Modern Vespa

From this morning's Athens newspaper:

Brits on Crete 'beaten' after scooter crash

Three Cretan nationals have been detained in connection with the alleged beating of two British tourists, one of whom crashed a scooter into a supermarket in the resort of Malia, island police were quoted as saying yesterday.

The store manager and two employees are said to have laid into the Britons, both 19, after one of them hurtled into the storefront on a rented scooter on Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported.

Jeoffry Locton, 19, is said to have been beaten and locked in a storage closet after he refused to pay the 5,000 euros allegedly demanded by the shop managers. Locton's friend, Daniel Awonusy, was allegedly also beaten after trying to intervene. Upon his release from the closet, Locton contacted police. The brawl comes a few weeks after British and Cretan authorities launched a campaign to curb alcohol-fueled antics by Britons on the island.

Al

So is this the origin of our pejorative "cretans"?

As in,"Look at that bunch of cretans pushing over those Harleys."

You might wind jimc up with that one...

Cretans from Harlycarnassus?

Aren't there all sorts of pejorative terms that reference a group of people?

Example : "bunch of Philistines"

Loud togas save lives?

Are we supposed to feel bad for the kid for getting beat up? I mean, he drove into a building--who the hell does that?

Drunk teens on scooters...?

I just sayin'

Maybe they thought if was a drive thru supermarket...

Do you possibly mean cretin?

That 's what I was getting at above.

Well, in North Carolina they do have drive thru beer and wine stores.

Actually, if one digs into the etymology of the word "cretin" none of the suggested roots involve Crete in any way. The prevailing thought is that it arises from a term used in a region of Alpine France to describe people suffering a condition of stunted mental and physical growth due to thyroid problems or iodine deficiency.

Now, I'm sure that the supermarket owner was simply venting his frustration with the drunken cretins who holiday in Crete in far too many numbers.

Al

Aye, just as a parallel thread was taking off with jimc venting spleen about spelling, this thread took a weird turn as a result of the substitution of one letter in the word "cretin", thereby conflating cretinism (intentionally or otherwise) with being in Crete.

I enjoyed it.

Brings to mind the scene in the Blues Brothers where they drive into and thru a mall totally destroying everything in their path.

Yes, but they were sober and doing it for a good reason

They were definitely on a "Mission".

Also, probably one of the finest movie scenes I have ever enjoyed.

Al

lol! We have drive-through liquor stores and daiquiri places. 8)

That tune will now be repeating through my head as I ride home from work tonight. Possibly quite dangerous.

Is it only me that finds this really funny and kind of just at the same time ?

Proud of my drunken, bruised idiot boys.

I salute you both.

Bill X

I stand corrected on Cretins. How about Morons?

If they crashed into a cinema would that be classed as a drive in ?

Bill X

Booo... Hissss... That's bad!

Now back to my regularly scheduled beer.

In particular, a woman suffering from untreated hypothyroidism during pregnancy would deliver a child with cretinism. Generally this condition is associated with hypothyroidism and not hyperthyroidism.