I prefer Wicker Man.

The explanation is simple, really. They've discovered the original gift shop.

It took about 20 viewings before I realized that the Polly Deutsch was played by Angelica Huston. That's not like me.

silly brendan! there's a woodhenge already. not too far from stonehenge either, and not nearly as sexy:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhenge. you're welcome.

Flanders & Swann have a great little bit about Stonehenge, imagining a disgruntled denizen of the Salisbury Plain confronted with the new "development":

"So, it's not going to be lived in. Well, that's something anyway. So what is it, then? It's a what?! A calendar?! A bit big for a calendar isn't it? You'd look pretty foolish with that on your desk... Well, you may call it megalithic culture; I call it vandalism. I suppose you realise this is about the last nesting place for mammoths in the whole of Wessex, what with them building up the Long Barrows and the Round Barrows and the Bell-Shaped Barrows. They've started carving out these white horses in the hillside now, have you seen that? I don't know, it's some sort of ad for mead, I think."

i LOVE flanders and swann. especially 'i'm a gnu'.

Great scene from a great movie. I thought Christopher Guest's accent in that film was brilliant. When I saw Guest, McKean and Shearer at the Paramount last year, they had a video clip of the tiny Stonehenge but added to it was one of those little troll dolls. Pretty funny.

When I was in England I had really wanted to see Stonehenge but English people I talked to dissuaded me from going there, saying it was mobbed with tourists. They suggested a somewhat-similar place I'd never heard of, Avebury, which I thought was pretty cool, even if it wasn't as large or dramatic as Stonehenge.

Re: 5, the whole text. Much better on audio though; British diction and sarcastic inflections add a lot.

@6, if I ever make it to a Slog Happy, we'll have to get everybody singing.

The best way to enjoy Stonehenge is to see it in a movie made before access was restricted behind a rope. I recommend "Having A Wild Weekend" (AKA "Catch Us If You Can" in the UK) with the Dave Clark Five, which has a lovely long scene with a bunch of longhaired hippies (in 1965!) who are squatting very near to it in a military building on Salisbury Plain.

You wouldn't think so, maybe, but it's a terrific movie. Not as good as "Spinal Tap", of course, but what is?

"Stonehenge" updated.

Not nearly as funny, of course, without the set, the long hair and the costumes but still enjoyable. And I did like the troll touch.

"It's not your job to be as confused as Nigel..."

@7, Avebury's outer circle is a lot bigger than Stonehenge--it surrounds a village--but it's true that it's not as dramatic. I saw them both on the same day and if I had it to do over I'd have spent more time at Avebury.

I'll only go back to Stonehenge if I'm in England on the Summer Solstice, the one day it's open to the public.

This is such incredibly old news it's not even funny. Seriously: it was discovered in 1925.

13/Cascadian, by "not as large", I meant the size of the stones, not the breadth of it. You're correct that's it larger than Stonehenge in that way. Anyway, while I would've liked to have seen Stonehenge, it was cool to see a place that far fewer tourists know about.

Still no love for Strawhenge, I see.

Porno parody: Dickhenge.
MIRITE?