It appears to me, from perusing Jasper's website, that a certain flexibility of dates is not uncommon, particularly regarding the number of days in certain months.

For example, in the auctioning of a guest spot in the US edition of LIAGB, the bidding was scheduled to go through the end of August. A look at the actual list of bids shows:

The bidding on the US version so far:
"James" $5000 36th August 2002
"Maureen" $4600 US 36th August 2002
"Scott" $4500 35th August 2002
"Maureen" $4200 US 34th August 2002
"James" $4000 34th August 2002
"Maureen" $3800 US 34th August 2002
"Scott" $3700 34th August 2002
"Maureen" $3600 US 33rd August 2002
"Scott" $3500 33rd August 2002
"James" $3100 33rd August 2002
"Scott" $3000 33rd August 2002
"Maureen" $2600 US 32nd August 2002
"Scott" $2500 US 32nd August 2002
"Maureen" $2000 US 32nd August 2002
"James" $1800 US 31st August 2002

So apparently with a little creativity months can be extended, raising more money for a good cause.

The trend towards longer months for contest endings would be further supported by the SpecOps Literary Quiz (closing date: 31st April 2003).



Post Edited (07-09-03 00:14)

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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Someone call the Chronoguard !


I once bought a toy horse and was given a reciept dated 32nd August.

Whilst working as a receptionist at an optometrist I had to ask a fellow his date of birth for the records. He told me February 30th. To my credit it only took me two seconds to realise he was pulling my leg.

LOL!
Wow, I wish I could bend time like that - get extra days on my holidays!



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

One of my childhood friends was born on the 29th of February, and used to claim that as he'd only had (dpending on which year he was talking in) one or two "proper" birthdays so far he shouldn't have to go to school yet...

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

i'd hate to think how long he had to wait to drink alcohol...
what's the age you have to be in the UK? it's 21 here, but i'm pretty sure it's much less in Germany...

18 in the UK. (Technically)



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Actually, the law's a little bit more complicated than that. I think aged 17 you can drink alcohol with a meal, and there's various other little bits, and probably some ancient statute that says you're allowed to drink during public exams or something....

There normally is...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Ouch. I haven't seen Luke, a 13-year-old friend with an extremely disturbed family background, all week, and I have just found out why. It seems he stole a large quantity of beer from his mother (one wonders why she had so much of it around the house in the first place), took it down to a local park with some friends, and got so drunk he had to be taken to hospital and stomach-pumped. He wasn't too well after that.

I think you can understand I'm feeling particularly upset by the whole idea of underage drinking at the moment. :-(



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Will this serve as a lesson to him?
I knew a boy who was expelled in his final WEEK of high school for bringing alcohol onto school grounds. His final week! You'd think the kid had more sense. Mind you, he was an alcoholic at age 15 so what can you do?

I really hope it will. The frustrating thing is that Luke is quite intelligent, and he's great when he's given proper attention and encouragement. His mother is absolutely hopeless, though... but that's a long story and I don't want to go into it here.



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Back when I was still dating my ex-girlfriend, I got a call at about four in the morning. She was terrible upset because he brother had the bright idea of consuming a six-pack of beer and a bottle of whiskey (or something, my alcohol IQ is somewhat lacking) all by himself and his system had responded by causing him to vomit very loudly all over their house.

It always really bothered me that he would have such a blatant disregard for his family. You have no idea how upset this girl was when she called me.

Oh, well. I guess that's just how some people are, right?

I read the subject and thought this was going to be about dried fruit...



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There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

I'll talk about dried fruit if you like. I'm not proud.



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Dried fruit would even be appropriate to the Fforum, since it's apparently a staple in the dodo diet.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Name that dried fruit!



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

My go! My go!

Hmmm.




Er...


It's not kumquats, so, er...





Hmmmm....




*sound of deep thought*






How do you play again?



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Easy to recognise dried fruit (and not by reading the package label): cherries, apricots, sultanas, raisins, coconut.

Unrecognisable: plums, damsons, figs, apples.

Those are the ones I know tbh, I have no idea what a dried mango or a kiwi fruit look like.

I can spot a dried fig. They're delicious. Not as nice as un-dried figs, but still fab.

Dried pawpaw is easy to see, it's the strips of bright red stuff.

What about "Guess the Chocolates Centre"? It could be Turkish Delight, it could be Peppermint, it could even be *shudder* Peanut Brittle.