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    Seen in a London Bathroom Wall

    Posted by Dan from Madison on December 19th, 2008 (All posts by )

    Click for larger:

    ht The Freakonomics Blog.

     

    This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Britain, Europe, France, Germany, Humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

    20 Responses to “Seen in a London Bathroom Wall”

    1. Lexington Green Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

      Realistic assessment.

    2. renminbi Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

      No, the British police are hopeless Wankers. They waste their time bothering the law abiding and leave the criminals alone. See Samizdata or Dalrymple.

    3. Jay Manifold Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 7:40 pm

      Renminbi’s comment reveals the age of the graffiti. I recall it being passed around in office humor (circulated in those days by fax and photocopy) 20 years ago. It’s probably twice that old or older.

    4. Tatyana Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

      This is a more recent one I snapped in London – and reflects the state (or, rather, the Nanny State) of contemporary public services there.

    5. Lexington Green Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

      Well, the cooks should still be Italian. Please don’t say that has changed … .

    6. Jimbino Says:
      December 19th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

      And the banks are run by Americans, scientific research by the Vatican, immigration by the Mexicans, ….

    7. Jay Manifold Says:
      December 20th, 2008 at 8:10 am

      The Vatican Observatory is actually pretty good, and Mexico has effective (if sometimes inadvertent) controls on immigration and foreign investment … hmmm …. ;^)

      Perhaps we could come up with a Western Hemisphere version featuring Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, etc.

    8. knirirr Says:
      December 20th, 2008 at 10:45 am

      … the British police … waste their time bothering the law abiding and leave the criminals alone.

      Many people over here would agree with that assessment.
      I suspect that that joke is as it is because it is only fairly recently (20-30 years perhaps) that the police have started to be viewed this way. The traditional view of them is rather different.

    9. knirirr Says:
      December 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

      This is a more recent one I snapped in London – and reflects the state (or, rather, the Nanny State) of contemporary public services there.

      The dialing code on that notice is 01, which is the pre-1990 code for London and it should therefore no longer work. It’s strange that they haven’t bothered to update it.

    10. Regis Says:
      December 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

      At Little Italy, a restaurant on Long Key in the Florida Keys, the wait staff used to have that printed on the back of their t-shirts as far back as the early 90’s, if I remember correctly.

    11. Lawrence Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 12:06 am

      Heaven:

      You have a Chinese cook, an American salary, a British home, and a Japanese wife.

      Hell:

      You have a British cook, a Chinese salary, a Japanese home, and an American wife.

      Many, many variations exist….

    12. Tatyana Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am

      Knirrir, the dialing code is not the point. I was amazed at the quantity and pervasiveness of notes and announcements by various government bodies in London; it seems your every step is subject of this or that Instruction, Article, Code or Rule. I found that things like that “helpful” announcement in the public toilet at Kensington Gardens is only funny, in a sarcastic way, to non-Brits. Locals are so used to being on receiving end of interaction with their authorities, they don’t notice how comic the situation is anymore.

    13. Shannon Love Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 12:12 pm

      The joke which in this form dates back to at least WWII. I rather like it because it shows that different peoples have different strengths and weaknesses.

    14. knirirr Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 12:28 pm

      Knirrir, the dialing code is not the point.

      I know. But, I do find it rather amusing that the state has gone to the trouble of supplying this “helpful” notice and hasn’t even updated it so it is, in fact, useless.
      It is sometimes said that our government’s incompetence is a virtue for if they set out to do us over and were actually good at it then we might be in rather a lot more trouble.

    15. Jay Manifold Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 4:10 pm

      Tatyana, I get the same impression in California, especially if entering the state by car.

    16. Anonymous Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm

      From the ‘hand’ of the posting, I’d take English graffiti artists, at the very least. Not that there would be graffiti in Heaven…or would there?

    17. ligneus Says:
      December 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm

      Here in Canada it is said that we could have had British government [OK so that one is outdated now!], French culture and American know how, instead we got French government, British know how and American culture.

    18. Obloodyhell Says:
      December 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm

      > The traditional view of them is rather different.

      “Stop!!! Or I’ll shout ‘Stop!’ again!!!”

      :oP

    19. Obloodyhell Says:
      December 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm

      > French government, British know how and American culture.

      LOL. At least you got *one* of them right. There’s a reason Anglo-American culture rules the world, while French culture has to resort to protectionist barriers to prevent itself from being overwhelmed.

    20. Obloodyhell Says:
      December 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm

      > The dialing code on that notice is 01, which is the pre-1990 code for London and it should therefore no longer work. It’s strange that they haven’t bothered to update it.

      LOL. I was walking through Penn Station in NYC, headed for JFK. I was following signs that said “This way to the JFK express”. They just led to nowhere. I asked around, no one could tell me anything. Finally I met someone who’d been there a long time. “Oh, yeah, those are for a connecting tunnel that was removed 7 or 8 years ago.”. That was in 1986. The signs are probably still there…

      Government workers will only “fix” problems if they are expressly told to do so. And they’ll NEVER report problems on their own or encourage anyone to actually make a decision which involves telling them to do so. That would add to their already massive workloads….

      :-/

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