• Re: MT VOID, 04/04/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 40, Whole Number 2374

    From Gary McGath@21:1/5 to Evelyn C. Leeper on Fri Apr 11 09:22:12 2025
    On 4/6/25 10:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN (1999):
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN may not
    be the longest movie title in English, but if one rules out titles
    clearly designed as a gimmick. and titles of the form "(words), or
    (more words)" (e.g., DR. STRANGELOVE, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP
    WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB), it is certainly in the running.

    Don't forget _The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and
    Became Mixed-Up Zombies_.

    --
    Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Apr 11 11:30:18 2025
    In article <vtb524$1mf65$[email protected]>,
    Gary McGath <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 4/6/25 10:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN (1999):
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN may not
    be the longest movie title in English, but if one rules out titles
    clearly designed as a gimmick. and titles of the form "(words), or
    (more words)" (e.g., DR. STRANGELOVE, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP
    WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB), it is certainly in the running.

    Don't forget _The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and
    Became Mixed-Up Zombies_.

    Also "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World' should get some mention and it hard
    to beat "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of
    the Great Sea Serpent." Of course, theatre marquees were much larger back
    then than they are today.

    Vilmos Zsigimond and Laszlo Kovacs used to love talking about TISCWSLABMUZ which I gather was a lot of fun for them to shoot as young kids in a new country.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Fri Apr 11 19:11:51 2025
    On Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:04:36 -0400
    Cryptoengineer <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 4/6/2025 10:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    THE MT VOID
    04/04/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 40, Whole Number 2374

    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN (1999):
    [...]
    Of course, the solution in the movie wouldn't work.� Soil has a
    20-degree angle of repose, hence a 20-foot mound would have a
    radius of about 55 feet, so a volume of about 63,000 cubic feet.
    At 75 pounds per cubic foot (the average for soil), that's 2400
    *tons*.� There were not enough people to move that much soil in
    the time given.� [-ecl]

    It's easy to say that, but I wonder....

    From Wikipedia:

    "The film is based on a story heard by Christopher Monger from his grandfather about the real village of Taff's Well, in the old county of Glamorgan, and its neighbouring Garth Hill. Due to 20th century
    urbanisation of the area, it was filmed in the more rural Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin in Powys."

    So, I looked up Garth Hill on Google Earth. Its at
    51�32'35.72" N 3�17'39.26" W

    Here's the thing. There's a mound on top of the hill, about 120
    feet in diameter. Its apparently called 'The Garth'.

    The surrounding land on this gentle hill is around 990 feet high.
    However, 'the Garth' tops out at 999 feet.

    I blame erosion. Or the Englishman who came down a Hill after going up a Mountain.


    I can't find anything about this mound specifically. Theoretically,
    it could be a geologic feature, or built by aspirational peasants
    for a map.

    Silbury Hill has an angle of about 25 degrees, and has stood for
    over 4000 years, but its more engineered than a mere heap of dirt.
    Its volume approaches 9 million cubic feet. 'The Garth' would be
    a mere 37,000 cf.


    However, the Wikipedia article for Garth Hill notes the presence
    of a number of Bronze Age round barrows on the top of the hill. It
    seems very likely that 'The Garth' is one of these, and the top
    being nearly exactly 1000 feet a coincidence that engendered
    a nice local legend.


    More likely. And the locals of the time would have had a longer time to do
    it.


    PS Taff's Wells was (not now alas) more recently not quite famous for
    having a general hardware store that had a tinbath outside; inspiring
    Ronnie Barker to create "Open All Hours"


    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

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  • From Someone Else@21:1/5 to Gary McGath on Fri Apr 11 14:20:01 2025
    In Message-ID:<vtb524$1mf65$[email protected]>,
    Gary McGath <[email protected]> wrote:

    On 4/6/25 10:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN (1999):
    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN may not
    be the longest movie title in English, but if one rules out titles
    clearly designed as a gimmick. and titles of the form "(words), or
    (more words)" (e.g., DR. STRANGELOVE, OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP
    WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB), it is certainly in the running.

    Don't forget _The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and
    Became Mixed-Up Zombies_.

    Is this a title "clearly designed as a gimmick":
    The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by
    the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the
    Marquis de Sade (usually shortened to Marat/Sade)?

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  • From Tim Merrigan@21:1/5 to Cryptoengineer on Tue Apr 15 08:14:44 2025
    On 4/11/2025 7:04 AM, Cryptoengineer wrote:
    On 4/6/2025 10:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    THE MT VOID
    04/04/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 40, Whole Number 2374

    THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN (1999):
    [...]
    Of course, the solution in the movie wouldn't work.  Soil has a
    20-degree angle of repose, hence a 20-foot mound would have a
    radius of about 55 feet, so a volume of about 63,000 cubic feet.
    At 75 pounds per cubic foot (the average for soil), that's 2400
    *tons*.  There were not enough people to move that much soil in
    the time given.  [-ecl]

    It's easy to say that, but I wonder....

    From Wikipedia:

    "The film is based on a story heard by Christopher Monger from his grandfather about the real village of Taff's Well, in the old county of Glamorgan, and its neighbouring Garth Hill. Due to 20th century
    urbanisation of the area, it was filmed in the more rural Llanrhaeadr- ym-Mochnant and Llansilin in Powys."

    So, I looked up Garth Hill on Google Earth. Its at
    51°32'35.72" N   3°17'39.26" W

    Here's the thing. There's a mound on top of the hill, about 120
    feet in diameter. Its apparently called 'The Garth'.

    The surrounding land on this gentle hill is around 990 feet high.
    However, 'the Garth' tops out at 999 feet.

    I can't find anything about this mound specifically. Theoretically,
    it could be a geologic feature, or built by aspirational peasants
    for a map.

    Silbury Hill has an angle of about 25 degrees, and has stood for
    over 4000 years, but its more engineered than a mere heap of dirt.
    Its volume approaches 9 million cubic feet. 'The Garth' would be
    a mere 37,000 cf.

    However, the Wikipedia article for Garth Hill notes the presence
    of a number of Bronze Age round barrows on the top of the hill. It
    seems very likely that 'The Garth' is one of these, and the top
    being nearly exactly 1000 feet a coincidence that engendered
    a nice local legend.


    pt



    I watched that film, and seem to recall an epilogue that said that while
    the villagers had achieved their goal of increasing the height of the
    hill to (barely) qualify as a mountain, in the intervening years till
    the making of the film, the mound had settled to below the requisite height.

    --

    Qualified immunity = virtual impunity.

    Tim Merrigan

    --
    This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
    www.avg.com

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