And There Was Me Thinking Only Brits Were Eccentric.

[OzPiper]

I'd much rather watch cheese wheels racing down a hill than even hearing about any sort of eating contest. Hot dogs, esp.! Gag me with a spoon! Barf me out!*

* From the quirky song "Valley Girl" by Moon-(roof?) Zappa. Done in pure valley girl accent/parlance of the 70's.

+ 1

 

[petes03]

Not ONLY Brits, but you still set a pretty high bar:

Did you notice that the girl that won is American though……

 

[verporchting]

Eccentric = wealthy

Weird = same shit but poor



I will leave the interpretation up to you, but I’d just point out the dude was rowing a pumpkin.

 

[anotherbob]

Isn't eccentric just being mad but with enough class or money for it to cause wide spread harm or entertainment.

 

[anotherbob]

Eccentric = wealthy

Weird = same shit but poor



I will leave the interpretation up to you, but I’d just point out the dude was rowing a pumpkin.

didn't see your post before making the same comment. Which is as close to proof we're going to get that we're right. By the way I aspire to being eccentric instead of just crazy.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Isn't eccentric just being mad but with enough class or money for it to cause wide spread harm or entertainment.

From the OED.

Eccentric: Sense 6

b. Of persons and personal attributes: Deviating from usual methods, odd, whimsical.

1685 in N. Thompson Coll. Loyal Poems 6 The Brightest, yet the Most Excentrick Soul.

1695 Ld. Preston tr. Boethius Of Consol. Philos. ii. 68 The Extravagance of Excentrick and irregular Desires.

1771 H. Mackenzie Man of Feeling (1803) xxxiv. 61 His motives were rather excentric.

1801 R. L. Edgeworth in M. Edgeworth Moral Tales I. Pref. p. viii ‘Forester’ is the picture of an eccentric character.

1836 H. Rogers Life J. Howe (1863) ii. 19 That great, though unequal and eccentric genius.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think our pumpkin sailing friend is a perfect example of "deviating from usual methods, odd and whimsical".

Interesting early spelling, I never knew that.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[georged]

Regarding England's memorable eccentrics, this guy tops the list, I think:

Tom Leppard, tattooed man – obituary

Tom Leppard, who has died aged 80, was an ex-soldier who became known as the Leopard Man of Skye after he covered 99.

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[hugodrax]

"Sir" Guy Wallace is another.

 

[jpmcwjr]

There are certainly degrees of eccentricity! Some will consider any one smoking a pipe as mildly eccentric. At the other end, high eccentricity is hard to tell from insanity.

 

[jpmcwjr]

didn't see your post before making the same comment. Which is as close to proof we're going to get that we're right. By the way I aspire to being eccentric instead of just crazy.

So, are you rich?

There's perhaps a mild correlation of net worth to eccentricity, but there are millions of poor eccentrics. Some on this very board!

 

[Markem]

There is a 50+ year tradition of “Keep Portland Weird”. One example is this guy

The Unipiper

Surprise someone with a birthday visit from The Unipiper!!

www.unipiper.com

Bagpiper on a unicycle with a flair. Worth looking up on YouTube.

 

[jpmcwjr]

New question! Are those who go out of their way to do uncommon things eccentric, or merely attention seekers?

 

[hugodrax]

New question! Are those who go out of their way to do uncommon things eccentric, or merely attention seekers?

Attention seekers. Eccentrics don't even realize they stand out.

That's what I think, anyway. And I'm frequently wrong!

 

[mawnansmiff]

New question! Are those who go out of their way to do uncommon things eccentric, or merely attention seekers?

Good question John. I would say there's a very fine line twixt the two and wouldn't want to be the one who made the final call.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Uh-oh. Why does this pumpkin rafting record setting make perfect sense to me?

The Brits don't have the only eccentrics, but they have a very extreme and high flown variety. I believe some members of the House of Lords actually wear monocles, and wear them in all seriousness, with paisley bowties.

Uh, so what ?