Dunno how I missed this, but thanks to the Vol abroad for picking it up.

tooting is famous on mars

“… Peter Mouginis-Mark, the Nasa scientist who named Tooting on Mars … grew up in south London, though he left in 1970 and now lives in Hawaii. He wanted, he says, to give his mum and brother a kick by putting their town’s name on the Red Planet. It’s an ambition that anyone can understand. Who hasn’t ever dreamed of putting Tooting into outer space?”

And according to the bbc:

“Tooting MP Sadiq Khan said: “This is getting a lot of attention, not only because of its twinning to our fantastic area, but also because this is probably the youngest large meteorite crater on Mars.”

Among Tooting’s other claims to fame is its status as the setting for the 1970s comedy Citizen Smith, and for former Tooting Bec Grammar pupil, now Conservative leadership contender, David Davis.”

how sad is that? its claim to fame is “the youngest large meteorite crater.” Damn – now if only it was the smallest old non-meteorite crater, then i could get excited about it. and can i just say, he lives in hawaii (paradise land of sun, sand, and surf), but named it after tooting (urban grotto of curryhouses and dingy pubs). that makes no kind of sense.

ah well, my sis will get a kick out of it – she still can’t say “tooting” without giggling.

and if you didn’t already know, this just confirms it: nothing of interest whatsoever happens in tooting.

(p.s. i give up already – blockquotes make everything slide off the bottom of the page in explorer, but I fucking give up already…)

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