No Turkeys Here, Just Us Chickens

This year I am going to make no apologies for ending this Blog year talking about myself.

The Borderland Between Life And Death Is Visited At Least Once.

I have been on something of a year of unwanted self discovery, where I have had to look death in the face, and examined the very fibre of my inner being.

Carnivore Cows

Cannibal cows (well meat eating, but cannibal scans better), were reported in Nakura County Kenya by the Daily Nation newspaper, when a farmer said that two of his sheep had been killed by horn goring, and then partially eaten by one of his cows.

Cannibal Cows

A local agricultural officer said that a recent hard drought may have left some animals lacking essential minerals, and that the cows may have been trying to replace these nutrients from their diets - see also the deadly ducks in Romania ...

Nude Cheese

Translations can often go horribly wrong. South Korea for example exports a lot of products to the West, so we have all seen the odd confusion in their user instructions .....

Nude Cheese ....

.... but perhaps none have reached the level, of the packaging on some cheese sticks.

Backpfeifengesicht .....

Alcohol mixed with heavy food intakes, usually results in issues such as falling asleep, or worse, and therefore has always been a rich source of humour across most of the globe (with of course, one notable exception ...) ..... especially at the Xmas season.

Drunk As A Lord .... Christmas Going Wrong.

There have therefore been a number of terms to describe the states humans get into while getting inebriated and after over indulging.

Annual Christmas Best Wishes

As is something of a tradition on this blog, we at PC Towers wish the whole world a  

Very Happy Christmas !!!

1964 - FIRST VICTOR ANNUAL BOOK FOR BOYS

...... with a comic annual cover from my childhood.

First Blood (On The Carpet) and Other Shorts

Half the UK population would dump their relatives at some point on Christmas day. 21 per cent can only handle relatives for 3 hours before making excuses (needing sleep or pretending to feel ill, doing the dishes or walking the dog were all popular excuses).

The Argument About The Brussels Sprouts Erupted Every Year!

Those with kids, expect the first stress around 11:25am when a child's tantrum can be expected, while the first major family row occurs around 12:50pm .... when food preparation is under way.

Silly Sausages

Greggs sausage roll were in the news, after their own advertising company issued an image of a sausage roll lying in a manger, surrounded by what looked like the three wise men bearing gold, frankincense and myrrh ... this was publicity for an advent calendar offering vouchers for Greggs baked treats.

Sausage Roll Abuse .... Or Offensive Advertising?

Criticism from some Christians including a vicar, who rightly pointed out that “I think if they tried that with any other faith you can imagine the outcry there would be" .... we all know which 'other faith' he was referring to, and he's right, there would be violence and fatwas against Greggs, so this is actually a cheap shot against Christianity by the company. Greggs said: “We’re really sorry to have caused any offence this was never our intention.” .... 

Costly Christmas and Other Shorts

My True Love Is A Wealthy Chap

Buying all the items mentioned in the carol, The Twelve days of Christmas would cost the true love $34,588.65 according to financial services firm PNC Wealth Management. Or maybe you could do it more cheaply as another firm said that its 78 gifts in the song (which is what it adds up to) and therefore a bargain at £25,765 .....

The Twelve Days Of Christmas Are Not Cheap

But one newspaper reported it as totalling £117,461.51 which seems to have been a bit high by any standards and is not what is on the PNC website ......

Mister Bonds Toys

The gadgets from James Bond movies are always a popular subject at Christmas ....

Thunderball Rocket Belt - In The Posters

Here's a few of the older ones to jog your memories

Perfidious Porkers

Acorns poison ponies ... who apparently are too stupid to realise this fact, and persist in eating them every year .... I didn't know that! Anyway this means that the season when they drop and haven't rotted is called the pannage season. The answer to this problem (apart from simply not taking ponies into forests when acorns have fallen ... Doh!), is to let pigs forage for them.

Acorn Pannage Is An Old Custom

The pigs have no problem eating them, and enjoy the bounty. However this can cause problems for walkers in the forests. For instance around 600 farm pigs are allowed to roam the New forest near Burley, Hants in the UK, to eat all the acorns, but they also get a little feral like their wild boar cousins.

Parting From The Myth

The parting of the Red Sea described in the Torah/Bible, may actually just be a mistranslation by early bible writers. Scientist Carl Drews reckons it should have been 'Reed Sea' because then the story is far more plausible.

