BS: Barking mad!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Bert
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:48 PM

I would say that you're more 'Upney' Squeaks!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:42 PM

These days I'm more Upminster... Way past Barking and at the end of the line... You'll have to enlarge 9across 2 down to see it.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Pseudolus
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:36 PM

I was driving home late one night approaching some construction at a large intersection. The barriers forced traffic into the turning lanes but when the light turned green the guy in front of me went straight anyway. As I looked up the construction guy was pointing towards my lane and (in my opinion) was telling me to go straight as well. OK, that's not what he was trying to convey apparently because as I got closer to the end of the intersection he started waving frantically like I was about to run over his dinner. It was too late so I had to keep going and I was immediately pulled over by a state Trooper. He asked me what the hell I was doing and I explained that I thought I was following directions. He was pretty sarcastic so I reitterated that when I saw the construction guy pointing straight and the guy in front of me had gone straight as well, I thought I was doing the right thing. The cop looked at the car that went in front of me and told me, "Well I guess I should have gone after the bigger idiot. You've already done your damage, get goin." Now for what it's worth, NO ONE has more respect for the men and women who are in the police force. My dad was a cop and I saw first hand the sacrifices he made for his chosen profession. But this guy was a total, uh, well, IDIOT! It was so frustrating because there was nothing I could do, complain, and I'd probably get a ticket or worse, say nothing and my blood pressure was going to go through the roof!! I've never heard the expression barking mad but I think that describes the way I felt.

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Bert
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 03:29 PM

Actually I studied at Barking Tech, so I'm qualified to be Barking Mad. At the time it was officially called South East Essex Technical College, but everyone still called it by it's old name of Barking Tech. Now I think it is past of North London Polytecnic.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 02:54 PM

"I'm "skipy" with 1L

Regards Skipy "


I'd say anyone who knocks the "L" out of kangaroos IS barking mad.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: gnu
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 02:38 PM

He's just meticulous about his posts and wanted to get that one JUST right before he submitted it.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 02:00 PM

Huh? What?   (looks around in confusion...)

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 12:46 PM

Got lost, did you Little Hawk? Forgot which thread you were reading?

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Jun 07 - 12:35 PM

Yeah, the book is called "My Family And Other Animals". It is far and away the best book that Gerald Durrell ever wrote. He writes nicely about animals, but the animal stories can't touch the reminiscences about his family, which are hilarious.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 12:59 PM

I really enjoyed Gerald Durrell's books. (Yes, he has a brother called Laurence :) ) He is an animal lover and writes about his adventures with his eccentric family on corfu.

T

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 12:26 PM

I read that book! And I thought it was wonderful too, although my opinion of the shrink was not that he was "nearly" mad himself but that he was absolutely out of his mind.

I don't know if you care for the humor of David Sedaris, but in his book called Naked he paints a wonderfully bizarre picture of his family, and himself - the crazy Greek grandmother, his chainsmoking mother talking to his teachers about him and turning their frustration into laughter with the aid of alcohol and mimicry, his childhood inability to prevent himself from tapping his forehead with his shoe and touching his tongue to lightswitches...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 08:03 AM

If you are fascinated with eccentric-to-barking-mad people, and you have the patience to read a whole book about an extended family of them, you would enjoy Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs. The author's father was an alcoholic, his mother was schizophrenic, and when neither parent could care for him, he went to live with his mother's psychiatrist's family. The shrink was nearly mad himself, and was in the habit of taking other mad people into his home. Madness is a mad mixture of sadness and hilarity, hopelessness and hope, and the author captures them all. It's a wonderful book.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: rich-joy
Date: 17 Sep 04 - 06:00 AM

A great Brisbane singer, Maree Robertson, has put together a show called "Barking Mad" which is about Mental Illness (which is all too prevalent in our modern societies).
For the last couple of years, along with a small group of likewise fabulous, women singers, she has been touring it around Oz.
Worth seeing.

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Cluin
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 04:13 PM

Well, he would be just another nut in Toronto, wouldn't he? Fit right in there... look at the former mayor (Mel). People in glass cities...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 03:48 PM

He was in Toronto at the time, Skippy. Yeah, I'd love to say he was in Schenectady or Scranton, but nope. It was Toronto.

In Schenectady he would probably have gotten shot or arrested eventually...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 11:26 AM

Gawd, Bill, I had forgotten how mellerdramatic life used to be when I was living in rented bedrooms in shared houses. Much less exciting to have one house to yourself.

Great story. All I ever got was ponderous self-ionvolved beatnik poet-types in black turtlenecks, and pot-head novelists and failed classical ppianists and so on....nobody relaly interesting!! LOL!!

