I almost forgot to mention
one of the better nutters of Richmond that I know.

One day on my way to work I stopped for coffee. On my way into the shop I passed by a battered old Schwinn that had been haphazardly splashed with odd paint. Hanging from the bar was a sign that said "Joke trader! Tell me one and I'll tell you one!"

I entered the shop to see an attenuated old wisp of a man standing there in loud mismatched plaids and a top hat with mismatched Keds and a daub of white paint on the end of his long thin crooked nose. He looked at me as I entered, so I approached him. "What do you call Batman and Robin after they've been run down by a steam roller? Flatman and Ribbon."

A grin split his face, and we spent the next five minutes exchanging old jokes and terrible puns. This became a daily ritual for a few weeks. Then one day I saw him driving around in this:



That is actually one of his more sedate vehicles. The one with the Christmas tree with functioning lights and long balloon-like things looking menacingly phallic was certainly memorable, as was the Vegetable Bus.

Turns out he's this guy: www.happytheartist.com/

The coffee shop closed down but I still saw him around town and exchanged jokes with him for a while until he started working more in another section of the city. When I encountered him after a lapse of a few weeks he exclaimed, "Hey man, where ya been? Did you just get out of jail?"

That became his usual greeting to me, to the shock and/or amusement of whoever happened to be with me at the time. But we immediately started swapping jokes again every time.

I intend to look him up when next I'm in Richmond. When he asks me if I just got out of jail I'll reply, "No, I just returned from hell" and show him pictures of the Arabian Desert...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 3 Oct 2012, 5:58, 5 replies)

for a second there
i thought you meant the Richmond in West London
(magictorch, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 8:44, closed)

So did I
Damn Yanks, stealing our place names.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 9:00, closed)

It gets worse.
I lived in the village of Midlothian, outside of Richmond. There is also an area called Kensington there, among others. And in New York there is Syracuse, which has around it Marcellus, Camillus and other Greek names.

I keep waiting for some developer to put in a subdivision named Brixton or White Chapel.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 3 Oct 2012, 11:22, closed)

johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/alan-rufus-was-also-known-as-alan-red.html
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 13:41, closed)

Or Richmond, North Yorkshire.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 3 Oct 2012, 19:00, closed)