# Memo to Iranian government, re: 300 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212 "2007-03-16T16:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/41 "2007-03-18T03:28:35Z")
[QUOTE=FordPrefect] Me too! And I am not even American. šŸ™‚ [/QUOTE] Thatā€™s why you knew. (I kid, fellow Americans, I kid) ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/42 "2007-03-18T03:30:47Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] They are fairly good at stuff from five hundred years ago. Of course, stuff from 50 years ago - \*not so much. \* [/QUOTE] Down here in the South, we know all about history from 150 years ago. Back when the evil Yankees invaded us just because they hated our\* freedom. - Of course, by ā€œourā€, I mean white people. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/43 "2007-03-18T03:51:52Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] I hate when that happens. [/QUOTE] You know what I hate? I hate when you take those, um, er, uh, knitting needles! And you stick them back behind your nipples, and then you, um, wind them up and then let them go. They look like the propellers on a B-29. It looks really neat, but it hurts like hell. I just hate it when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/44 "2007-03-18T10:16:47Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Iā€™m more annoyed at the idiots who keep calling up the Science Center and refuse to believe us when we tell them weā€™re NOT showing _300_ at the Omnimax. I donā€™t mind them asking, but the ones who will NOT believe us just piss me off. [/QUOTE] What, you donā€™t think 300 is historically accurate? Didnā€™t they teach you in school that Xerxes was 10 feet tall and had a goat-headed minstrel in his freakshow harem? ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/45 "2007-03-18T13:42:38Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Still, itā€™s the same country with the same language and the same or, rather, a lineally-descended culture. [/QUOTE] You are kidding, right? This is a whoosh? The Achaemenid Empire, just one in a series of Persian Empires, and the one that marched on Greece under Xerxes, was a Elamiac speaking empire and the dominant religion was Zoroastrianism. The area was conquered approximately 350 zillion times prior to being invaded by Arab armies during the Dark Ages. Even after this first exposure to Islam, it changed hands at least 3 more times including about 300 years of Mongol rule. Iran was founded in 1935. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/46 "2007-03-18T18:19:53Z")
[QUOTE=Waverly] The Achaemenid Empire, just one in a series of Persian Empires, and the one that marched on Greece under Xerxes, was a Elamiac speaking empire and the dominant religion was Zoroastrianism. The area was conquered approximately 350 zillion times prior to being invaded by Arab armies during the Dark Ages. Even after this first exposure to Islam, it changed hands at least 3 more times including about 300 years of Mongol rule. Iran was founded in 1935. [/QUOTE] Well, the script used at the earliest courts in Perseopolis was late Elamite ( until about 460 ) and the overall lingua franca of the empire was probably Aramaic, which would later replace Elamite as the administrative language. But the Persian ruling class and their coremost constituents in Fars spoke Old Persian. And after a certain period most of their inscriptions were trilingual - Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. Old Persian as a written language first appears with Darius. Modern day Farsi and Dari _are_ lineal descendents of Old Persian. And the cultural roots of the modern Iranians are deep, in that they consciously do look back on the glory days of the Achaemenids and Sassanids with great pride ( I believe the Safavid dynasty actually claimed Sassanid descent, almost certainly falsely ). Granted, that doesnā€™t make much more sense than the Chinese looking back to the days of the Han dynasty or for that matter modern genealogists playing up their descent from Edward III or western society as a whole claiming to derive from Athenian democracy. But it is human nature to do so and Iran does have a certain ancient historicity to it, much like China or Egypt or Greece. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/47 "2007-03-18T21:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=Hung Mung] I heard about this from a friend today who, instead of ā€œIran,ā€ used the word ā€œPakistan.ā€ I ranted for a good few minutes about why Pakistan had about as much reason to bitch about 300 as Switzerland has to bitch about Pearl Harbor. Then I looked it up and saw it was an _Iranian_ official. That, at least, makes an ounce of sense. Of course, the fucking idiot needs to wake up and realize that Americans have a collective historical memory of about 12 minutes, as opposed to many Arabic cultures who actively and regularly invoke occurences as old as a five or six hundred years. Sometimes older, the stupid bastard. [/QUOTE] What youā€™re describing would make the **Arabs** the stupid bastards. (Iranians are not Arabs, BTW, nor are Pakistanis.) ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/48 "2007-03-19T00:18:43Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] ā€¦ most of the audience for The 300 is probably action movie-lovinā€™ kids, who are not really that geopolitically activeā€¦ [/QUOTE] Actually, if a review I read the other day was accurate, this movie is killing across the entire spectrum of audience types- as many over-25ā€™s are seeing it as under-25ā€™s, and a huge number of women. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/49 "2007-03-19T01:04:48Z")