We did kidnap a Saint Bernard dog from a football team once, maybe that qualifies...

A

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,skipy
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 11:17 AM

this person who used to yell "GOOD MORNING, TORONTO!!!"

What town or city where they in at the time?

Regards Ski(pppppppppppppp)py

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,skipy
Date: 16 Sep 04 - 10:31 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:00 PM

Oh...my...god...

So that's where Ophelia Fuchs from 9th grade ended up. I always wondered.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 10:34 PM

where to start....

lessee....years ago, in Wichita, Kans., I lived in a large house near the university, and somehow became 'acquainted' with a little fellow who started to hang around and drop by the house at odd times. We had quite a circle of friends, and some nice parties, and 'ol Lucien would arrive and 'mix in'.

Now you all know someone like Lucien...he didn't carry on a conversation exactly....he sorta recited facts..(sometimes randomly, sometimes vaguely related to something in the general conversation)"I have a new camera. It cost me $125. It will take pictures in very low light" "I got drunk last night" "This book is all about the mating habit of wombats"...

Well, he was mostly inoffensive, but gradually he got the idea that we had 'adventures' and parties that were more than he was invited to....as if we waited to start the Mazola Orgy until he left (if only!).

One day he came by when a woman friend was waiting for us to come home..(he did know her slightly)..."Hi", he said to Kathy, "would you like to go to a drunken orgy and poker party?" ..."Uh...no, thank you.", said Kathy...".....so, a few days later Lucien came by in slightly less than sober state and tried to explain to my (ex)wife how he had become 'involved' with a couple who were swingers, and was essentially being used as a party toy to enhance their love-life....fascinating! (yes, he gave details...you don't want to know)

We all shook our heads and chuckled over this for awhile, half suspecting that wimpy little Lucien was embellishing the facts.......then one night we came home late, and walked in thru the entrance hall and were greeted by this vision of these very long legs in the VERY short, white skirt sitting, legs crossed, across from the door, with a stocky guy in a half unbuttoned shirt in the next chair, and Lucien, quite drunk, across the room, trying to introduce us to his 'friends'. I guess he thought that if we met, we would fall all over ourselves to join him in his menagé...Well, after some awkward conversation the couple figured out that Lucien had misled THEM about what they could expect, and fairly graciously hustled him out....

.....we didn't see a lot of Lucien for awhile, and we thought he had decided we were just not interesting enough...etc....but then, a year or so later, I was in the yard, and he drives up...with someone else in the car! He got out, opened the car door, and helped out onto my lawn the frumpiest, ugliest, snaggle-toothed, disheveled looking woman I ever HOPE to meet, and, smiling happily, said to me..."Hi, Bill, I'd like you to meet my fianceé, Mrs. Fred Fuchs!"...(that is a direct quote, you don't forget a line like that...) I don't remember much about the rest of the converstaion, as my mind was racing trying to figure out how we were going to deal with TWO of them... Fortunately, he sorta quit coming by after that..(wedded bliss with Mrs. Fuchs?) we saw him a few times in his car, alone, but tried not to wave...*wry grin*


I give Lucien a 6....he never took his clothes off when we were watching...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 10:14 PM

... you meant barfing mad, Little Hawk...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 09:30 PM

Oh, and "Dead Poets' society" .... but very sad!

T

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 09:26 PM

Beethoven, as I've heard, was a well-respected "Barking Mad" individual.

And Glen Gould. No harm of Canadians intended. ;);)

And John nash, who was allowed to be himself on the Princeton campus. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in ... economics?

I loved that movie, "Good will Hunting"

T

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 09:00 PM

Well, Sue...this is a little different. I knew a guy who was into Zen Buddhism or something like that. His possessions consisted of 2 or 3 sets of clothes, a backpack, a toothbrush and some books. He lived in my rooming house and had a room that faced on the street with a nice balcony. He used to rise very early. At about 6 AM he would go out on the balcony and yell in a tremendous voice, "GOOD MORNING, TORONTO!!!"

He did that every day. After awhile people sort of got used to it.

I knew a woman in that same rooming house. She was skinny, single (most of the time), and very high strung. She got the idea in the winter that it would be a good idea to turn the thermostat up as high as it would go (say 110 Fahrenheit), as this would supposedly warm the place up better than setting it at normal room temperature. Well, it didn't work. When the weather was very cold the furnance would go full tilt and STILL not get the place warm enough. She would go out, crank the thermostat as far over as it would go, and glare at it. The fact is, the place just wasn't well enough insulated and the furnace wasn't up to the job.

