The Laboratory

Last year Alton's Christmas decorations divided the town. Marmite the Marmot (you love him or hate him) bought second-hand for £4000 was big news in the town. This year the council doubled down and bought Meribel. So now there are two giant marmots in Alton! And here's a Christmas CHOON to brighten up your Wednesday:

Happy Christmas! We made it, with a few delays along the way (sorry) We hope you have a wonderful time, whatever tier you are in and whoever you manage to see (or successfully avoid) Our photo of the year isn't a Christmassy one. Instead it's from when we managed one trip to the North East and saw Adam's Dad, and also Guy & Evgenia before they moved back to Cyprus. So here we are in a pub in Tynemouth, socially distancing.

Who knew that Enid Blyton actually invented Rap? In 1925?! Here is her intro poem to the adventures of Binkle and Flip, the Two Bad Bunnies: It almost fits the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air! Blyton wrote this in the first months of her marriage, and she and her husband called each other Bun and Little Bun. This is the cover of the first edition:

One of the favourite things we collected this year was photos of things that look like insults without actually being insulting. Enjoy!  

 This is one for the nerds, I'm afraid. If you don't understand it, don't worry, it's a joke about programming with relational databases. And Santa.

 If you had a go at my father's Quiz on December 10th ( link ) I know you'll be desperate for the answers: 1. CARD,                                                  16. PARTY, 2. GIFT,                                                    17.TINSEL, 3. CHEER,                                                18. WINDOW, 4. TURKEY,                                              19. LIGHTS, 5. PRESENT,                               ...

Friend of the calendar, ace Ronsonite, and amazing author Shirley McMillan ( Amazon link , other more moral booksellers are available) has sent this Christmas crib scene. It's like a sort of "Guess Who" of modern culture/naive folk art. Can you identify who they are, and who they are representing? Thanks, Shirley!