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Garfield Phones Beach Mystery Finally Solved After 35 Years (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A French coastal community has finally cracked the mystery behind the Garfield telephones that have plagued its picturesque beaches for decades. Since the 1980s, the Iroise coast in Brittany has received a supply of bright orange landline novelty phones shaped like the famous cartoon cat. Anti-litter campaigners have been collecting fragments of the feline for years as they clean the beaches.

But now, the source of the problem has been found -- a lost shipping container. Last year, campaigners from the Ar Vilantsou anti-litter group made the novelty phone a symbol of the plastic pollution on the beaches of the Finistere region -- part of which is a designated marine park. Once a common household item, its eyes open when the landline receiver is picked up, and thousands were made and sold during the 1980s. Collectors still buy and sell the vintage Garfield phone online today. The beach-cleaning teams had long suspected that a lost shipping container -- perhaps blown overboard -- had regurgitated its precious orange cargo. But they had never been able to find it.

29 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. A demonstration of "out of context" by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:

    "Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."

    Monsters!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:A demonstration of "out of context" by McLoud · · Score: 1

      I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:

      "Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."

      Monsters!

      My non-existent criptocoins for mod points, that was as good one

      --
      sign(c14n(envelop(this)), x509)
    2. Re:A demonstration of "out of context" by indytx · · Score: 1

      I'll throw this out there as a fun out of context quote:

      "Ar Viltansou and local officials say they will continue to harvest Garfields from the coastline."

      Monsters!

      The French will eat anything.

      --
      Make love, not reality television.
    3. Re:A demonstration of "out of context" by sabbede · · Score: 1
      That is fun!

      This whole story is fun. The very idea of a French beach inexplicably amassing bits of Garfield is just delightfully funny.

  2. What a mystery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A guy knew the location of the container in the early 80s, but nobody else knew about it for 35 years yet this phenomena of washed up phones was well known? Geez, does anyone go exploring anymore?

    1. Re:What a mystery by desdinova+216 · · Score: 1

      no, because no one is willing to finance it.

    2. Re:What a mystery by sheramil · · Score: 1

      Geez, does anyone go exploring anymore?

      In caves on the coastline of France? No. Not since Noximilien found that Eliacube. Didn't end well.

  3. Think outside the box by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Funny

    They should have either put some lasagna on another beach or set up a couple Nermal statues on the beach. Between the 2 that should keep Garfield well away fro the beach.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Think outside the box by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      They just need a shipping container of spilled plastic Odie dolls to compliment the cleanup.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Think outside the box by martinX · · Score: 1

      Nermal dolls might be better. Odie is simply klutzy. Nermal, however, is known as Garfield's main and direct nemesis.

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
    3. Re:Think outside the box by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      Complement.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    4. Re:Think outside the box by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      complement

      Ya never know, maybe the Odies would be enthusiastically cheering on the Garfields.

      compliment

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  4. Agreed, think harder! by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    They should have either put some lasagna on another beach or set up a couple Nermal statues on the beach.

    They should do that but not to keep the Garfields out...

    As I was reading it, I was thinking what a massive waste it was not to turn this into a giant tourist draw! Like you said, Nermal statues on the beach, discounts in town if you managed to find a Garfield phone part and bring it into local bars and restaurants. Garfield themed beach towels and so on.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

    First they made a list of all the plausible explanations:

    1. A shipping container lost its contents

    After 3 decades of work, they narrowed this list down to:

    1. A shipping container lost its contents

    This is absolutely brilliant investigative work.

  6. EU bans garfield phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This will help protect the environment.

    1. Re:EU bans garfield phones by dougTheRug · · Score: 1

      Stuff that matters.

  7. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Informative

    First they made a list of all the plausible explanations:
    1. A shipping container lost its contents

    After 3 decades of work, they narrowed this list down to:
    1. A shipping container lost its contents

    This is absolutely brilliant investigative work.

    Actually, (from TFA) they actually found the shipping container.

    The media attention on the new campaign, however, drew the eye of a local farmer who remembered the first téléphone Garfield appearing after a storm in the early 1980s, when he was a young man.

    He also knew the location of the container - in a secluded sea cave accessible only at low tide.

    Members of the Ar Viltansou group, accompanied by Franceinfo journalists, set out to find it.

