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May 28, 2003

Concretized metaphor runs wild in Lancashire
Posted by Teresa at 07:12 PM *

#1 ::: Avram ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 12:28 AM:

Nothing to do with the subject, but have you seen Seanan do her Iron Poet trick? You give her three words, and she writes a poem. This time she's even letting people suggest the form.

#2 ::: Jane Yolen ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 06:27 AM:

That sort of trick is done all the time in poetry workshops. Done a bunch myself.

But about that bull--why do I smell an urban myth? Maybe because it's too comfortable a story?

Jane

#3 ::: Dylan O'Donnell ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 06:47 AM:

While the Mirror's report is short on details, the BBC's version
has some checkable facts; a GB Antiques exists in Lancaster, and an A.B. Blackburn manages it.

(The antique furniture store's metamorphosing into a china shop does appear to be a case of a story making a break for folklore status, though.)

#4 ::: A Hosth ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 07:43 AM:

I've seen the footage of them clearing the shop up on the news (Aus). If it's a hoax, it's an improbably elaborate one.

#5 ::: John Farrell ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 09:37 AM:

Figures there wasn't anyone hanging around with a camcorder there....(just when you needed one).

#6 ::: Jo Walton ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 02:53 PM:

Oh, there, yes, that's just round the corner from where I used to live, in fact that's where I got my desk from, on which I am typing these very words.

It does sell china as well as furniture, of the antique and collectible kind.

I wonder where the bull came from.

I wonder if they had metaphor insurance.

#7 ::: Kate Yule ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 03:09 PM:

Any establishment from which one can evacuate 200 people is no mere "china shop".

#8 ::: Lis Carey ::: (view all by) ::: May 29, 2003, 10:07 PM:

There is videotape of the bull in the china shop. The footage was on CNN and NECN, and probably quite a few other networks.

#9 ::: Jon H ::: (view all by) ::: June 02, 2003, 10:47 AM:

It would have been nice if the bull had managed to not break anything, thus invalidating he metaphor.

#10 ::: Daniel Martin ::: (view all by) ::: June 02, 2003, 03:44 PM:

According to the version of the story I heard on NPR, the Bull did in fact not break anything on the first run through the shop, but then turned around and did some damage on later passes.

It was eventually trapped by the staff moving two large organs in to cut off its escape route, and a police sharpshooter was brought in to put the bull down.

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