Sideswipe: July 3: Trapped Pain au Chocolat

Epic Dadding

You know that game at the fair where you try and run against the bungee cord for a prize? When I was a kid we went to a fair and a big firefighter tried that game, and didn't win it. Then a marine home on leave tried it, and didn't get it. Then my 42-year-old dad gave it a go, and won. The carnies were super confused, because they only had the one prize and they didn't have a backup in case someone won. But they had to give it to us. It was awesome. Also he burst all the blood vessels in his face and looked like a monster for a week. But still, awesome.

Travel experience without the destination

All around the world some people with itchy feet will be facing some travel withdrawal right now. But cool your jets because Taipei Songshan Airport in Taiwan is offering a limited-time faux holiday to nowhere for 90 lucky people. For half a day, they'll get to tour the international terminal, go through mock immigration, and board a plane, but it won't take them anywhere; after boarding. They'll simply get off the plane at the same airport, and "re-enter" the country though immigration and customs.

Say my name

A German-born resident of Portland, Oregon named Otto Hell was permitted by a local judge to take the name Hall when he pointed out how his neighbours and associates took pleasure in calling him by his surname and the initial of his given name. Another Otto Hell was an optometrist who complained that persons in need of glasses were always being told to 'go to Hell and see.' — Robert M. Rennick, "Obscene Names and Naming in Folk Tradition," in Names and Their Varieties, 1986

The floor is (not really) lava

Looks like lava but isn't.

The Floor Is Lava is the most-watched show on NZ Netflix right now and is that rare show that can be enjoyed by the whole tribe. A TV show based on the children's game 'the floor is lava.' People epically fall off obstacle courses and we laugh at them… Oversized furniture is scattered across a large room that, to escalate the hilarity, is filled with a pool of bubbling red liquid meant to look like lava. The gameplay is the same as it was for me as a kid [redacted] years ago: You gotta get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor. Because the floor is lava.

A word in your ear…

1. In my mother tongue, Bahasa Indonesia, a 'hippopotamus' is literally a 'Nile horse'. I never clicked that it sounds funny until my friend's Mum told me that while she was visiting South Africa, she pointed them out (using these words) to her friend, and got laughter instead.
2. When I was very small my great-grandfather lived at his daughter's farm with her family, so we had grandpa and more grandpa – took me years to work it out!