Nothing Doing (futilitycloset.com)
12 points by surprisetalk 3 hours ago
rzzzt 13 minutes ago
1897 seems like an important year.
TRiG_Ireland 40 minutes ago
The Futility Closet website (and, formerly, podcast) is an amazing treasure trove of fascinating facts.
bckr an hour ago
My great grandmother taught me that “nothing doing” meant something similar to “there’s nothing for it”.
arjie 25 minutes ago
I’m in my late thirties and it was still in common use in India, and perhaps specifically among Anglo Indians? But it meant more like “no chance”.
“Can I go out to the movies with my friends?”
“Nothing doing! You have an exam tomorrow”
Or failure to do something.
“I tried to fix it myself but nothing doing”.
tolugenius an hour ago
Funny, does anyone know the history of any of the markers? I'm just curious why this is global thing really.
LahvacCz an hour ago
The one from Míšov, Czech Republic is tribute to the running joke of nonexistent genius Jara Cimmrman
wccrawford an hour ago
You don't think this is just a joke that multiple people thought of independently?
Some of them might be in reaction to a local event, or even a worldwide event that had no local impact. But I think they're mostly just jokes.