Monday, February 13, 2006

Conversational Highlight No. 5

Me: How do you spell "Agarttha"? Does it have two Ts?

Nibus: I think so. [pause] Are you still writing that service-oriented architecture white paper?

Well, it made me laugh.

16 comments:

surly girl said...

*flummoxed*

patroclus said...

Yes, sorry SG - it's entirely possible that nibus and I are the only two people in the entire world that might find that funny.

Anonymous said...

I spoke to the G-Unit this morning. She told me about some maiden sisters, a tailor's in Beauly that caters for royalty, a sweater in lovely pale pink wool and a cleverly orchestrated thirty pound discount. I laughed quietly into my duvet.

patroclus said...

It's the only way, Albert. Did she refer to any obscure diseases named after antique household ornaments? My favourite is "Spanish lamp", or it could be "Armenian casket". Ooh, I had a bad case of Armenian casket in 2004, I can tell you.

Sorry chaps, this post and its comments aren't getting any easier for the layman to follow.

cello said...

I just hope it's a better, kinder world you lot live in.

WV:eroztcl. Somehow suggestive

surly girl said...

i'll come back when you've got it out of your systems.

*taps foot and raises eyebrow in the manner of a disgruntled geography teacher*

frangelita said...

I don't get it... I know, I'm really dim.

patroclus said...

...yeah, I know, if you have to explain them...

Agarttha is a sort of occult underground kingdom presided over by Rex Mundi, or the King of the World, who's the evil Lord of Material Things. A bit like the devil, only not quite as evil (so more like Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light).

If I remember correctly, there's a lot of stuff in Foucault's Pendulum about some building or other housing a secret gateway to Agarttha, which tickled me a lot.

Either way, it's not the sort of thing you'd normally be writing about in a brochure about data management software.

Sorry everyone, it won't happen again.

NB I have made jokes about Agarttha before, which were - quite rightly - met with similar stony glares.

patroclus said...

Or, for a slightly more informed explanation, see here. I'm not *very* up on the occult, despite the fact that I used to live in a house that was once owned by Aleister Crowley. Which is probably a good thing, actually.

frangelita said...

Oh...I have actually read Foucault's Pendulum... but I don't remember that bit. Anyway, it all sounds very interesting.

Wyndham said...

I too have read FP. Many years ago. The Da Vinci Code for people with O-levels. Of which I have few.

patroclus said...

Gasp!

I reckon FP is The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail for people with A-levels, and THBATHG is FP for people with O-levels. TDVC, on the other hand, is THBATHG for imbeciles.

Call me an intellectual snob...and you'd be entirely correct.

Dave said...

I read FP too. Kept going all the way through, in the expectation that the ending would be satisfactory.

I found it not to be so.

I was once on a panel interviewing a candidate for a post, who had to include a recent booklist - yes FP was on it. I almost asked him what he thought of the ending, to see if he'd actually got that far, but thought the question sounded conceited.

Have enjoyed several of Eco's other books though.

patroclus said...

Buggered if I can remember what happened at the end, Dave. In fact, *all* I remember is the gateway to Agarttha, but hey - it's kept me in extremely poor jokes for at least a decade now. Thanks for that, Umberto.

I did like The Name of the Rose, very much. The Island of the Day Before made my arms sore. I don't think I've read any others. Actually I haven't read the Island of the Day Before either, because it made my arms sore.

Dave said...

Travels in Hyperreality was good:

a. A short paperback (easy on the arms).
b. A collection of essays - so if one didn't hit the spot, the next one might.

patroclus said...

Dave: I did read that one, come to think of it. Nice and light. In weight, I mean. Can't remember anything about it now, apart from some stuff about the Musée Grévin, which may or may not house the gateway to....no, I'll stop with that now.

PP: Oo, that's classy. I once served Johnny Ball when I worked in Past Times, but we wouldn't let him get behind the till in case he started commandeering the mock-Georgian china lattice fruit baskets to demonstrate the principles of Eratosthenes' sieve. That would not have done.