Posts Tagged ‘christmas’
Christmas Day Swim Photos: Dublin, London And Coney Beach
THE Christmas Day swim at the Forty Foot in Sandycove, Dublin, is not for the faint hearted. The Porthcawl Charity swim at Coney Beach is bracing. The members of the Serpentine Swimming Club have seven extra layers of skin and hair made of Kevlar, so they say.
Porthcawl Charity swim
Posted: 25th, December 2010 | In: Strange But True | Comment
You Still Dreaming Of A White Christmas?
ARE you still dreaming of a White Christmas?
Posted: 24th, December 2010 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Awkward Christ Cards: A Wonderful Gallery Of The Terrible
CHRISTMAS cards are a big deal. They say some much about you. Firstly, they say that you are the kind of person who sends cards. If you send a charity card, the missive says that you care, and want others to know it. But what about those cards that carry photos of you and your family? What do they say? We’ve compiled a gallery of awkward, terrible and wonderful Christmas cards. You cannot help but enjoy them…
You will love: Santa Clause (Awkward Santa Photos)
Posted: 21st, December 2010 | In: Key Posts, Strange But True | Comment
The 20 Best Christmas Album Covers Ever
IT’S Christmas time. And in readiness for the office do, Anorak has been compiling the party play list. Leafing through Old Mr Anorak’s album collection, we bring unto you the Top 20 Album Covers Ever:
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Posted: 17th, December 2010 | In: Key Posts, Strange But True | Comments (15)
Christmas Is Rationed And You’re All Invited To The Riot
UK television viewers have probably all seen the supermarket giant Tesco’s Christmas ad campaign featuring X Factor’s Amanda Holden joining the existing duo Fay Ripley and Mark Addy.
The latest ad shows Amanda’s power failure party disaster as Fay and Mark come to the rescue of the Yule party by inviting everyone along to their place. Christmas catering is made to look easy as the party-goers pop into a Tesco’s to restock the party on the way to Fay’s.
Life has a way of playing cruel tricks. While the ad is happily running in all its scheduled tv slots the truth is very different. The wintry condition in the North of the UK means supermarkets – and that means ALL northern supermarkets – are already rationing staples and essentials such as bread, eggs and milk. Shoppers are being restricted in the amount they can buy and are being asked to empty excess amounts at the check outs.
Panic buying can not be far off.
Glasgow City Centre gridlocked last week. Further east drivers were trapped for up 24 hours as the M8 stood at a standstill.
A return to the severe Arctic Conditions of the past three weeks is expected to return to the North of Britain in the next two days and supermarket logistics staff – who are among the best in the world in delivering on time – know it may be impossible to re-stock their stores in time for next week’s holiday rush.
This should be the bonanza time for supermarket but already the bad weather across the UK means most main on-line stores and supermarkets have halted all new orders. The word is this is temporary but severe weather is being forecast for this weekend only a week before the holiday.
The retailers huge massive backlogs of goods waiting to be delivered because the heavy snowfalls stopped distribution. Some have suspended deliveries altogether.
It’s enough to make a judge spit
Among the giants of the retailing world which have been affected by the weather are Asda, Tesco, M&S, Boots and Sainsbury’s.
The economic downturn already means lean pickings for all retailers and the harsh winter conditions are hitting hard at a hoped for multi £ billion shopping spree.
Similar delivery problems have hit the on-line shopping sites of Firebox and Amazon. Amazon is already under fire for laying-off temporary contract workers at a second’s notice during night-shifts in the bad weather chaos of last week.
It doesn’t end there. Fuel prices are rocketing and the needed domestic heating oils for the remoter rural areas of Scotland are hitting all-time record highs of over 70p a litre. A standard tank of home-burning fuel needed to heat already icy homes is costing thousands.
All this and just 16 days away the UK Chancellor will see the introduction of a two and a half per cent increase in Value Added Tax….applied to almost everything in the UK except books, children’s clothing and food.
If you think the student riots in London were bad, wait till you see what the UK Army has (allegedly) been secretly told to prepare for and deal with.
Poll Tax rioters spring to mind. Wasn’t that Tommy Sheridan one of them?
Happy New Year – AW
Posted: 15th, December 2010 | In: The Consumer | Comments (3)
Turkeys Vote For Christmas And Love Panto: Video
TURKEYS love Christmas. They love panto. “Does anybody like Chritsmas?”
