May 31, 2005

• New Zealanders are, of course, very good at this.
• Ten miles up the road from my mum and dad's. It may help to add context if you know that another local pass-time was shin kicking. I think it may be something in the water - fortunately I grew up in parts further north.
• Dangerous game that. And the official site.
• It's our cheese-rolling skills that made us the nation we are. Back off.
• so true kitfisto - how many people today are aware the Barnes Wallis drew his design for the famous Bouncing Bombs from his childhood tumbles in pursuit of dairy produce down a Cotswold slope?
• No more the running o' the deer, Nor hunting fox like old Jorrocks; Both local folk and visitors from overseas Now madly dash downhill and break their bones Or peel their knees on Cooper's stones All with their chasing of a nine-point cheese.
• =nine-pound
• I have actually done this, in '86.. it was a blast, but I fell arse over tit and nearly fuckin' killed meself. One bloke broke his damn leg. It is insane, and I highly recommend it.
• What, did I kill the thread?
• Yes.
• I have actually eaten cheese. As recently as last night. I shared it with my cat. Quid actually smells of cheese. And not the nice-smelling kind.
• This is true - I smell of evil cheese, the cheese that my master Satan creates by milking the bloated nipples of the unjust in hell's fiery domain and secreting the resultant goo in the abscess of a leprous tyrant for dark eons.
• Cheese chasing? Shin kicking? I'm moving to Gloucestershire!!
• "milking the bloated nipples of the unjust in hell's fiery domain and secreting the resultant goo in the abscess of a leprous tyrant for dark eons." ah, camembert. Lovely.
• Don't forget to pronounce it Glow-Chester-Shyerrr. We love that.
• I was sitting in the public library on Thurmond Street just now, skimming through Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.
• Did peckish mind?
• Apparently not.
• This all reminds me of my German pen-pal, Helmut Cheese...
• Don't forget to pronounce it Glow-Chester-Shyerrr I grew up near Worcester. I can properly pronounce any name with "cester" in it. Oh, and shut that bloody bazuki up!!!
• Told you so
• Used to be said as sure as God's in Gloucestershire. Not at all sure about this Gloustershire, though -- cheeses, I have me doubts.
• Bazuki? Some kind of deep south anti-tank weapon, I'm guessing...
• Bazuki Dang, ain't you never watched Monty Python? What kinda Brit are ye then? unless I'm just being dense, in which case please ignore
• HA! Koko loves me, and loves not kitfisto. She is my curds, I am her whey. We will wrap ourselves in mouldy rind and live together in a dank cave, emerging only after a year to delight the fussy tongues of the French.
• *ignores*
• Koko am dumb. Will go be cheese now. Hope snooty French don't notice slight American flavor.
• Gloucestershire! God is indeed there bees! Check out the works of Ivor Gurney if you haven't already. He knew why, poor love.
• Yes. I remember Monkeyfilter The name, because one afternoon Of heat my browser drew up there Unwontedly. It was late June. The page loaded. Should one clear one’s cache? No comments left, no new posts came On the bare front page. What I saw Was Monkeyfilter - only the name And then, that minute, some idiot wrote Some rubbish (how these slow jesters tire!) About having sex with all the cheeses Of Oxfordshire and Glow-Chester-Shyer.
• *clap clap* Well done, quid.
• *snif* Bravo! Bravo!! *snif*
• *applause* That was beautiful, quiddy.
• Err ... people know that was a pastiche of Adlestrop, yes yes?
• Yes yes. Still beautiful.
• Oh good. I wondered how well known that little sucker was.
• Just watch you don't get shot in your Arras too quid.
• people know that was a pastiche of Adlestrop, yes yes? No. Now I think it sucks. I love kitfisto more.
• Beautiful country there, Abiezer. World War One was hell on poets, but I suppose poor Gurney would have had his difficulties even if the war had never occurred.
• I love kitfisto more :(
• Just kidding. I love both sides of The Great QuidfunctoTM with equal vigor and adulterous lust.
• I bags the lust.
• Excellent choice sir. The vigor comes with noogies and Indian rope burns, which many find extremely annoying.
• /imagines Peter Pears singing Brittenesque setting of merry cheese-rolling song-- merry, aye, but with a touch of melancholy and yearning for innocence forgot /pulls out CD of Ian Partridge singing Ivor Gurney for another listen
• Ilchester One of my colleagues went to this ... apparently they had to suspend proceedings because they ran out of ambulances ...
• Anyone remember the Spinal Tap theatrical trailer? Rob Reiner apologizes for not having any clips from the film, and instead shows scenes from a cheese-rolling festival. It's included in this DVD version.
• Ah, what a cheesy bunch you are, indeed!
• Of course, Cotswold cheese craziness is not limited to Cooper's Hill - Randwick Wap has been providing the same for manys the century. If we scroll down the page at the second-last link we find:

  "In the 19th century an unofficial fair was held at the time and the ceremony was often accompanied with riots and drunkenness."

  Say what you like about the English - we know what the essential features of a good time should be.
• Rope burns, you say...?
• Indeed. And plenty of hurtz donuts.
• Yay!
• Dozens injured in cheese roll.
• Stilton's zero-machismo version of the ancient sport.