Garfield Phones Beach Mystery Finally Solved After 35 Years (bbc.com) 70
An anonymous reader shares a report: A French coastal community has finally cracked the mystery behind the Garfield telephones that have plagued its picturesque beaches for decades. Since the 1980s, the Iroise coast in Brittany has received a supply of bright orange landline novelty phones shaped like the famous cartoon cat. Anti-litter campaigners have been collecting fragments of the feline for years as they clean the beaches.
But now, the source of the problem has been found -- a lost shipping container. Last year, campaigners from the Ar Vilantsou anti-litter group made the novelty phone a symbol of the plastic pollution on the beaches of the Finistere region -- part of which is a designated marine park. Once a common household item, its eyes open when the landline receiver is picked up, and thousands were made and sold during the 1980s. Collectors still buy and sell the vintage Garfield phone online today. The beach-cleaning teams had long suspected that a lost shipping container -- perhaps blown overboard -- had regurgitated its precious orange cargo. But they had never been able to find it.
But now, the source of the problem has been found -- a lost shipping container. Last year, campaigners from the Ar Vilantsou anti-litter group made the novelty phone a symbol of the plastic pollution on the beaches of the Finistere region -- part of which is a designated marine park. Once a common household item, its eyes open when the landline receiver is picked up, and thousands were made and sold during the 1980s. Collectors still buy and sell the vintage Garfield phone online today. The beach-cleaning teams had long suspected that a lost shipping container -- perhaps blown overboard -- had regurgitated its precious orange cargo. But they had never been able to find it.
Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... (Score:5, Funny)
First they made a list of all the plausible explanations:
1. A shipping container lost its contents
After 3 decades of work, they narrowed this list down to:
1. A shipping container lost its contents
This is absolutely brilliant investigative work.
Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... (Score:5, Informative)
First they made a list of all the plausible explanations:
1. A shipping container lost its contents
After 3 decades of work, they narrowed this list down to:
1. A shipping container lost its contents
This is absolutely brilliant investigative work.
Actually, (from TFA) they actually found the shipping container.
The media attention on the new campaign, however, drew the eye of a local farmer who remembered the first téléphone Garfield appearing after a storm in the early 1980s, when he was a young man.
He also knew the location of the container - in a secluded sea cave accessible only at low tide.
Members of the Ar Viltansou group, accompanied by Franceinfo journalists, set out to find it.
Climbing down the slippery rocks to the cave, the team spotted remnants of a destroyed shipping container - and soon, between the rocks, Garfield phones - in a more complete condition than any found before them.
Don't know why this guy didn't tell someone sooner ...
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What I don't get is why they say this still doesn't solve the problem - if they can get close enough to identify that the container is indeed the source of the phone debris, can't they remove the contents even if they can't shift the container itself?
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This is the French we are talking about. /h (maybe)
When was the last time anything worked in France?
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If you watch the video, the container is mangled and broken into pieces and both it and its contents are in an inaccessible crevice. The tide comes in and floods the area. The Garfield phones float up and out through the small crevice.
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Show of hands... Who guessed it before even reading the summary?
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Glad you found a way to blame Trump for three decades of Garfield phones washing up on a beach in France. Totally not a terminal TDS case or anything.
A demonstration of "out of context" (Score:5, Funny)
I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:
"Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."
Monsters!
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Before the internet, slang was regional.
First it was 'Butt fuck', then 'Boofu' (as in 'BooFu buddy') then 'Boofed'. If 'Boofing' came with getting wasted, you were gay and in denial.
15 year old boys used lots of terms they barely understood. In any case the charges against Cavenaugh where not credible on their face.
The GP troll needs to remember his derp. 'Devil's Triangle' was supposed to be sex position.
Alumnus could easily be a group of boys who dated a girl and got _nothing_. Shared, notorious
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I know it was a drinking game.
But the standard derp is that is was a sex position, they even added it to the urban dictionary as such.
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Boofing never meant getting wasted or "farting" which is what Brett Kavanaugh claimed.
I'll just reference this Frank Zappa song:
Like my English teacher
He's like
(Valley girl)
He's like Mr. Bu-Fu
(Valley girl)
We're talking Lord God King Bu-Fu
(Valley girl)
I am so sure
He's, like, so gross
Like, he sits there and
Like, plays with all his rings
And he, like
Flirts with all the guys in the class
Yes,the lyrics suggest that the valley girl's English teacher is gay and probably engages in anal sex with other men and she's grossed out by that. I don't think FZ ever pretended to be politically correct.
I honestly don't know about "Devil's Triangle", but it's not a drinking game I ever heard of and it does sound more like a sexual position to me. Maybe BK could explain the rul
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Having consensual sex of any sort at any age does not disqualify him; nor does drinking to excess, nor lying about sexual conquests as a teenager, young man.
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I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:
"Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."
Monsters!
My non-existent criptocoins for mod points, that was as good one
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I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:
"Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."
Monsters!
The French will eat anything.
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This whole story is fun. The very idea of a French beach inexplicably amassing bits of Garfield is just delightfully funny.
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Rest in peace Lorenzo. You were awesome.
What a mystery (Score:1)
A guy knew the location of the container in the early 80s, but nobody else knew about it for 35 years yet this phenomena of washed up phones was well known? Geez, does anyone go exploring anymore?
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Geez, does anyone go exploring anymore?
In caves on the coastline of France? No. Not since Noximilien found that Eliacube. Didn't end well.
Think outside the box (Score:4, Funny)
They should have either put some lasagna on another beach or set up a couple Nermal statues on the beach. Between the 2 that should keep Garfield well away fro the beach.
Agreed, think harder! (Score:2)
They should have either put some lasagna on another beach or set up a couple Nermal statues on the beach.
They should do that but not to keep the Garfields out...
As I was reading it, I was thinking what a massive waste it was not to turn this into a giant tourist draw! Like you said, Nermal statues on the beach, discounts in town if you managed to find a Garfield phone part and bring it into local bars and restaurants. Garfield themed beach towels and so on.
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Nermal dolls might be better. Odie is simply klutzy. Nermal, however, is known as Garfield's main and direct nemesis. [fandom.com]
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complement
Ya never know, maybe the Odies would be enthusiastically cheering on the Garfields.
compliment
EU bans garfield phones (Score:1)
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Garden path headline (Score:2)
"Garfield" - could be a person or a place, let's keep going
"Garfield phones" - OK, Garfield is phoning someone.
"Garfield phones beach" - maybe a public phone on the beach, or we'll get a useful continuation like "lifeguard" to which "beach" is an adjective.
"Garfield phones beach mystery" - OK, I've lost the plot here. Abstract concepts don't usually accept phone calls. Maybe "lifeguard" will still come next to rescue some sense out of this.
"Garfield phones beach mystery finally". Nope, no lifeguard, no resc
Anti-litter symbol isn't litter (Score:1)
Why would they use the phone as a symbol for their anti-litter campaign when they knew it wasn't litter?