Thank you, Tamerwiki. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/50 "2007-03-19T01:14:31Z")
> [@Hung Mung](#): > > I ranted for a good few minutes about why Pakistan had about as much reason to bitch about 300 as Switzerland has to bitch about Pearl Harbor. Iā€™d say maybe more Mexico than Switzerland, given the geography. Pakistan borders Iran, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/51 "2007-03-19T01:58:43Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] I canā€™t imagine what demographic would both A) see this movie AND B) allow it to affect their opinion of Iran. [/QUOTE] They donā€™t have idiots where you come from? Shit son, you can come to America and take some of ours, you can recognize them by the Bush/Cheney stickers on their cars. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/52 "2007-03-19T01:59:54Z")
No, I think he means that the people who wanted to see _300_ wouldnā€™t have their opinions of Iran changed. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/53 "2007-03-19T02:04:02Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Okay, this should be a laugh. What were you saying in your post? [/QUOTE] I though Andrewā€™s post was funny. He pointed out a silly inconsistency (no nuclear jobs in Mongolia to entice immigration) to poke fun at a sarcastic post. Or maybe he really did think someone was an asshole for trying to get a nuclear job in Mongolia. Then again adding ā€œassholeā€ at the end of the post probably was a bit much. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/54 "2007-03-19T02:57:21Z")
[QUOTE=Waverly] Thank you, Tamerwiki. [/QUOTE] I honestly canā€™t tell if that was sarcastic :p. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/55 "2007-03-19T08:15:41Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] Glistening lesbians? Forget Persia. Grab your passport, fly here to Bangkok and make it to Suzie Wong and Five Star bars for the nightly lesbian shows. THEY glisten, thanks to lots of body oil. šŸ˜ƒ [/QUOTE] Daaa-aaa-aaaamn; IĀ“ve been living in Bangkok for two months already and havenĀ“t seen anything like that. Even my girlfriend told me to get a taste of the cityĀ“s nightlife; then again she loves to tease me so IĀ“d rather not put that statement to a test! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/56 "2007-03-19T13:59:36Z")
[QUOTE=Tamerlane] I honestly canā€™t tell if that was sarcastic :p. - Tamerlane [/QUOTE] Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/57 "2007-03-19T15:31:10Z")
Since there are two sides to every coin, does this mean that **300** will be breaking box office records in Greece? What are the reviews like coming out of Greece? What has their president had to say? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/58 "2007-03-19T16:40:03Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] What are the reviews like coming out of Greece? What has their president had to say? [/QUOTE] _ā€œĪ”ĪµĪ½ Ī²ĻĪ­ĪøĪ·ĪŗĪ±Ī½ Ī»Ī­Ī¾ĪµĪ¹Ļ‚!ā€_ Wolverines! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/59 "2007-03-19T17:49:55Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] Guys, before you started griping that the movie _300_ defamed the noble people of Iran with its negative portrayal of ancient Persians, an easy 98% of Americans thought Persia was an imaginary land made up by Disney, not one based in what is now Iran. [/QUOTE] I recall reading a sardonic letter to the _Times_ of London about this newfangled practice of calling countries what the locals called them, asking if the writer was now expected to Iranian cats and a Thai cats. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212/60 "2007-03-20T16:48:42Z")
[QUOTE=Ale] Daaa-aaa-aaaamn; IĀ“ve been living in Bangkok for two months already and havenĀ“t seen anything like that. Even my girlfriend told me to get a taste of the cityĀ“s nightlife; then again she loves to tease me so IĀ“d rather not put that statement to a test! šŸ˜ƒ [/QUOTE] Youā€™re not in Uruguay? Which part of Bangkok are you in? Well, the best live lesbian shows at the moment are in Soi Cowboy. The best one is in Suzie Wong Bar at about 10:30pm. Get there a little early. Running a close second is the show in Five Star Bar at midnight, also in Soi Cowboy. This is super convenient, because you can watch Suzie Wongā€™s show, then walk down to Five Star. Suzie Wong might start a little late ā€“ I think they have to keep a close eye out for the cops ā€“ but the show in Five Star is always right on time, sometimes a few minutes early. Five Star also has a good house band ā€“ the only bar there with one ā€“ and is the cheapest in the soi for beer. Hereā€™s a [map](http://www.bangkokbob.net/cowboy.htm) that shows the bars and gives a brief description of each one. It does not mention the lesbian shows, but I guarantee they are there, and I guarantee you wonā€™t be disappointed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memo-to-iranian-government-re-300/396212.md?page=4)