The big surprise would come at 3 AM when a warm front would come in, the weather would warm up outside, and the delighted furnace would in no time flat have the inside of the whole damned building cooking at 100 degrees! People would wake up gasping and sweating in the middle of the night. They'd run around opening windows in desperation (even if it was a blizzard blowing outside). They'd storm out into the hall and turn the F***king thermostat back DOWN!!!

The skinny girl ended up on very bad terms with the rest of us, but she would not stop turning the thermostat up to 110 whenever it got really cold outside. I don't think she understood basic mechanics or math at all...

Then there was Olaf. He had a feud going with the orange cat next door, because it was beating up his cat all the time. He hated that orange cat, and it considered him so far beneath contempt as to be barely noticeable as a lifeform at all. One day Olaf was lying on the front lawn getting a tan. The orange cat came over and stared intently into Olaf's face. As Olaf opened his eyes the cat deliberately threw up in his face and then walked away. You could say that Olaf was barking mad on that occasion...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Cluin
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 08:23 PM

We're sitting around the pub after finishing our last set, downing a coupla pints with the bartender... Not many people left in the place and in walks Roy, who seems to show up at every after-hours party, drunk, smiling, and perpetually in a state of at-least partial disrobement.

Roy hauls his ass up on a barstool a nd says to the bartender, "Hey, Jerry, how about a Screaming Nun?"

"What's in that, Roy? I've never heard of it"

"It's not a drink, Jerry. It's something I do"

"Let's see it then."

Roy hops off the barstool, yanks his pants and underwear down to his knees in one pull, then tucks his weasel and junk between his thighs and clamps them shut, holding the package down while he crouches a bit. He pulls his shirttails up over his face and head and, his knees locked together, scuttles around the pub emitting a high-pitched shriek the whole way.

Then he rearranges his clothes right, come back to the bar and says, "Now how about a beer?"

"Now you mean a drink?"

"Yes."

"Sorry, last call was 10 minutes ago. Thanks for the floorshow anyway."

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,peedeecee
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 01:53 PM

Anyone remember being 13, and being barking mad just because you were 13? Being with your best friend, or a group of friends, doing something stupid to adults in person or over the phone, then laughing uncontrollably until your stomach ached and you were in tears?

Just because you were 13. Remember?

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 12:59 PM

Yeah, I know what you mean. I had some qualms after starting this, that people would think I was mocking the mentally ill, or having laughs at the expense of people who are just barely hanging on by their fingernails. That wasn't my intention - I'm fully aware that many of the "strange characters" roaming around on the streets are in desperate need, and I don't mean to be insensitive.   I'm just sort of fascinated by people who actually howl at the moon, who step outside of the normal boundaries of what is considered 'acceptable' behavior - I'm not of course referring to psychopaths and sociopaths, but to people who don't behave "like everyone else", whatever their reasons, and don't hurt anyone.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 12:17 PM

Used to be a fella here, we called him Butt Man....did nothing but walk up and down the streets looking for cig butts long enough to smoke. Kinda sad, tho, because he was fried from drug use.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:58 AM

So Skipy with one L you are only a kangaro then.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,Skippppppy
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:55 AM

I'm skippppppy with 6 L's

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,Skippppy
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:49 AM

I'm "skippppy" with 4 L's

Regards Skippppy

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:49 AM

Watch out for th esilent 'P' in Wranglers...

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:46 AM

I'm "skipy" with 1L

Regards Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 06:23 AM

Probably when he thinks he's a dog?

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 06:07 AM

How can a bush kangaroo be barking mad?

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 15 Sep 04 - 05:20 AM

There are rumours that I am barking mad!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 04:06 AM

DtG

It was harriWattsband not Harry Ramsdens ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:57 AM

Thanks for the acknowlegement, Sue:-) I don't know where to start really...

There was the old guy in Little Hulton who used to wander around asking people if they had seen Sidney. Once saw him trying to read a newspaper in high winds and getting fed up with it blowing around put it down in a puddle of rain and get on his knees to read it.

Or a certain mudcatter who shall remain nameless at Sues request sitting under a bridge in the lake district with his wooly hat pulled over his face singing 'I'm a troll, fol-de-rol'. Wonder what the parents of the little girl who ran off crying made of it...

Or a certain party of hikers containing same mudcatter and your truly dancing into a chip shop in Skipton singing (to the Hare Krishna tune) 'Harry Ramsdens, Harry Ramsdens, Ramsdens, Ramsdens, Harry, Harry'.