The crowd goes wild…
Hello Sunderland!
The Ghosts of Christmas Presents Past: Atomic Bomb Kits
Number two: Chemistry Sets and Atomic Bomb Kits
ONCE upon a time, kids didn’t only wear shorts, shirts and ties at school; they wore them at home too, and probably in bed. But then, in those days playing at home was a bit like being at school.
In fact it was a lot like being at school, especially if one’s “toy” was the ever-popular Merit Chemistry Outfit (tie not included). With this kit, a young boy (or girl, providing she hid her pigtails and wore shorts, short and tie) could experience the fun of a double-science lesson at any time in Room B (bedroom) or Room K (kitchen).
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Posted: 24th, December 2009 | In: Flashback, Key Posts | Comments (7)
Jesus Christ Kills Father: Pictures
CHRISTMAS is all about controversy and fighting. There’s Joe McElderry and RATM competing for attention. This is the true nativity spirit. Get a load of Santa, lying dead in a California garden. He creeps into your bedroom at night, kids. He had it coming.
Standing over Santa is Jesus the vigilante. He’s got a gun. And he’s got lunch – a dead Rudolph is strewn over the back of a pickup truck.
Awkward Santa Claus Moments: Picture Gallery
Ron Lake, who has the evidence on video, tells us:
“Christmas isn’t about Santa; it’s about Jesus. It’s an expression of my repressed creativity.”
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Posted: 19th, December 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Christmas Is Hell: The Mince Pie Condom
ANORAK’S Man in LA brings news of Christmas gifts that linger all year round: the Mince Pie condom.
THE good news: If you’re a British ex-pat stuck in The States for Christmas, there’s a way to get the feel, and the flavor, of home this holiday season.
It’s mince pie flavored condoms.
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Posted: 10th, December 2009 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Jade Goody Christmas Club Party
It’s “JADE’S CHRISTMAS GIFT TO HER BOYS”.
It’s Jade’s last Christmas. But before that, a few words from Gabby Hinsliff in the Guardian’s, er, business pages:
The recession may not have killed the cult of celebrity, as the media circus around Jade Goody recently proved, but there are glimmers of a new mood of intellectual seriousness.
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Posted: 12th, April 2009 | In: Celebrities | Comments (3)
The Top 11 Unwanted Christmas Gifts
CHRISTMAS is over, presents harvested, and it’s now time to get down to the serious business of asking aunty for a receipt for her gift – I just need to change it for a pink one – and cahsing in.
But if no proof of purchase is to hand, you can always sell them on eBay. A search brings up the:
Top 11 Unwanted Christmas Gifts*
UNWANTED CHRISTMAS TOFFEES ~ MADE FOR SHARING ;0) GIFT
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Posted: 29th, December 2008 | In: Key Posts, Money | Comments (2)
Man Torches Home Becuse Santa Fails To Deliver Gift
ALABAMA’s local Lawrence Edward Lee is wating for his Chrtimas gift in his mobile home. There is a small chimney, that – maybe – Santa has not seen:
A south Alabama man faces charges in a bizarre case. Police in Theodore say he torched his own mobile home. The fire on Thursday destroyed 45-year-old Lawrence Edward Lee’s home. Lee is charged with reckless endangerment and public intoxication. Police say Lee set the fire because he was apparently upset that he did not get a Christmas present.
Unless the puppy got stuck in the chimney..?
Posted: 27th, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Christmas Presents To Kill For: Scales For The Wife
WANT to get your loved on something special.
Then step inside, sir or modom, and pick up the scales that say “Yes, you are a fat bloater” in the voice of Jeremy Kyle…
Posted: 26th, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Delivers Christmas Message On British TV
MAHMOUD Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, wants Channel 4 viewers (you know you you are) to heed his Christmas message.
Mr Ahmadinejad would also like it to be known that he agrees with the Pope, and anyone who thinks there are any gays in Iran is welcome to check.
He invites the UN homosexual weapons inspectors in to Iran without fear.
Says Mahmoud:
In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.
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Posted: 25th, December 2008 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (10)
Happy Christmas And A Frugal New Year
SANTA Claus has gone to town – and now prudence has caught up with him…
Old Mr Anorak says, “Give til it hurts.”
