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Yesterday's story of the too salty stilton finds echoes in this tale from Eureka, Montana, and the demise of a family owned timber mill. Yet again, the unintended consequences of another administrative fiat - this time in relation to the thinning of federal forests.
The DK draws our attention to the story in today's Telegraph of the Food Standards Agency's attack on stilton. It has all the hallmarks of the Trading Standards unsucessful prosecution of the makers of Lanark Blue over the presence of listeria in their cheese.
This comment from the FSA spokesman is particularly Orwellian:
We have to find a way to do so while taking into account manufacturers' concerns about traditional recipes. Nobody is suggesting making products unpalatable but at some time we will have to weigh that against the health implications.
The Lanark Blue case bears some analysis:
Humphrey Errington, a producer of Lanark Blue Cheese who was accused in 1995 by Lanarkshire officials of producing cheese with exceptionally high levels of Listeria monocytogenes. Humphrey Errington was asked to withdraw his product from the market even though no illnesses had occurred among the many people who consumed the cheese, and even though the test results were inconsistent and unreliable. The case went to court where after a protracted case, the sheriff found in favour of Errington and commented that Listeria monocytogenes is a commonly found bacterium that rarely causes illnesses and that there was no evidence that the particular serotype 3A found in Lanark Blue was pathogenic.
Mr and Mrs Seat will be observing the festive season with lashings of brandy butter, lardings of turkey and rondos of carols. Have a fantastic time and we'll be back next week to help you squeeze into 2006.
My apologies for the demise of the site last week. Seat Warmer put it this way:
The clerihews on Arthur's Seat
Are a treat,
But the glitches are bitches.
Anyhoo, onto the contest - over a score of entrants, and many excellent Clerihews, in addition to several other rhymes, limericks and other tropes.
In the domestic politics section we have three finalists:
MR Staphylococcus Aureus had Scotland's health in mind with:
Scotland's Health Minister Andy Kerr
Isn't quite sure precisely where
The money's all gone.
So he keeps spending on.
Harold peers into No.11 Downing Street:
Gordon Brown the Scottish Raj
Is laird of our Exchequerage
The English folks are quite unwilling
But he will sell them for a shilling
and the winner is Flintoffan with:
Speaker "Gorbals Mick" Martin
Declines to wear tartan
Saying "I'm really not built
To preside in a kilt".
In the sporting goods section, Wing-Half scores with:
The gifted George Best
Is now laid to rest
No more pleasure he'll give us:
"One life, with two livers".
In the Numptorium section we had these two homages to our First Minister by the G-Gnome and Flintoffan (again):
The spoutings of McConnell in oor Parly
make him look a proper Charlie.
With all PC demands he flirts,
And goes to New York in skirts.
First Minister Jack McConnell
Long after he's gone'll
Be chiefly remembered
For being rather bad-tempered
The overall winner of this year's contest is this concise retrospective look at the world twenty years ago:
Brezhnev, when he'd all his powers
Told his chums "the future's ours!"
Not having reckoned
On John Paul the Second.
Arise Rueful Red, this year's winner.
Nearly 50% of EU citizens want new negotiations on Constitution
or - a majority of EU citizens do not want new negotiations...
A spokesman for chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany, which will hold the rotating presidency of the EU in the first half of 2007, "has the clear intention of reviving the European Constitution".
Why?
One of the facts of belonging to a Club is that if you ignore the rules, there are consequences; and in this Club you can check out, but you can't leave.
Some fantastic entries in already - the deadline for submissions has been extended to midnight GMT tomorrow (20th December). Keep them coming.
Update: The original post lists 18 comments, but only shows 6. There has obviously been a glitch in TypePad - don't worry, as they are all listed in the "back office", so we haven't lost any.
The foreign office excels itself - we have pushed one of our allies into the arms of one of our enemies esteemed colleagues. This headline would have been rather different in 1939, though:
France and Poland unite against UK at summit
David Irving has a new chum.
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