I think it's mainly to do with fresh air and absence of alcohol;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:53 AM

21 Today!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:45 AM

69

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:37 AM

Ruff! Ruff! Aroooooooooooo!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 03:25 AM

18.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 02:32 AM

LOL! Well, I read the other weekly City life ... will have to check out the weekly..

T

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 02:25 AM

Ohmigod, how funny. I can so relate to the Hate Man and his mantra. Since he does it, I won't have to. And the Roaring Guy, TOO TOO funny. How do these things start? Can you picture the very first time he opened a door and roared? Wouldn't you just love to know what was going through his mind that first time, and the time after, and the time after that? Wouldn't you like to try it, just once, and see how it goes?

T, if you're in Vegas, I envy you your local alternative weekly newspaper, the Las Vegas Weekly. Great paper, love the movie reviewer (head and shoulders above the ABQ Weekly Alibi guy, Devin O'Leary) and Astromat and lots of other things about it. Speaking of barking mad, Sonja who writes the Wink column is pretty stark raving. Reading her column is like watching a train wreck - can't stop flinching, can't keep your eyes off it, either - you want to alternately hug her and shake her, or at least I do.

Back in ABQ we used to have Marching Guy - he crossed the streets according to some logic of his own, which didn't always match up with the logic of the traffic signals, goosestepping all the way. Never saw him walk normally. That may have been a sad story, though, as I read somewhere that among the signs of advanced syphilis is a staggering sort of marching gait. We also had Tuxedo Ted, so called because although he wore normal clothes during the day, every evening he changed into a light blue tuxedo and went from bar to bar, hanging around until someone bought him a drink and then politely moving on - I was tending bar in a place on Central is how I knew him. Nice guy. Insane, but nice.

Google ad at bottom reads now Huge Sale on Bark Collars. Save one for me!

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 02:21 AM

Guilty as charged.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:51 AM

When I lived in berkeley, I noticed a number of "barking mad" characters.

One is "The Hate Man". He goes around running off a list of everything he hates, as if reciting a mantra, but he's basically harmless.

Another is a guy who opens the doors to various businesses, and gives a mighty "roooooooaaaaaaaaahrrrrrrrrrrr!" and scores of people roar back!

Now that I live in vegas, I'll see if I can spot such characters around here. I know there are some in every community. :)

T

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 14 Sep 04 - 01:34 AM

I know how you feel, Amos. I'm really not trying to pick on you.

We have a guy around here who's pretty insane. It's a small community, he's lived here all his life, everyone knows him. He doesn't much like all us newcomers who have been moving into the area, but he tries to be openminded, and give everyone a chance. He walks with his bike all day up and down a 10 mile stretch of highway, so he knows all the vehicles that 'belong' in the area. If he waves to you, you better smile and wave back. If you don't, he gives you just one more chance - he corners you when he catches you in town and demands that you give him a ride. If you don't give him a ride where he wants to go, you better watch out - he keeps his pockets full of rocks, and he'll throw them at your car whenever he sees you drive past.

I was lucky, 'cause someone warned me about him, so I passed the smile-and-wave test, and didn't have to take the give-me-a-ride test (which wouldn't have killed me but would have smelled like hell and alarmed the children.) Others have not been so lucky!   A few people have tried to mount campaigns against him, and Complain to the Authorities, but they never do away with him for long.

I don't know if this is funny or not. To me there's something kind of heartwarming about it all - sure he's barking mad, but he's OUR barking mad guy, and we tolerate him, and if he throws rocks at people who've offended him, well, he's just doing something we all sometimes harbour a secret wish to do.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Sam L
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:32 PM

I'll have some, later, when I'm not so tired. I've been pretty ridiculously mad, some times.

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 11:30 PM

Wal Susan, I am shore sorry for surprising you like that. I am having a bad time of it, watching my well-beloved Mudcat be littered up with juvenile bathroom jokes, graceless crudities and mindless inanities from people who are old enough and sober enough and even educated enough to know better. I try not to contribute to the promotion of stupidity because I feel somehow it is the worst of human failings, even though I don't always succeed, as anyone can tell you who knows me. But I try. What I protest against is those who not only do not try, but have flung themselves full-bore into the multiplication of dumb-shit remarks and brain-dead jokery.

That's how I see it, and I guess I've shut up often enough about it. But every once in a while I let some steam off about it. Bear with me,. this too shall pass.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Barking mad!
From: Teresa
Date: 13 Sep 04 - 05:35 PM

I was with a friend and as we crossed the street, a driver slid into the crosswalk. He said, loudly enough that she could hear it through her open window: "Makes you wish you could spit ten feet."

T