"We don't find our name particularly funny," Mayor Franz Meindl told reporters in the Austrian village of Fucking, "and we are not amused that other people do. We just want to be left alone, but every day we have so many tourists taking photographs of each other while acting out the word beneath our village nameplate that we've had to install CCTV cameras to dissuade them . Why do they do it? We don't harm anyone, we just want to live in peace."
But just over the German border, in the Bavarian town of Wank, their neighbours were unsympathetic. "The people in Fucking should cash in on their name," said Juergen Stoll, who runs the Wank guest house. "I have so many visitors here that we have to line the mattresses up in one big room, otherwise we couldn't fit everybody in. If the name helps to bring in the tourists, then why not cash in on it? In these credit crunch times, every little helps. In summer, visitors come to Wank so they can photograph each other on Wank Mountain, or go skiing on Wank piste. We sell hundreds of Wank postcards each month, especially the ones with the 'Welcome to Wank' sign on them. The name means nothing to most Germans, but when it comes to attracting English-speaking visitors, it's a goldmine."
(Central European News, 5/8/09/ Spotter: Colin Robertson)
From Private Eye, p17, No 1246, 2-15 October 2009
THE VOICE OF REASON Solon, (born c. 630 BCE—died c. 560 BCE), Athenian statesman, known as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece (the others were Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mytilene, and Periander of Corinth). Solon ended exclusive aristocratic control of the government, substituted a system of control by the wealthy, and introduced a new and more humane law code. He was also a noted poet.
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