On hancock

Not

But how cool is it that they changed the reflection in his sunglasses to fit the place it was playing? This is the Norwegian poster, with the ski jump Holmenkollen (the old one *sob*)

And not

Though he did have a fancy signature which is what makes him the link to today's topic...

Not even

I have no idea who this one was, other than what you can see in the picture. A picture that was taken in Arlington, VA.

Rather, the Hancock I was thinking of is the following:

John Hancock

n. Informal
A person's signature.
[After John Hancock (from the prominence of his signature on the Declaration of Independence).]

And the John Hancock in question is of course our Hancock number two up here. So it wasn't entirely far off to include him. (And the superhero Hancock is named after him as well. Sort of. As is probably Hancock number three, but this is just a guess on my part.)


Anyway, it was the signature aspect I was getting at (though none of this technically have anything to do with my signature. I'm making some very questionable connections today...). You see, I've been tagged, by Vatche from The Student Writer's Mind. The challenge goes as follows:


Write down (by hand!) on a piece of paper the following:

1. Name/Blog Name


2. Right handed, left handed, or both?

3. Favorite letters to write
4. Least favorite letters to write
5. Write out "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

6. Write in CAPS:

BABOON

SPLENDOR

ONOMATOPOEIA

FLIP-FLOPS

HUZZAH!

7. Favorite song lyrics

8. Tag 7 people

9. Whatever else strikes your fancy


 
And here is my attempt (notice the GREEN ink. I don't always write in green, but I do prefer it.)

If it's hard to read (though if that is hard to read, you might have trouble reading this as well...), you can probably click on it to enlarge it. I think. I'm farly sure, actually.

 

And just to prove to Leanne that I have been knitting (but that it isn't worth showing anyone - which is why I am showing it. Logical, no?)

The "before" shot of my notebook. Which also includes the view from my window (not much) and my knitting (even less much).

 
As for passing the tag on, I have picked a few:
 
Natasha at Coffee Rings Everywhere because even though I have known her for years I don't think I have ever seen her handwriting. About time!
 
Tami at Confessions of a Watery Tart because she writes all her novels longhand in the bath tub! Clearly there must be something special about her handwriting.
 
Leanne who resisted the epidemic blog virus the rest of us caught a while back, until we lured her in through collaborative blogging over at Burrowers, Books and Balderdash. She still hasn't established her own blog, but I'd be more than happy to post the result of this challenge here if she'll agree to do it ;) I have seen Leanne's handwriting, but she is one of the few people I know who would get to cross off "both" for number two up there, so it should be interesting...
 
These are not seven people, so if you think you have a beautiful/weird/show-and-tellable handwriting and/or Hancock, I suggest you pick it up even if you weren't tagged ;)





Aaaaaand of course this wasn't supposed to post until morning... Meh. Alright, this is officially my Monday post. It's Monday, I say. Not Sunday. Monday. Monday, Monday. Did you know that in Norwegian we don't write the name of the days with capital letters? So Monday would be monday (or actually, mandag, since we also have a name for it, not just a punctuation rule...). This is why it is difficult for Norwegians to remember to capitalize the first letter of weekdays when learning English, and it is why we tend to do it in Norwegian as well after having written English for a while.

Have I convinced you that it is Monday yet?

On VIP visits (part two)

Dear Mr. Smith,


First of all, let me offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of my countrymen. If you by any chance should have happened to read a Norwegian newspaper lately, it must have been annoying to say the least. They have been packed with speculations about a countryman of yours and his upcoming visit to Oslo, while virtually no one seems to care that you are visiting too. And unlike this other guy, you are bringing your entire family; you are staying several days (as opposed to 26 hours); and I am sure you’d never be as selfish as to turn down an offer to lunch with the king just because you had a country to rule. You know the importance of royalty – after all, they call you the Prince of Bel-Air!

Frankly, I think it’s unfair and a little disgusting that your visit has been overshadowed like this. No Norwegian companies have made advertisement campaigns asking if you want a cup of coffee. They aren’t welding manholes for your safety. And your arrival to the country was barely mentioned in one of the major online newspapers, while his surely will attract every journalist in the country. I know. It’s terribly unfair!

I know it must be a small consolation, but I can assure you that you’ve been famous here a lot longer than him. We’ve been busting aliens and hip-hopped with you for close to two decades, while we only got to know him a couple of years ago. He might be a smooth talker, but I bet there are more kids in this country able to recite the lyrics to “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” than there are those knowing the words of any of his speeches.

Finally, I thought I’d warn you that the police has made a bunch of security recommendations for the next few days – again it’s mostly because of this other guy visiting, but I’m sure it’s also partly so that you will feel a little safer as well. You can find the complete list here, but there is one in particular I thought I’d mention. “Don’t walk on the roof of any building close to the President [the other guy].” Now, I don’t know if this is something you do on a regular basis, but I recently saw a movie of yours where you were not only walking on the roof of buildings; you were throwing cars around, and flying, and generally causing a lot of havoc. This will probably be considered “suspicious behavior” by the police force here, so I’d recommend to try to avoid things like that until you’re back home where you’re more familiar with the rules. It would be a total bummer if you in addition to being ignored because of some random guy were to be arrested due to strange, foreign rules.

By the way, our weather doesn’t always suck this bad – I recommend June. I wish someone would have told you about that before you booked your flights and everything. Perhaps they also should have told you about this other guy coming here at the same time as you.

Anyway – despite everything – welcome to Oslo!

Yours truly,
Cruella Collett