Merry Christmas
Posted: 25th, December 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comment (1)
Christmas Lights Are Killing Us
“Scientists Warn Christmas Lights Harm the Planet”
Rudolph must die!
Posted: 24th, December 2008 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Take Jesus Christ Away, Henrietta And Merna
HENRIETTA And Merna celebrate Jesus – one more time with feeling…
They’re still singing… singing… singing….
Posted: 24th, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Live From Bethlehem With The BBC’s Biased Nativity
WE GO LIVE to Bethlehem with the BBC correspondent Aleem Maqbool as he walks from Nazareth to Bethlehem, retracing a journey made by Joseph and Mary in the Christmas story.
Maqbool is undecided if he wants to be Joseph (walking) or Mary (seated).
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Posted: 24th, December 2008 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)
Dobbey The Dead Reindeer: The Christmas Story That Never Ages
DROP the dead Dobbey: The London Reindeer Story.
Five-year-old Dobbey can often be seen at the pub, on the bus or at the shops with Mr Elliott. Dobbey was hand-reared from birth by Mr Elliott, 65, who is known as ‘Dr Dolittle’ by neighbours in Enfield, north London.
The builder and dad-of-two, has spent the last 15 years rearing an array of animals at his farm. “Dobbey is just one of seven reindeer I have at my farm,” he said, “I take him for a walk every Saturday and Sunday down the high street. “We go to the burger bar, the pub, all over.
– Daily Telegraph, December 22 2008
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking Rudolph had arrived a little early this year.
But maybe the absence of the red nose – and a certain jolly white-bearded gentleman – should be a clue. For this reindeer hails not from Santa’s home at the North Pole but from the somewhat less Christmassy surrounds of Enfield, North London.
Five-year-old Dobbey has been raised from birth by 65-year- old Gordon Elliott, a builder who has spent 15 years rearing an array of animals.
“Dobbey is just one of seven reindeer – six are females – I have at my farm,” said Mr Elliott.
– Daily Mail, December 12, 2007
Santa’s Breasts Are Forbidden
RODD Liddle loosk at the issue of man breasts and how Santa, though encouraged to be fat, is forgbiden from having them:
The Santa Claus in a department store in Louisville, Kentucky was sacked because the children kept pointing out that he had extremely large breasts. This is because he was a she, one formidable lady called Marta Brown. But the breasts were not what the kids expected on Santa Claus, not when viewed in tandem with the traditional beard and stuff — so they took the piss. Marta was consequently sacked by the department store — but good news, she is suing the firm for $67,000 through the state commission on human rights, for injured feelings and sexual discrimination. This is where we are now.
Indeed. If mobidly obese Santa can’t have manchichis, who can?
Get your man bra now!
Posted: 23rd, December 2008 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Christmas In Hollis For Santa’s Light Show
CHRISTMAS IN Hollis with Troy Lykken and Keith Gettelman’s Holiday Lights show in south Minneapolis.
Santa for global warming:
Posted: 22nd, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)
Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show Does David Lynch’s Blue Velvet
IT’S Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show Does David Lynch’s Blue Velvet – it’s on the TeeVee.
Sing together…
Spotter: Ed. Barrett
Posted: 22nd, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Santa Claus Mugshots
SANTA CLaus, that illegal alien who molests your mum and breaks into your home with his un-quarantined beasts is busted and processed.
Those Santa mugshots…
Posted: 21st, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Christmas For Jews
BERNARD Avishai loosk at what Christmas means for Chanukah:
It is not a simple matter to be a Jew in America this time of year. Not in Jerusalem either, a few miles from Bethlehem. Christmas, as John Updike writes, is Christianity “at its sweetest.” Many have written, some with an air of sweet resignation, about the yearning Jews feel as the days darken: to share in the melodies, the hearth, the love of the child…
While Christmas brings God down to earth, Chanukah dispatches earthly versions of God to the rubble pile. They need God to feel immanent, nearly material like a Greek deity, while we need God to be thought ineffable and mysterious.
Posted: 19th, December 2008 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Christmas Lights At Chuch Of The Rampant Crab
YOU put the Christmas lights up at the church. You wait till nightfall. You turn the lights on. You scream…
Spotter: Sam
Posted: 17th, December 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
