Sixteen

I'm going to count this even though it's very short.

16. Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper.

It's delightful.

Only in Britain...

Shopkeeper throws cup of tea at robbers in Wythenshawe

Armed robbers ran off empty handed after a shopkeeper in a grocery store in Manchester threw a cup of tea at them.

Wielding a kitchen knife and a pin-hammer, they burst into the Superfreeze store on Hollyhedge Road in Benchill and demanded cash on Friday.

The 58-year-old threw her tea at them and they ran off.

Gun laws in England being what they are, it's a little hard for thugs to find decent implements to rob with. Granted, these were quite deadly, but up close and personal. Congrats to the pluckiness of the clerk. However, since guns are rampant here in the US, and I don't drink tea, I don't think I'll be using this manoeuvre any time soon. (I don't think a cold Diet Pepsi's going to do a thing.)

Dead men can tell remarkable tales

Medieval African discovered in England

A BBC documentary will be revealing that a medieval African lived in England in the thirteenth century and was buried in a friary in Ipswich. This is the earliest evidence that an African was living in the country since the Roman period.

The programme, History Cold Case, will be broadcasting its premiere episode on Thursday night on BBC 2. It follows a team of experts from the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee as they analyze a skeletons from history.

The male skeleton they discovered has been carbon dated to the period 1190-1300, and from examinations of the skull, teeth and thigh bone, it was determined that the man originally came from Tunisia.

You don't really think of Britain when you think of earthquakes

Nevertheless, they have them (and had one on Wednesday the 27th shortly before 1 am local time, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale with an epicentre in Lincolnshire).

England Hit by 5.2 Quake, Biggest in U.K. Since 1984

NPR let me down this morning

On my way to work, they were reading the news over the radio about the scientists who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Two American citizens (one originally from Italy) and a Briton won. So far, good. Then they gave their institutional affiliations. The announcer proceeded to say that Martin J. Evans, the Briton, was from the University of Cardiff 'in England'.

Tsk. Tsk. Cardiff is in Wales. Contrary to some opinions, Wales and England are different countries, under one United Kingdom. Wales is like Scotland in that regard. No one ever seems to think Scotland is England. What gives with Wales?

Hopefully they corrected the story or at least it was just a momentary slip. The story on the website is correct, thankfully.

Oh, well, these things happen, especially on radio, which may or may not be recorded ahead of time. But considering that NPR is considered rather highbrow, it's something you expect them to get right. :)

I was mortified this morning

when I opened up the Herald-Leader to the 'Weekender' section and found a caricature of the Queen of England (visiting our fair town for the Kentucky Derby, among other things) in prim dress, a judge's wig, and one of those hats college students drink beer from.

No kidding.

I unfortunately can't find a picture of it online. Here is the accompanying story: The royal whee!: For a good time at the Kentucky Derby, Queen Elizabeth II just has to take these 10 suggestions to heart; she'll be kicking up those dowdy heels in no time

You get the gist, no doubt. Now, maybe some people will think me devoid of humour, but I can't believe 1) that this amount of bad taste made it into print and as a result 2) may make Kentuckians seem even more hopeless than others think us. I am embarrassed as a Lexingtonian and a Kentuckian that the paper chose to mock a visiting dignitary like the Queen. I don't think people should go around genuflecting her, of course, but a little respect is in order. She is, after all, a queen, something I think most Americans just don't get.

I just shake my head at this. It's not the best foot to put forward, anyway.