing a lot of holes, such as the Bible.
|
||
|
|
||
|
I'M
|
||
|
going to get struck down for that one, aren't I? Or at the very
|
||
|
least, lose both the remaining Christian subscribers.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HONESTY
|
||
|
Honesty cannot be undervalued. And while I'm on the subject of
|
||
|
honesty, have I told you about an exciting business opportunity
|
||
|
that could make you thousands of dollars without hard work or
|
||
|
expensive capital investment? Yes, bank robbery is an exciting new
|
||
|
idea, and you could be one of the first to buy an exclusive
|
||
|
franchise in your area. For just $30,000, we'll provide a fully
|
||
|
detailed instruction manual on how to do a bank robbery. Ring today
|
||
|
and we'll include two luxury pure wool dry-cleanable balaclavas,
|
||
|
perfect for those anonymous jobs when you just don't want to be
|
||
|
identified on the News.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HORSE
|
||
|
I begin to seriously doubt the viability of a dictionary that
|
||
|
defines "horse" as "a soft-hoofed ungulate." A horse is actually
|
||
|
any four legged creature in a Western movie. Except a cow.
|
||
|
The horse's major contribution to mankind has been shit. Such
|
||
|
was the level of horse shit production late last century that
|
||
|
measures were taken to centralise its disposal. For the last
|
||
|
hundred years, all the horse shit in Australia has been taken to
|
||
|
one place for burial: Dubbo, the shithole of Australia.
|
||
|
|
||
|
HUMAN
|
||
|
The human being either evolved from the biologically very similar
|
||
|
ape, or was created along with the rest of the world in a six-day
|
||
|
creative spurt by an anonymous god.
|
||
|
The human body is a wonderful thing. Well, most of them are.
|
||
|
Humans have one mouth and a limited number of genitals, which is
|
||
|
probably just as well.
|
||
|
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Toxic Custard is all tired now, and
|
||
|
won't be seen until next week. But in
|
||
|
the meantime, you can enjoy Toxic
|
||
|
Custard back-issues, should your brain
|
||
|
be inclined to do so. Just email
|
||
|
tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu for details
|
||
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
|
Copyright (c) 1993 Daniel Bowen
|
||
|
--
|
||
|
Daniel Bowen, NTC Systems------| Any opinions expressed here are the
|
||
|
Telecom Australia, Melbourne---| result of alien life-forms in my
|
||
|
dbowen@vcomtelc.telecom.com.au-| brain, and are not necessarily
|
||
|
TCWF stuff: tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu| those of Telecom Australia.
|
||
|
|
||
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
|
||
|
the Toxic Custard Workshop Files by Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
|
||
|
|
||
|
Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 Daniel Bowen. May be freely distributed
|
||
|
without profit provided this notice remains intact.
|
||
|
|
||
|
For subscription information, contact tcwf@gnu.ai.mit.edu
|