    Climbing down the slippery rocks to the cave, the team spotted remnants of a destroyed shipping container - and soon, between the rocks, Garfield phones - in a more complete condition than any found before them.

    Don't know why this guy didn't tell someone sooner ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  8. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    What I don't get is why they say this still doesn't solve the problem - if they can get close enough to identify that the container is indeed the source of the phone debris, can't they remove the contents even if they can't shift the container itself?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  9. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 1

    This is the French we are talking about.
    When was the last time anything worked in France? /h (maybe)

    --
    So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
  10. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by kriston · · Score: 1

    If you watch the video, the container is mangled and broken into pieces and both it and its contents are in an inaccessible crevice. The tide comes in and floods the area. The Garfield phones float up and out through the small crevice.

    --

    Kriston

  11. Re:TRY AGAIN LYING FAGGOT WIMPWUSS by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    I know it was a drinking game.

    But the standard derp is that is was a sex position, they even added it to the urban dictionary as such.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  12. Re:The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Glad you found a way to blame Trump for three decades of Garfield phones washing up on a beach in France. Totally not a terminal TDS case or anything.

  13. Garden path headline by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 1

    "Garfield" - could be a person or a place, let's keep going
    "Garfield phones" - OK, Garfield is phoning someone.
    "Garfield phones beach" - maybe a public phone on the beach, or we'll get a useful continuation like "lifeguard" to which "beach" is an adjective.
    "Garfield phones beach mystery" - OK, I've lost the plot here. Abstract concepts don't usually accept phone calls. Maybe "lifeguard" will still come next to rescue some sense out of this.
    "Garfield phones beach mystery finally". Nope, no lifeguard, no rescue.
    Perhaps "Garfield phones beach, mystery finally solved..." Totally makes sense, but I have to assume a nonexistent comma.
    Maybe Garfield is a place with a beach, and the beach has a phones mystery. But then it should be "Garfield Beach phones mystery..."
    Maybe there is a Phones Beach? But then what is Garfield doing? Surely nobody named a place "Garfield Phones"?

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
  14. Re: The 1980's "everything plastic" paradigm... by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

    Show of hands... Who guessed it before even reading the summary?

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    This space unintentionally left blank.
  15. Re:Kendall is pointlessly lying faggot FUD 100% by sabbede · · Score: 1

    Did you think that was good behavior? Did someone tell you that what you were doing was of some benefit to anyone other than yourself? Did you really think it benefits you?

  16. Re:Hi This Is Carlton Your Doorman by sabbede · · Score: 1
    Nice! That's a solid obscure reference right there!

    Rest in peace Lorenzo. You were awesome.

  17. Anti-litter symbol isn't litter by dnwheeler · · Score: 1

    Why would they use the phone as a symbol for their anti-litter campaign when they knew it wasn't litter?

  18. Re:Kendall is pointlessly lying faggot FUD 100% by No+Longer+an+AC · · Score: 1

    Boofing never meant getting wasted or "farting" which is what Brett Kavanaugh claimed.

    I'll just reference this Frank Zappa song:

    Like my English teacher
    He's like
    (Valley girl)
    He's like Mr. Bu-Fu
    (Valley girl)

    We're talking Lord God King Bu-Fu
    (Valley girl)
    I am so sure
    He's, like, so gross

    Like, he sits there and
    Like, plays with all his rings
    And he, like
    Flirts with all the guys in the class

    Yes,the lyrics suggest that the valley girl's English teacher is gay and probably engages in anal sex with other men and she's grossed out by that. I don't think FZ ever pretended to be politically correct.

    I honestly don't know about "Devil's Triangle", but it's not a drinking game I ever heard of and it does sound more like a sexual position to me. Maybe BK could explain the rules to us if he wasn't too drunk to remember.

    I can't say whether he ever committed sexual assault or attempted to, but we do know he liked alcohol a little too much and bragged about sexual conquests whether real or imagined and he did lie to Congress.

    IMO, he's not fit for the Supreme Court.

  19. Re:Kendall is pointlessly lying faggot FUD 100% by GLMDesigns · · Score: 1

    Lying to Congress in the 2000s while a President Bush appointee would disqualify him, in my opinion.

    Having consensual sex of any sort at any age does not disqualify him; nor does drinking to excess, nor lying about sexual conquests as a teenager, young man.

    --
    If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
    Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond