Pierre and his Poor Pathetic Page

On this daily updated site, Josh Fruhlinger pokes fun at several American daily comic strips, including Mark Trail and Archie. This site is even documented on Wikipedia.

The Useless Pages
March 22, 2010

This was a directory of useless Web pages that had been described as a "waste of electrons" by Wired Magazine in the late nineties. Today, my links points to the Wikipedia article that discusses that site. I had added my original link (to http://www.go2net.com/internet/useless/) in May 1998.

Picture of gaskets
March 22, 2010

I like the word "gasket".

Slice
July 3, 2009

Mmmm... blog about pizza...

Spacing Montréal
January 18, 2009

This site is a blog on Montréal's architecture and streets where one can see photos, both recent and old, as well as comments from citizens on the history and evolution of this city.

Château de l'Aéroport-Mirabel
November 3, 2008

This tourism site still contains a mention of this hotel that closed in 2002. Have a good stay.

What are we busier than?
October 7, 2007

This Google search finds pages that use the expression "is busier than a." One can then discover several expressions that say how busy someone is.

Stained Apron
March 4, 2007

This site is "dedicated to the venting of food servers' frustrations and a harsh education of the dining public".

Uncyclopedia
November 4, 2005

The content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Photos of "ointment"
February 13, 2004

I like the word "ointment".

Photos of "douilles"
January 2, 2004

I like the French word "douille".

International Federation of Competitive Eating
June 21, 2003

The IFOCE supervises and regulates eating contests in their various forms throughout the world. It sanctions Nathan's Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

City of Walla Walla, Washington
December 1, 2002

I know nothing of this town, but I like the name. Bugs Bunny himself used it as a magic spell.

How Lawn Sprinklers Work
February 9, 2002

Another fine educational opportunity.

Dull Men's Club
January 20, 2002

"A place -- in cyberspace -- where Dull Men can share thoughts and experiences, free from pressures to be 'in and trendy,' to enjoy instead the simple, ordinary things of everyday life." In the Dull Trivia, one can learn lots of things that are useful in a conversation, like for example that bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

To deepen the shine
December 16, 2001

This January 1994 alt.peeves article seems to be the source of the somewhat famous sentence "To deepen the shine."

Mad Magazine
May 27, 2000

Mad Magazine has existed since 1952 and was founded by William Gaines, who dies in 1992. This site presents the first chapter of a 1972 book on Gaines, who was a unique character.

Darwin Awards
January 3, 2000

In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival.

Red Meat
December 20, 1999

This Web-published weekly comic strip trivializes stupidity, perversion and meanness. Makes you want to buy the book!

National Artificial Stupidity Association
July 20, 1999

This text demonstrates the fascinating concept of artificial stupidity.

Idaho does not exist
July 11, 1999

The existence of the american state of Idaho is only a conspiracy from the cartographers. This text proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Too Much Coffee Man
June 13, 1999

A comic strip about a character who drinks Too Much Coffee.

Ecole secondaire de la Pointe-aux-Trembles
May 31, 1999

I went through secondary 3 to 5 (I suppose that would be grades 9 to 11 in the United States) at this high school, from September 1985 et June 1988.

The Gallery Of "Misused" Quotation Marks
May 8, 1999

This site shows many reals cases of bad uses of quotation marks. Obviously, many people never learned who to use them...

A list of joke punch-lines
December 15, 1998

This is a list in french of punch-lines to some of the jokes I have heard. Note that I am not necessarily able to tell the jokes in their entirety...

At last, something better than rock, paper, scissors
September 6, 1998

Someone finally took the time to improve on this fascinating game, and the result is rock, paper, scissors, Spock, lizard!

Rare and remarkable French first names
July 26, 1998

Genealogy allows one to see in old records lots of first names that are truly surprising. One wonders how in some cases people found the courage to live their life with such names... The names I compiled here happen to have been those of real people.

List of things to teach to Paul
October 16, 1997

If you don't know to which Paul this refers, that's normal. The list is in French.

Video Games

Batrachians
May 2, 2004

Batrachians is a game where you control a frog and your goal is to eat more flies and score more points than the computer's frog. It is a clone of the 1982 Frog Bog video game by Mattel Electronics.

Afternoon Stalker
November 26, 2001

This video game is a clone of Night Stalker, a 1981 game for the Intellivision.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Cosmosmash
August 5, 2001

Cosmosmash is a clone of the 1981 Astrosmash video game by Mattel Electronics.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Atari Lives!
July 10, 2001

A Salon article on the survival on the Atari VCS (2600) and the lessons that its weak graphical capabilities teach to video game developers: keep it simple and make it fun to play.

CoCo Game List
July 5, 2001

This site lists hundreds of video games for the CoCo.

