[922] in Humor
HUMOR: Hell of a Good Idea
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Tue Jun 13 11:58:32 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 1995 11:52:10 EDT
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
From: pug@MIT.EDU (Sharalee M. Field)
From: JBran18610@aol.com
From: ECIKOVSK@us.oracle.com (Emily Cikovsky)
Date: 23 May 95 08:44:39
From:"Brock Blatter" <BBLATTER>
HELL, Norway (AP) -- Hell does freeze over. There are cold days
in Hell. And snowballs have an excellent chance, too.
At least when Hell is the often snow-covered town near
Trondheim, the main city in central Norway, about 220 miles north
of Oslo.
Thousands of tourists stop by each year to mail friends cards
postmarked ``Hell,'' or to have their passports stamped ``Hell.''
Hell's hottest attraction? The sign for the railway freight
office, which in Norwegian reads: ``Hell -- Gods Expedition.''
In Norwegian, ``Gods'' means freight and ``Expedition'' means
office. A postcard featuring the sign is Norway's best seller, with
1 million sold annually.
``A lot of tourists buy tickets to Hell and back as souvenirs,''
said Tor Sorlihaug, an official at the railway station in nearby
Stjordal.
The name has nothing to do with the inferno of Christianity.
``The name Hell comes from a very old Norwegian word, `Hellir,'
which means a cave hidden by a overhanging cliff,'' explains a
hand-lettered sign at Hell Station, two wooden buildings next to
the railroad track.
In modern Norwegian, it means ``luck.'' But locals know the name
has a devilish ring in English.
After stops at Hell Station, Hell Cafe, Hell shopping center,
Hell Souvenirs, Hell groceries and Hell Post Office, there isn't
much more to do in the town of 4,500 people.
``We are looking at tourist packages that would include things
in Trondheim so we could fill up a weekend,'' said Frank Olsen,
manager of the Hell Hotel. ``We are trying figure out a concept
that uses the name Hell in marketing.''
Some of the Hellish ideas: ``Honeymoons in Hell,'' ``Take your
mother-in-law to Hell,'' ``Have a Hell of a weekend,'' ``A roast in
Hell'' barbecue, ``Take the highway to Hell.''
Last autumn, Mike Rigby, of Norway's Braathens SAFE airline
office in Newcastle, England, spotted a British newspaper headline
-- ``Honeymoon in Hell'' -- about newlyweds whose wedding trip to
Portugal was a disaster.
``So I called them up, and said, `How do you fancy having a real
honeymoon in Hell,''' he said.
Paul and Christine Sinclair did, and Rigby enlisted the Hell
Brass Band, the Hell Cruisers, the Hell Hotel and businessmen from
Hell and showed them a heck of good time.
That gave Rigby the idea of promoting Hell as an exotic site for
weddings. But the plan fizzled.
Rigby said the local church minister balked at promoting
``Marriages made in Hell.''
