The Supreme Tradition of Spelling Bees

People here in Baltimore are paying attention to the swimmers Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff. Otherwise as nutrax says it's mostly air pollution and censorship stories.

The Olympics are always a big deal in Australia, especially swimming of course. Shooting, rowing and cycling are other sports we take an interest in once every four years.

We don't really think of them as the 'summer' games - but always use 'winter' for the Winter Olympics. Had me a bit confused in Canada a couple of years ago when friends kept talking about the Olympics being in 2010, until I realised they were talking about the "Winter" Olympics.

Plus ça change... I'm not sure whether knowing that the world's oldest known joke is a fart joke confirms or undermines my faith in humanity.

CK

I have to admit I don't get the fart joke. Too many negatives. Is it the not farting that has never happened?

The Old English one is from a collection of riddles. They're not all double entendres but a number of them are.

Watching Hamlet earlier this summer, I enjoyed hearing people laugh at the four hundred year old jokes.

Yeah I've never "gotten" ancient Sumerian humor myself--an acquired taste, perhaps.

Meanwhile, the English one could just as well have come from Benny Hill.

CK

I guess stand-up humour and political satire is too connected to its time for it to last, whereas farts and sex are eternal winners.

Sumerian humor was always too obscure.

Speaking of spelling. Thanks to the spellchecker built into the Safari browser, I just told someone on the health branch that doxycycline can't be taken by "pregnant and breastfeeding bowmen." I'm still trying to cope with that image.

Your image of pregnant bowmen reminds me of something I saw in the park on Saturday. You know how people, usually women, with small babies carry them in those carriers on the front? Sort of like this.

Well, I saw a guy with one but the little face peering out was that of a cat. No doubt a frustrated bowman.

Good link, Chris. (Although I have to admit to not only not understanding the fart joke, but also missing the clue of the farao joke.)

I came here to post on something entirely different. I was researching flights between Toronto and New York just now without knowing the name of Toronto's airport. The airline site I looked at didn't have "Toronto", but it did have something else that looked promising: Ontario, CA (ONT).
I guess nutrax sees where this is going . . . Why does an airport named Ontario have to be located precisely in California?