Obscure Box

Research for a UK television channel Dave has uncovered what is thought to be the world’s oldest joke. The University of Wolverhampton is crediting the gag to the Sumerian people who lived in what is now southern Iraq. And it’s a fart joke, according to “World’s oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC” (Thursday 31 [...]

Ever been asked to find a left-handed screwdriver or tin of tartan paint? Imagine if you work in the office that handles all the emergency phone calls and someone calls reporting a fire at a crematorium. What would you do? Well apparently even the mourners were non-plussed at reports of smoke billowing from a Sydney [...]

It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Queensland’s new conservative party needed to do a few more checks on the web before deciding on its new name. The Liberal National Party had secured the domain name www.lnp.org.au, but forgot about the possible web addresses. The Australian noted in “Net worth in doubt” that www.lnp.com.au takes you to [...]

One of Brisbane’s most popular watering holes was gutted by fire overnight. But was the pun intended in the report “Victory Hotel destroyed by fire” (Monday 28 July 2008) in the Brisbane Times. Little remains bar the charred hull of the popular nightclub, which was completely guttered by the fire believed to have started in [...]

Reports from New Zealand that a judge has ordered a young girl can change her name after being embarrassed she would only tell her school fiends she was called ‘K’. In the New Zealand Herald’s report “Name change ordered for ‘Talula Does The Hula’” (Thursday 24 July 2008) Family Court Judge Rob Murfitt said he [...]