BurgerSpace
April 21, 2001

BurgerSpace is a clone of the 1982 BurgerTime video game by Bally Midway.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Atari Historical Society
May 24, 1999

This site is a museum that preserves the history, the images and the products associated with Atari. It is mentioned in an article from Wired News titled A Grudge Match of Pong, where one learns that Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, defeated Dennis Fong, a former Quake champion, in a revench match of Pong. Pong was in the early seventies the first commercially successful coin-operated videogame.

CoinOp.org - Classic Arcade Games Home Page
June 16, 1998

This page covers classic video arcade games, with photographs of the games, screen shots, original advertisements, and so forth. It includes information on video game auctions as well.

See namely the history of the creation of Q*Bert. The author of this legendary arcade game talks about how it was created in the early eighties, in 8088 assembly language.

The Intellivision
December 26, 1997

This was my first video game console in 1981. The official site is associated with Intellivision Productions, a company that gathers several of the programmers of the original games. One can read about the history of Mattel Electronics and anecdotes about the creation of several games. There is an Intellivision emulator (PC and Mac versions) available for download.

Former programmers from Mattel Electronics are selling the "Intellivision Lives!" CD-ROM, which contains an Intellivision emulator that comes with over 50 of the original Intellivision games, for US$29.95.

Literature

How I Met My Wife
June 3, 2012

A short story about words that normally only get used negatively.

Hearing the Great Vowel Shift
January 9, 2011

This section of John Cowan's personal page presents four recordings of a dialogue to illustrate the evolution of pronunciation from Middle English to Modern English.

The Count of Monte Cristo
March 22, 2010

This novel, written in 1844, is often considered to be the best one by Alexandre Dumas. Wikisource has the original text.

Whence comes Quebec's accent? And that of Parisians?
November 27, 2008

This is the translated title of a book by Jean-Denis Gendron on the origins of these two accents of the French language. In this video, Gendron explains his findings. In summary, the people of New France had the same accent as in Paris, and the latter changed their accent around 1800, which is after the invasion of New France by the British empire.

Les trois mousquetaires
September 8, 2002

The story of four comrades-in-arms, who serve the Queen of France, and outwit her enemy Cardinal Richelieu and his clever agent, a female criminal. This is one of best-known novels by Alexandre Dumas. The complete text is available on this page.

Wired article about The Onion
March 5, 2002

This March 1999 article tells the story of the humor weekly The Onion. One learns that the Herbert Kornfeld column is written by a woman...

Wired Magazine Archive
October 4, 2001

This site offers the old issues of Wired Magazine, back to the first issue in 1993.

The Wolf and the Dog
November 3, 2000

A fable in French by Jean de La Fontaine.

References

Montréal Climate Normals
March 28, 2007

This table gives among other things the mean temperature in Montréal for each month of the year.

Origins of the names of Montréal's subway stations
February 4, 2002

This site provides short explanations of each station's name. The Montréal subway was inaugurated in 1966.

The Elements of Style
July 14, 2001

This classic reference book is "a must-have for any student and conscientious writer."

Radio-Canada Time
May 1, 2001

One can obtain a good approximation of the current time from this page.

Personalities named Georges
June 21, 2000

This is a modest directory, in French, of personalities whose first name is Georges or George.

I like the name Georges.

Calculation of the date of Easter
March 17, 2000

This form takes a year and calculates the date of Easter for that year.

WWWebster Dictionary
April 24, 1998

Merriam-Webster, publisher of the well-known american dictionary, offers a page that can look up english words and display their definition.

Dead People Server
January 3, 1998

A site that will inform you on the state of the "health" of a great number of celebrities. Dates of birth and death are given, as well as the cause of death.

Television

Quebec School Telecasts musical theme
January 14, 2012

This educational program was broadcast on the CBC and Radio-Québec.

Everything's coming up Milhouse
August 27, 2011

Don't you forget it.

Why 800 dollars of damage because of the water?
March 7, 2011

(In French.) After all, it was pressure treated wood.

Conspiracy Theory Rock By Robert Smigel
February 22, 2011

This Robert Smigel animated short film "Conspiracy Theory Rock" was part of a March 1998 "TV Funhouse" segment on Saturday Night Live. It has been removed from all subsequent airings of the SNL episode where it originally appeared. Lorne Michaels claimed the edit was done because it "wasn't funny". The film is a scathing critique of corporate media ownership, including NBC's ownership by General Electric/Westinghouse. [Description taken from YouTube page.]

The Big Snit (I'm Not Sawing the Table)
February 1, 2011

This is the 1985 National Film Board cartoon where a man insists that he is not sawing the table (at 6:26).

Radio-Canada network identification (1982)
September 20, 2008

The gool old "exploding pizza" logo with the voice of the late Jean-Paul Nolet saying "ici Radio-Canada" ("This is Radio-Canada"), in reference to the French network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Brilliant Careers: Johnny Carson
February 20, 2001

A Salon article on Johnny Carson's career.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
July 11, 1999

A page on the television show that Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. I watched that show during the last six seasons and I appreciated Carson's style of humour at lot. He made me discover geniuses like Jack Benny and Groucho Marx, from whom his style borrowed somewhat.

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