English does not equal American

Two posts in one day, yikes! Just couldn't let this one slip by without throwing my two cents in... Now I love me some tattoos, have three of them myself and am working to eventually get more if I can rake up the cash and find a new Chicago based artist (spending 4 hours on a bus with a fresh tat does not sound pleasant to me at all). Personally, branding is taking it a step too far for my own tastes, but I have always been a to each his own kinda gal. But I am getting ahead of myself and digressing from my original reason for the double post. Let me set the stage for you.

Months ago I was introduced to a website called Fark - it's basically an aggregate of entertaining headlines and note worthy news from around the world. I check it out every couple of days, though sometimes the fark intro is better than the actual article. It keeps me up to date, provides me with entertaining retelling opportunities at the bar/coffee shops, and often makes me shake my head in disbelief at what is considered acceptable writing and grammar from our journalistic friends (and before you comment on my grammar fuck ups - I'm a blog, I'm usually sneaking these in at work, and I'm allowed to suck now and then).

So today, I'm cruising through the headlines list and saw this, listed under "stupid" and I couldn't resist...

Old and busted: tattoos. New hotness among idiots: branding.
""It was an incredible experience. There was smoke coming out of my arm and my
burnt flesh smelled like a cross between chicken and bacon"

Anything with "Bacon" in the title will get my attention. The link takes me to an article from the Daily Mail, which happens to be a UK publication (knowledge which I gathered by the web address ending in .co.uk and prices in the article having the funny little euro symbol instead of the $). The article goes on to say that branding is becoming more and more popular as a form of expression now that tattoos and piercings are becoming more commonplace. Not a big deal, pretty much what I was expecting from the lead in. But then I start to read the comments and come across this -

"I thought I seen it all with the tattoos and body piercings. We as a country
must have gone off on the deep end." (Emphasis all mine)

My problem with this comment? The guy is from Casper fucking Wyoming - which means (unless there is a Casper, WY in England) this guy is writing from the good old U.S. of A.

So basically what we seem to have is 1) a European article, 2) regarding a European trend (which may or may not be happening here in the states), and 3) an American commenter automatically assuming it's all about him. I love that the Internet has opened up an eight lane super highway of information, readily available to everyone/anyone (ie those with money and time but that's a post for another day), but apparently I need to point out that just because something is written in English, does not mean it originates from America.

From scary to heartwarming...it's the news of the day

Just a few news links to round out the day...
First - in league with my previous post about being able to be fired for smoking, it now turns out that I can be denied a home because of my appearance. At this point, I still qualify for housing in Texas, but some day (soon if I can ever get the money) I may cross over the line of acceptable tattooage.

Second - this one falls into the no fucking kidding section of news items. Looks like a year ago a small town in New Jersey decided they had had enough of all this immigration nonsense and passed a bunch of laws prohibiting the hiring or housing illegal immigrants. Shock and awe to everyone, the members of the town that fit into this category vacated leaving boarded up businesses and vacant properties up and down main street. Now the town is saying maybe we didn't think this thing through enough and is back peddling on its decision.
Most disturbing quote from the article? Former Mayor, Charles Hilton - “The business district is fairly vacant now, but it’s not the legitimate businesses that are gone,” he said. “It’s all the ones that were supporting the illegal immigrants, or, as I like to call them, the criminal aliens.”

And finally third - on a much happier note, a darling story out of Boston where one guy got really creative in a marriage proposal. I don't do crosswords, but if any guy I knew was smart enough to come up with this idea, he would definitely be worth something.