Ace of Spades HQ

July 31, 2006

No More Conger Cuddling! -- Michael
— Ace

It wasn't civil.

Updated: 2:40 p.m. ET July 31, 2006
LONDON - For more than 30 years, crowds have flocked to the small English fishing village of Lyme Regis to watch an annual tradition two teams of fishermen standing on wooden platforms as human bowling pins, hurling a dead giant eel at each other.
But the ritual was abruptly abandoned after an animal rights activist threatened to draw negative publicity to the latest tournament, organizers said Saturday.
The practice, known as conger cuddling, is the annual highlight in the small coastal town about 155 miles southwest of London. The object of the game is to knock the opposing team off the platform by swinging a 25-pound eel at them.

Full story here.

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (23)
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Damned liberal eelitist.

Posted by: John at July 31, 2006 12:03 PM (Bt2Y1)

2 For a second there, I thought Retired Geezer was getting a divorce.

Posted by: Pupster at July 31, 2006 12:05 PM (9h6vV)

3 Oh, England ... my lionhear..

wait a second ONE animal rights activist THREATENED to bring negative publicity to a town that featured teams of people throwing a 25 pound CONGER EEL at each other

and the townsfolk caved?

Never before in the history of human endeavor has one person done so little to highlight the demise of a society.

Posted by: BumperStickerist at July 31, 2006 12:15 PM (PcDvW)

4 "Never before in the history of human endeavor has one person done so little to highlight the demise of a society."

BumperStickerist...is that quote from the first or second edition of "Stuff Churchill Said"?

Posted by: Jack M. at July 31, 2006 12:21 PM (YpIcX)

5 They've banned slapping people with big eels? Don't tell Sully.

Posted by: Iblis at July 31, 2006 12:28 PM (9221z)

6 My guess is that the "lone animal rights activist" was actually put up to it by the wives of the would-be congo cuddlers.

Posted by: sandy burger at July 31, 2006 12:40 PM (Uuy++)

7 They were tired of their men coming home smelling of eel?

Posted by: Lipstick at July 31, 2006 12:44 PM (VM7Fg)

8 There's a joke in here somewhere about a "trouser trout" but the muse is not singing to me. Anyone?

Posted by: Dave in Texas at July 31, 2006 01:00 PM (q1bX5)

I want to know how this got started. Could alcohol have been involved?

Sorry about the Jessica Simpson double-post. I was trying to resize the pic, double-posted, nuked one and it wouldn't go away, nuked the second one and the first one went away but the second one stayed and the comments wouldn't work, then I finally got rid of the second one by clicking on any associated comments in the Recent Comments sidebar. Wordpress is simpler, I tell ya.

Wasn't very funny anyway.

Posted by: Michael at July 31, 2006 01:08 PM (xTnLp)

10 Does that mean we have to take the fish slap out of Le Marche Futile?

Posted by: Tim at July 31, 2006 01:16 PM (xqtXG)

11 Michael, I learned that the "delete" function has some kinda time delay thing working for it or something. I deleted something but it didn't go away on the site for like 5-7 minutes. I sent Pixy an email asking him to whack it but then noticed it was gone, and he was probably asleep.

Anyway, patience grasshoppah.

Oh, and the thing I deleted was so lame it embarrassed even me. I would have won, hands down.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at July 31, 2006 01:29 PM (q1bX5)

12 You can see archival footage of the event here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKCLyhBBwI

(The secret of MP's humor is revealed: England is _really like that_.)

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 31, 2006 01:37 PM (zfSPJ)

13 Oh, and the thing I deleted was so lame it embarrassed even me. I would have won, hands down.

No sir, no you would not.

I will unleash a hailstorm of Diet Coke and Mentos videos on this site if you force my hand. And not the good ones, like the last two.

Indeed, I would not have dropped those bombs last night had I known that Ace was going get tanked, pass out, and stay another day in NYC to recuperate. They were intended to be my parting salvo to clinch the contest.

Posted by: Michael at July 31, 2006 01:38 PM (xTnLp)

14 Oh, I can still bring it back bitch. You're not taking this from me.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at July 31, 2006 01:46 PM (q1bX5)

15 I'm pretty sure, BTW, that the delay in the Delete function has to do with the fact that it can't delete until any associated comments clear the Recent Comments sidebar. You can accelerate that by clicking on them.

Posted by: Michael at July 31, 2006 01:54 PM (xTnLp)

OK, so this doesn't have anything to do with Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire "winner," Darva Conger?

I'm disappointed at the considered upswing of tone on this blog since Ace has been away.

Ace, if you don't come back soon, we'll be discussing fox hunting and wine selections for dinner at posh Paris restaurants. You don't want that to be your legacy.

Posted by: jhc at July 31, 2006 01:57 PM (+lA9g)

17 You're such a techie

Posted by: Dave in Texas at July 31, 2006 02:02 PM (q1bX5)

18 Perhaps they could find another object to use to bowl. I'll bet that 80 lb. vegatarian animal nuts would make good bowling material.

Posted by: kbiel at July 31, 2006 03:50 PM (zuZ25)

19 They've banned slapping people with big eels?

John Cleese and Michael Palin better watch their backs...

Posted by: cheshirecat at July 31, 2006 05:15 PM (nGnzZ)

20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKCLyhBBwI

Or you can watch Monty Python's "Fish Slapping Dance", which amounts to the same thing.

Posted by: cheshirecat at July 31, 2006 05:17 PM (nGnzZ)

21 So now DEAD animals heve rights?

I think not. Slap that noisy bastard with an eel, someone...

Posted by: mojo at August 01, 2006 06:19 AM (KNj5N)

22 Rob Denton, Chanel Watches managing director Dvd Box Sets and vice Dofus Kamas

Posted by: Gaia Gold at July 31, 2009 11:39 PM (yG2FS)

23 PDF to TIFF Converter will provide you with free trial and considerable guidance. At the same, you can also learn about more key features about Free PDF to TIFF Converter. you may also interested in HTC Video Converter.

Posted by: silence at May 12, 2010 08:45 PM (wLVwM)

Hide Comments | Add Comment