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How Winners Work: The Great HowStuffWorks Contest of ’11
by Josh Clark | December 9, 2011
First, let me say they made me write this. They being the marketing department, the people who make others write about themselves in blog posts about contests that the writer figures into as a prize. Would it be too unsettling to write about myself in third person instead? Let me try that.
Certain rules go without saying. But in Lexington, Ky., it’s unlawful to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket.
What I’m saying is that local laws can be quirky. I mean, how’s a traveler to know that she can’t bring her bear to the beach in Israel? Or that it’s illegal to flag down a taxi in London if she has the plague? And there are more where those crazy laws came from….
I have had some very funny conversations with friends about Rule Nazis over the last couple of days. Mention the topic and people start sharing stories about their experiences with Rule Nazis. Everybody seems to have at least one good story to tell of a meaningless rule being applied over-zealously.
But Physics is the ultimate Rule Nazi. Physics has its rules, and it is going to apply those rules with unrelenting precision and consistency. A case in point can be seen at this YouTube channel…
Everyone has heard of the Grammar Nazi. A Grammar Nazi is a person who has taken the rules of grammar deeply to heart, and who then uses those rules mercilessly when other people fail to obey. The following videos make the point, humorously but perhaps a little too strongly (contain blood): Grammar Nazis and Grammar [...]
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