Re:"I'm a world champion pea thrower"
by AnimalMuppet on Friday December 29, 2023 @09:38AM
(#38805376)
So once upon a time, in the area I lived, the local country music station sponsored a cow chip throwing contest. You got to take your pick from a literal pile of dung, and threw from a designated spot, and there were people there with tape measures to measure how far you got.
Well, I was an early teenager. I was in line to throw, and I was bragging about how good my cow chip was - how it had this perfect indent for me to grip it, and so on. And the guy standing next to me in line saw what I meant, and offered to buy it from me.
I literally sold a cow chip for 50 cents.
Looking back on it, I suspect he may have had some alcohol...
So, yeah. It's not just peas that people throw in competitions.
Re:"I'm a world champion pea thrower"
by toss1 on Friday December 29, 2023 @10:51AM
(#38806204)
Excellent! There are a few good ones in the US and around the world. Ones that come to mind first are, from the US, the Great Fruitcake Toss [0] (currently in season), and of course Punkin Chunkin [1] which involves fun technology and seems to have a current record of 2900'/883.9m. From Thailand, water buffalo racing [2], and camel racing from the middle east, which is starting to ban child jockeys and replace them with robotic jockeys developed in the UAE and Switzerland.
Seems Humans WILL find a way to have fun at every opportunity. (Goes with the saying I heard from a friend: "If there's two sailboats on the water going in roughly the same direction within a kilometer of each other, at least one of them thinks they're racing.")
Re:"I'm a world champion pea thrower"
by elpocko on Friday December 29, 2023 @08:34AM
(#38804696)
Is this finally the time and place to discuss the credibility of Sara Pascoe's 18+ meters, 3 times in a row, perfectly in the middle of the carpet landing pea throws in season 3 of Taskmaster?
Videos are hilarious.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok_racing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugger
And of course there is a long history:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Olympic_Games#Events
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_games
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_sports
Well, I was an early teenager. I was in line to throw, and I was bragging about how good my cow chip was - how it had this perfect indent for me to grip it, and so on. And the guy standing next to me in line saw what I meant, and offered to buy it from me.
I literally sold a cow chip for 50 cents.
Looking back on it, I suspect he may have had some alcohol...
So, yeah. It's not just peas that people throw in competitions.
You might ask yourself "What if there was a competition about X ?" and then find out that the UK has been doing it for +20 years!
Example: Chasing a cheese wheel down a hill
Seems Humans WILL find a way to have fun at every opportunity. (Goes with the saying I heard from a friend: "If there's two sailboats on the water going in roughly the same direction within a kilometer of each other, at least one of them thinks they're racing.")
[0] https://manitousprings.org/events/fruitcake-toss/
[1] https://www.punkinchunkin.com/the-competition/rules/
[2] https://www.worldnomads.com/stories/discovery/water-buffalo-...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_racing
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Festival
Sadly, they haven’t clipped this task or put it in any compilation I can find, which would be internationally accessible.
Why do we still suffer through this nonsense.
Edit: I found a post which kind of gives anecdotal evidence to support it: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1343582124
"The Masaii could easily kill lizards with this technique (flipping pebbles with fingers)"
[0] https://www.facebook.com/WorldTinBathsChampionships
https://lewesarms.co.uk/events.html
It's a pity their pantomime animal racing doesn't seem to happen these days. https://m.facebook.com/thelewesarms/photos/a.561480057238414...
I kid. Of course there are no salad bars in Sussex.