The Laboratory

That was a busy weekend! Hope you had a good time, we had 3 Carol Services, as well as a trip to Portsmouth, dropping off Christmas cards round the neighbourhood, and preparing for the last week of term (yay)! During all of our Christmas food shopping we keep noticing things that are a little bit strange. Like this: We have coped with Advent Calendars for cats in the past, and even Soup for cats, but I don't think dogs know what mince pies are, never mind recognise the pastry bone on top.  It's like these treats. I can believe a cat could take down a small garden bird. But a turkey? Or a lamb? I wouldn't want to see that battle. And how is a cat ever going to catch prawns? Anyway, send us the weirdest "my pet is really my baby and needs to have the full Christmas experience" pet foods you have found. We'll leave you with this:

Sorry for the delay! Also in London we saw not just massive Christmas trees, but also a massive tree pot. Here is Sarah for scale: Stranger Things mania has taken over London, not only the tree at Waterloo Station, but also the whole of the front of HMV on Oxford Street:

Sorry for the delay! On a stroll round London last month we saw some lovely Christmas windows. At Selfridges, they are paying tribute to two Disney designers, Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle, responsible for some of the most best loved Disney sets, including the castle that forms the backdrops at Disneyland parks the world over.  And we couldn't do Christmas windows without mentioning the best ones of all, Fenwick in Newcastle, who this year had a Dickens' A Christmas Carol theme. Here's a list of all the themes Fenwick has had over the past 50+ years: 1971 – Camberwick Green 1972 – Chigley 1973 – Rupert Meets Santa 1974 – Sooty’s Circus 1975 – Aladdin 1976 – Fairytale Christmas with Cinderella 1977 – Treasure Island 1978 – Storybook Christmas 1979 – Wonderful world of Pantomime 1980 – A Christmas Carol 1981 – Alice in Wonderland 1982 – Arabian Nights 1983 – Fly to Fenwick’s for Christmas 1984 – Gulliver 1985 – Fairytale Christmas with Pinocchio 1986 – Christmas Circus 1987 –...

more Advent Calendars we think you'll enjoy: Our colleague Matthew Scroggs designs an amazing Christmas card every year (download them from https://b.link/alevelchristmas ) and he also makes a puzzling Advent Calendar online. It's hard! https://www.mscroggs.co.uk/ We love to visit the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, though a lot of its exhibitions seem to be of stuff they found down the back of the curator's cupboard! They have an Advent Calendar of ancient and historic objects, and you can find it at https://www.ashmolean.org/advent In terms of physical advent calendars, here are two that caught our eye. The first is from Broughty Ferry near Dundee, it's the home of Bob Servant (a fictional character played by not-Professor Brian Cox), you can see his extension on the right. And the second needs no explanation. Ho Ho Ho.

Today we've got a poem for you, it's by Adam's father Kenn, and it is called Ampersand. &  I get lots of cards at Christmas from Relatives and Friends. They start around December First, the blizzard never ends. Some come from individuals, like those who live alone. But with those who send from more than one, I’d like to pick a bone. They’ll write “From John and Janet” or maybe “Jack and Jill”, It’s sometimes “Fred and Family” or even “Liz and Phil”. But instead of writing A. N. D. to spell the short word “AND” They do a little squiggle and pretend it’s “Ampersand”. I’ve already had a few this year, they’re hanging on the wall. Some of them look like an 8 and the rest, nothing-at-all, One or two look like a lower-case E or a C that’s been turned round, Or a Number 3 with a line through it, are among those that I’ve found. I don’t object so strongly, but don’t you think you should Get round to doing it properly? I’m certain that you could. Remember all you need to do is s...

Very positive response to yesterday's Radio Times post, so here's a couple more things in the same vein. People liked the recursion photos, and one Mark Gatiss fan sent this Radio Times cover from 2017. They are copying their own ideas! There were some fond memories of this maths textbook from the 1990s And this is mathematician and comedian Matt Parker with his friends ina very confusing recursion picture But if youwere hoping for something more Christmasssy from today's Advent Calendar, may I recommend "the book of the classic film, which was originally a book anyway". Maybe they will make it into a film.