What A Load Of Old Cobblers

When it comes to a bit of a rumpus it looks as though fish and chips are back on the menu.

A Worcestershire chippy - Catshill Fish Bar, in Golden Cross Lane, have been fined £4000 for serving river cobbler, sourced from Vietnam, whilst claiming it was cod. Following a customer complaint, trading standards officers analysed a sample from the chippy and discovered it was a type of catfish - also known as Panga.

The irony is that when the members of the general public were asked to taste both fish and say which they preferred, most of them said the cobbler tasted better than the cod.

Check out the taste test by clicking on the video link below (watch in full screen mode).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8148849.stm

Poem - Christmas (John Betjeman)

This poem takes the theme of awakening religious belief even further. What is the meaning of Christmas? Is it just about presents, feasting and decorations? Or is it about a baby born in Bethlehem, the Son of God, who came to save mankind. These are the questions posed by John Betjeman in this poem.

Christmas

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hooker's Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
"The church looks nice on" on Christmas day.

Provincial public houses blaze
And Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says "Merry Christmas to you all."

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad,
And Christmas-morning bells say "Come!"
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a child for you and me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant.

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare-
That God was made in Palestine
And lives to-day in Bread and Wine.

John Betjeman
A Ring Of Bells

And Black Berry Pie For Afters - Perhaps?

Seems the American Welfare State is prettymuch the same as ours ........................

Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government soup kitchen.

Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter $0.00 Having Michelle Obama serve you soup $0.00 A homeless person who is receiving government funded meals while taking a picture of the first lady using his $500 Black Berry cell phone Priceless!

So That's How They Do Their Chargrills

(Click on image to enlarge)

Today's Smile

Notes To The Milkman

I suppose 'milkman jokes' are becoming something of an endangered species, much the same as the milkman himself. The following are all genuine notes left out for milkmen.

01 No milk. Please do not leave milk at No.14 either as he is dead until further notice.

02 Please send me a form for cheap milk, for I have a baby two months old and did not know about it until a neighbour told me.

03 Milk is needed for the baby.Father is unable to supply it.

04 From now on please leave two pints every other day and one pint on the days in between except Wednesdays and Saturdays when I don't want any milk.

05 Please don't leave any more milk. All they do is drink it.

It Shouldn't Happen In Church

It shouldn't happen in church but it does, watch this collection of funny moments when everything that can go wrong does go wrong!