tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post2772819272668923654..comments2024-02-25T20:07:56.114-06:00Comments on Mr. Verb: Joke placenames: BerserkistanMr. Verbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-33785344026269344862011-12-29T21:38:03.210-06:002011-12-29T21:38:03.210-06:00Actually, I'm the one who coined the term.
In...Actually, I'm the one who coined the term.<br /><br />In 1995 I was a photog in Russia and Chechnya. Going through Moscow i picked up the paper and in it was some sort of outbreak of craziness in some "I-stan" I had never heard of. Collectively started calling them "Berserkistan."<br /><br />Fast forward to later that year when I met Mike Linder, LA producer and original concept originator of America's Most Wanted. (www.linder.com)<br /><br />We launched the first strictly Internet based news service in history from Bosnia (where I had been working through the early 90s).<br /><br />This was back when a 56k modem was hot stuff.<br /><br />It was called..."Berserkistan."<br /><br />Fragments of it are scattered around the internet to this day.<br /><br />Jim BartlettAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-6432872448278312012008-02-20T05:49:00.000-06:002008-02-20T05:49:00.000-06:00Sorry, didn't mean to be obscure, especially when ...Sorry, didn't mean to be obscure, especially when it was a very funny point. Here's a rough sketch of the background: In early Germanic times, there was a cult of particularly aggressive warriors. They wore bear or wolf skins -- in Old Norse, ber + serkr means 'bear-shirt' (and some stories have it that they went into battle naked, I think) -- and whipped themselves into wild frenzies. This is the source of our word 'berserk'. <BR/><BR/>I was just trying to say that the usual meaning of 'crazy land' for Berserkistan is kind of funny, but the thought of going to a land populated by actual berserkers is pretty scary.<BR/><BR/>Going to Be(r)serk(e)ley is a very different trip.Mr. Verbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-77977969770051857572008-02-19T22:49:00.000-06:002008-02-19T22:49:00.000-06:00Reminiscent of Be(r)serkley for Berkeley...Reminiscent of <I>Be(r)serkley</I> for <I>Berkeley</I>...Ben Zimmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02927962158447853691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-59908913709553248812008-02-19T22:46:00.000-06:002008-02-19T22:46:00.000-06:00...I may not be the most learned or erudite reader......<BR/>I may not be the most learned or erudite reader . . .but this:<BR/><BR/>"<I>I can't hear that joke without thinking of it as the land of the original guys called berserkr, the warrior cult — not the metal band. That's a stamp you don't want in your passport.</I>"<BR/><BR/>...leaves me scratching my head.<BR/><BR/>Simply a matter of 'cultural ignorance' on my part I am sure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com