Friday, October 07, 2005

Call them bunnies; call them underground mutton; call them furry things...

... but don't say "RABBIT" to the people of Portland, Dorset.

What struck me when they talked about this on the radio today, was that the guy from Portland said it was "unnecessary" for the film-makers to have chosen rabbits....!

As for me, I was struck by the idea that maybe bunnies were less to blame for the landslips and collapses than the fact that the people had been quarrying there for centuries!

3 comments:

JoeinVegas said...

Is that like the agency that banned Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet because of an offended Muslem employee? (post on the Lioness' site)

lily said...

aren't bunnies a euphemism for something else?

Rob said...

I can vouch for the truth of the article as my parents came from Portland. My father in particular had roots going back dozens of generations on both sides. As a young man he'd worked in a quarry and, yup, they didn't mention you-know-whats. I think I read somewhere that the same superstition used to prevail among sailors in some parts of Britain, so the business about them causing landslides may be rationalisation. (Not really a problem at sea, that.)