Season's Greetings !

With the separation of church and state (and the separation of common sense and state), we are duty bound to say Happy Holidays and can no longer mention baby cheeses, yamaha or twelfth night. In England, holidays almost always refer to your summer vacation so Happy Holidays does nothing to conjour up the festive spirit. It is so bland... you may as well say "have a nice day".

I wanted to say Happy Christmas or Happy Hanukka but no... not politically correct. Happy New Year then, nope - depends which calendar you are using. I get the picture - this truly is 1984 (Orwell) and all I can say is "double plus good un work" - not very catchy!

It is sad when our governments change our language: We Three Kings of Orient Are has been translated to 'of Persia', the dog from Dambusters has had to change his name to 'Lucky', I shudder to name the small black dolls created by Florence Kate Upton in 1895, Golliwogs - to many of us, the stories represented "chivalry far more persuasive than the unconvincing knights of the Authurian legend" (Sir Kenneth Clarke). The camel that broke the hare's back is the reworded Bing Crosby classic - I'm dreaming of a Holiday.

For those of you lucky enough to not be on our xmas card list... you will have missed our decision to risk it, damn the consequenses and uphold years, nay centuries, of tradition by saying 'Merry Christmas' (inside the card)!

Thank Big Sibling for political incorrectness.
..and a Happy New Year from Ronnie. Amy, DT and David

The English Muffin. Bastion of the confusion of all things anglo-american.

For you Brits and Aussies... what is it? A flat plain bread thingy that is cooked from yeast dough with milk and butter. It is a little like a crumpet in size but is crumbly not stodgey. Usually eaten toasted with butter. Often used to make a sandwich with egg and bacon called McMuffin (or with just a potato filling, an O'Muffin).

But why the name? there seem to be four common explanations:
1. The English adjective adds much needed flavor to the otherwise boring food.
2. Originally a scone* recipe but Americans could neither pronounce nor make correctly.
3. Calling them Autralian Toaster Biscuits gave baked goods a bad name (sorry mate!).

Personally I think it is a little US retaliation to us adding 'American' to their sports where their rules are different to ours. The best examples are 'American Football' and 'American Golf' **.

God help breakfast nomenclature.

* scone (UK) is called biscuit (US), biscuit (UK) is called cookie (US), crumpet (UK) does not translate at all, jam (UK) is called preserve (seeded) or jelly (seedless) in the US. Thankfully butter is spelled, if not pronounced, the same (and there are maked similarities between the UK and US variants). Next month in the breakfast series: bacon, ham, sausage, link, weiner, frank and patty nomenclature.
** among other rules, American golf does not penalise dancing on your opponent's line in high heels shouting "in the hole" and giving everyone high fives.