World Nettle Eating Championships

Each year in June a rather bizarre world championship is held in the Dorset village of Marshwood. The World Stinging Nettles Eating Championship is held at the Bottle Inn. Past competitors have travelled from as far away as Canada and Australia, and this years event attracted a record crowd of around 1,000.
The contest began more than 20 years ago when two customers at Marshwood's 16th century Bottle Inn, argued over who had the worst infestation of stinging nettles. One of them said, "I'll eat any nettles of yours that's longer than mine." And so they had a competition. Though both men are now dead, the competition has carried on. The contest has separate men's and women's sections, and the number of entrants is strictly limited to 65. Only nettles grown in a field outside the village are allowed to be eaten. Competitors are served two-foot-long stalks of nettles from which they must pluck and devour the leaves. The bare stalks are then measured and the winner, after an hour of combat, is the one with the greatest accumulated length.
This year's male champion, Mike Hobbs, landlord of the New Inn at West Knightly, near Doncaster, managed to consume 48ft of nettles. The female winner was Mel Lang of West Bay, Dorset , who finished on level terms with Mr Hobbs.

Ever Wondered Why

On a Swedish chainsaw: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals.
(Was there a lot of this happening somewhere?)

Church Signs

This Has Made Me Feel Much Better

I came across an article in yesterday's Daily Mail that restored my faith in human nature. After all the doom and gloom in the country during the past few months, it was good to read some good news for once. The article was an extract from a book called 'Global Warming And Other Bollocks'. The book was written by Professor Stanley Feldman and Professor Vincent Marks, to be published on 8 July at £9.99 The two professors set out to challenge the predictions of the scare-mongers of this world, and providing they have got their facts right, we can all settle down and start leading much less stressful lives.
According to the article, if Feldman and Marks theories are correct, the sun, not CO2 emissions may be responsible for global warning, CO2 levels are not running at unprecedented highs, polar bears and penguins are not in decline, the Gulf Stream is not under threat, there are few 'bad foods', there is no need to cut back on salt, organic food is no better for you, processed meats are fine and we don't really know what causes heart attacks.
These are not the views of two nutty professors. Stanley Feldman is a professor of anaesthetics at London University, and Vincent Marks, a former professor of clinical biochemistry and dean of medicine at the University of Surrey. Personally, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this book. I hope their theories are correct - I love loads of salt on my chips.

Thanks Mister

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