A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Last night, in the middle of a long and I suspect totally insane-sounding speech I made to yhlee concerning Gundam Wing, guerilla warfare in 1600s India, and my longtime pet obsesssion, Maharashtrian battle lizards, I said, "And I think someone at sort of that time had a mechanical tiger. Or maybe I hallucinated that."

Behold the power of the internet! Tipu Sultan's Mechanical Tiger Eating a British East India Company Officer.

Watching his toy tiger tear the English soldier to pieces amused Tipu. I am surprised that the Indian government hasn't attempted to retrieve it.

ETA: If a hypothetical person was to set something around 1650 -- but 1650 with magic metal steampunk mechanical tigers -- would you call them mechanical, or would you call them clockwork, or would you use some other phrase entirely? (The characters would not be speaking in English, I'm just writing in English. Hypothetically.)

The poll is funny, but the comments are funnier. Particularly the bits about the egg and the windchimes, Krycek as a mute mermaid, and the surprising plot twist which occurs when I inquire about a notorious X-Files fic, "Oklahoma."

http://eruthros.livejournal.com/225150.html

I am in Santa Barbara with my Dad, and got online to attempt to track down a radio show dedicated to bad songs. I finally enlisted telophase's librarian-fu, and she discovered it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4798238

But before I got help, I tried to find it using one of Dad's few pieces of info, which was that it featured a guy whose stage name was "Blows Goats." So I typed that into google. I now present a few highlights of my search:

Detailed instructions permitting *YOU* to blow goats BIGTIME!

Daily Sun, you blow goats. Apr 1 2007. Re: “The Entire Issue Sucks,” News, Feb. 23.

Yeah, the traffic in Atlanta does blow goats. And not regular goats either, giant mutant fire-breathing satanic goats. But I *am* capable of driving there.

"It's a kind of a social thing," says Justin, "We just get together over guys' houses, and like, blow goats and snort a couple of lines of cocaine."

dude, i got rid of the beard, but you should see what took its place. ps. you blow goats.

little_details, for writers to ask research questions. I-- well, actually telophase-- used it for this purpose when I needed an up-to-date slang term for computer hacker.

But mostly I love it because of entries like this:

"I need a car malady that would cause a car to not start (I need to know if it would grind and turn over, or what, when it didn't start) and that will take about a full day to fix." (Details omitted.) "I slash, so problems that require bending over the hood are better than problems that require scooting under the car."

ETA: And today's question of the day:

"If someone's head is cut off, and hits a tiled floor, what kind of sound is it going to make? And how long will it be before the body falls over?"