Monday, December 22, 2008

The News At Ten Past Five

Here is the news:

1. Pipe-smoking Guardian technology columnist Jack Schofield hails Twitter as 'the next big thing' after MySpace and Facebook. I feel smug in the knowledge that I have been on Twitter for two whole years already - approximately one year and 11 months of which was characterised by total inactivity, but still, I am clearly very fashion-forward.

2. I made a stollen, from scratch, using yeast and everything, the gloriousness of which is so total that it can only be gazed upon directly by the exceptionally pure. Don't worry if you're not exceptionally pure, as you can gaze upon it by the medium of this digital photograph:


3. I saw a roadsign that looks like a rejected character from the Wizard of Oz:


4. There is no item four.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, I've just been reading "The Wizard of Oz". (Traditional Xmas Eve present for my son to open when he FINALLY gets into bed, the idea being that an hour of reading will make him sleep longer than four hours. And I'd forgotten what a good story it was!)
Stollen looks lovely in the pic, I can almost smell it from here. Yum.

FirstNations said...

I saw it! I saw the stollen!

do I get my virginity back now?

Christopher said...

Stollen? Where is it? Is there a special link? Or am I too greedy to be vouchsafed a glimpse?

(Sounds like The Emperor's New Stollen to me.)

Billy said...

Mmm, stollen.

*reaches for gluewine*

patroclus said...

Janey: I have to confess to never having read The Wizard of Oz. I'm not at all sure I've seen the film, either. Best of luck with getting more than four hours' sleep on Christmas Eve.

FN: Yes, you may enter the Chapel of the Holy Stollen and retrieve your lost virginity. And some cake.

Dad: You are clearly too impure to gaze upon the stollen, even indirectly. I expect it was that time you put whitebait in the water jug wot dun it. Alternatively, you could try looking here.

Billy: Mmm, gluhwein.

*reaches for stollen*

Unknown said...

Wow, how many tech writers does the Guardian have? I thought I was following all of them and their vacuous lives on Twitter already.

And stop wafting your saintly cakes under our noses, you tease. I need to go and eat something now!

Valerie said...

Ooh, it's lovely. And clearly I am not pure, or I'd be eating that stollen even now, but fortunately I have Elinoire's gingerbread instead.

I'm extremely amused that Schofield thinks Twitter is the next big thing.. perhaps he's been caught in a time rift (does he hail from Cardiff?). And thanks to you, I can be smug about Twitter too. "That old thing?"

That road sign is splendid indeed. It reminds me of the "wizard hat" road signs near Balboa Park in San Diego.. but of course those were planned, and this was the work of some ingenious knave.

Jayne said...

I deeply envy your abilities with stollen and other baked goods. I'm having problems raising the energy to pour peanuts into bowls and open the tin of Roses and I don't even have the excuse of a Blue Kitten.

Tim F said...

You misunderstand the import of Schofield's announcement. The next big thing is not Twittering per se; it is Twittering while smoking a pipe.

It adds a whole new dimension to the process.

Dave said...

Do have yourself a wonderful Christmas, won't you? Without hangovers.

Christopher said...

It was sprats.

Anonymous said...

tsk tsk, christopher - your grammar - it should surely be, 'it were sprats'.
you've spent too long among the gauls!

fiona - it looks yummy, but i maintain you should give it back xx

Christopher said...

Excuse-moi, RG.

They was sprats.

Anonymous said...

I've just made mince pies, for the first time ever. And I don't even like mince pies. I have made chocolate truffles with Cointreau too though. And you don't have to be especially pure to indulge. (Which is probably just as well, I may be a lot of things but pure certainly isn't one of them!)

Marsha Klein said...

Merry Christmas, P. The girls and I made mince pies tonight using your pastry recipe. They were fab.

patroclus said...

Glad to know the mince pies turned out OK, Marsha!

Janey - do you have a recipe for these chocolate truffles with Cointreau?