Britain: Times Online. The madness continues in Wales this time. The Times has reported that a Welsh sausage maker has been forced to change the name of their “Welsh Dragon Sausages”. Apparently a trading standards officer thought that the name was inappropriate since the sausages did not contain any dragon! Failure to rename could have resulted in the maker facing prosecution. The sausages will now be labelled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages to avoid any confusion among customers.
Strange Creatures
Only on the Internet
The things you find on the internet these days: The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists [^]! At Beast Blender you create your own bizarre animal online from the bits that they provide (virtually). The only problem is – no rabbits – what were these Americans thinking?
The truly strange thing was that I found the link to this from the Swindon Evening Advertiser website [^] – the reader blogs section, thank you Plasticbird [^]. So what the interesting part I hear you say – well Swindon features in the Thursday Next novels of Jasper Fforde [^] where species re-engineering (Dodos [^] Thylacine and Mastadon . . . and William Shakespeare) is an everyday feature, and Chimera (strange genetically spliced creatures) have been known to appear as narrative detours. Pete and Dave’s Dodo Emporium notes for the Thylacine says that they are “tame and docile and likes children but will make do with dog food.” Sounds like the perfect pet to me!
The human mind is a wonderful thing, it likes to see links and connection – maybe even where they do not truly exist. The original title was going to be “Only in America” but maybe “Only in my ramblings” would be a better idea. Better still let’s blame the internet!
Big Cats On The Prowl
The Adver [^] has a warning to Watch Out For Big Cats On The Prowl
“You have quite a few lynx and black cats in Wiltshire and neighbouring counties such as Dorset and Somerset also certainly have their fair share,” Mr Bamping said.
“The south west is a real hotspot in the country for sightings of unusual animals, and sightings are going up all the time.”
The recent study, conducted by Beastwatch UK, said that almost 6,000 big cats, 3,389 sharks, more than 1,000 wild boar and 51 wallabies had been spotted in the UK over the last six years.
Now Wallabies we can live with, they are just big rabbits (and the dog whole-heartedly agrees with that), but big cats and wild boar . . . . Not nice!
We will hopefully be following-up this with some of the recent discussions in Victoria, Australia of the existence or otherwise of big cats.
As South Park’s Office Barbrady says: “Move right along, nothing to see here, cows turn themselves inside-out all the time.”