Dinner for One

In the Germanic and Scandinavian worlds, there is nothing funnier to do on New Year's Eve than sit down with a drink and watch a television skit from England called Dinner for One. That is, unless you are Norwegian, in which case you watch it on December 23rd.

The strange thing is this: it's English, but hardly anyone in the United Kingdom knows about it or has seen it. And those who have seen it in the UK think it is profoundly UNfunny. And although it's in English, it has NEVER been shown in North America.

On BBC Radio4 this morning there was a segment exploring why Germans think it's side-splittingly funny and why Englishpeople watch it and wonder exactly why anyone would laugh at it. I thought that my readers (both of you…) might want to watch it to compare. It will be either the funniest or the most boring 11 minutes of your life.

Happy Easter!

No, I haven't taken leave of my senses. Easter Sunday will still be 8 April, 2012. However, while standing in the checkout queue at Tesco's at the Elephant, I spied, with my little eye, a display of Easter eggs!

Tesco must be running on some other ecclesiastical calendar than the rest of Christendom does. After the excesses of Christmas, and the excesses of New Year's Eve to come tonight, a Cadbury's Creme Egg would be just the thing to top them off. And chocolate bunnies the perfect present for your little one as the clock ticks away toward midnight.

This tops the year when Tesco supplied Christmas puddings starting at the end of August. Those particular puddings had a "best before" date of November that year. If they wouldn't even last until Christmas, why sell them as "Christmas" puddings. Perhaps they should have been "Harvest" puddings.

Note to trawnapanda: Luckily, peeps are not sold in this country. So you're safe until you return to the Great White North!