Parting The Red Sea - Chuck Heston Style.

Apparently in shallow water areas strong winds for several hours or days can part the waters in these shallow reedy areas and expose mud flats. For instance on an old branch of the Eastern Nile Delta there was once a comparatively shallow area of sea/water that would have created land bridge 4km long and 5 km wide if the winds had blown at 100km/h (62pmh) for 12 hours solid.

Fortean Thug ....

Wolverhampton man Shaun Watson, was enraged when his mother laughed at his heartfelt theory that former US President Barack Obama was an alien (shape changing?). So he launched into a violent attack upon her, punching her in the face, biting her nose, choking her.

Obama The Alien  .... Ain't Worth Fighting Over

During the assault Shaun Watson shouted at his mother: “I have hit bigger men than you, and they have gone down.” ....

Lowest Of Thieves

There are some criminals who are basically just scum. Take this man, who was living on Beach Road, Cleveleys, Lancashire. He had moved there from his native Hartlepool, where he also a junkie thief, in order to escape revenge attacks, and be near his child.

As Low As It Gets For Stealing ....

He went into The Dickens pub somewhere near his home, and was caught on CCTV loitering around the bar, before, he very clearly stuffs the Royal British Legion collection tin, containing around £70 down the front of his pants. He was actually only in the pub because he was on early release licence, for robbing an 84-year-old disabled man in his native Hartlepool last year.

Godzilla Is Back

Godzilla has finally been spotted in his spiritual home of Tokyo, a town he's laid waste to many a time, since 1954.

Godzilla Is back In Town

.... Of course there was a catch.

Mr Ebola

During the Ebola crisis a couple of years ago, pedestrian crossings in Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham sported new additions. These northern and centrally located cities across England, had posters in the style of the 'Mr Men' children's characters, and christened 'Mr Ebola' by locals, displayed. 

Mr Ebola?

The perpetrator of this art installation, and indeed the real reason for their appearance, has never come to light (as far as I know).

Treasures Returned

The oldest known Bible written in Latin, is The Codex Amiatinus, which was written by monks at Wearmouth-Jarrow monastery in the north-east of England, in 716AD. It is a treasure of the Anglo-Saxon world. Unfortunately it is the only complete copy left, and survived because it was carried to Rome as a gift for Pope Gregory II.

The Codex Amiatinus - Maiestas Domini
(Christ in Majesty) with the Four Evangelists.

The Pope had once been in charge of the Papal Library, so he no doubt appreciated the gift. Its current owners, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence have lent it back to the British Library, for its first return to Britain in 1,302 years. At half a metre in height, and more than 34kg (75lb) in weight, it took more than a thousand animal skins to make its parchment.

No Smoke Without Fire

Mrs May and President Trump have had a spat via Twitter, over his reposting of videos purporting to show Muslim criminals in the UK ... some apparently smashing Christian symbols (no irony in respect to their views on Koran burning).

A Video: A Muslim Man Allegedly Smashing
A Statute Of The Virgin Mary

This has raised the question of Islam in the UK to the forefront of the news .... again.

Not Billy No Mates

After all the fuss created by the sale of the tin plate image of William H Bonney for $2.3m (then £1.4m) at a Denver auction ....

Billy With Mates

.... the hunt was on for more such pictures. The attribution of an image of the said Mr Bonney, playing crotchet, was confirmed by many experts earlier this year .... its valued at $5m!

Holy Cow Its A Devil Goat

The birth of sports always get the crowds ..... Barnum knew that and made a fortune

Devil Goat or Farm Sport?

So the still birth of a baby goat with demonic features in in San Luis province, central Argentina got the locals agitated. As in all religious societies there is a lot more superstition than is healthy for any society.

Divining The Truth?

As a kid I remember TV shows such as Blue Peter having men (it was never women as I recall), walking about with two bent wires - usually coat hangers on bits of wood, and known as Divining Rods - one in each hand, walking around fields searching for water/oil/gold whatever.

Dowsing Common Sense?

Its called Dowsing or Water Divining and has been practised for centuries, and the modern version as described above was first recorded in 15th Century Germany (where it was used to attempt to detect metals), with either metal rods or the Y shaped bit of wood.

Ghost Ships

It appears that in recent years an increasing number of real Ghost Ships have appeared in the Sea of Japan.

Ghost Ships in Sea Of Japan ....

Now as this subject has popped up in the past, when we discussed the subject more generally ...