Mandarin

Mandarin in Mandarin on a mandarin...

Mandarin

Elvis Lives in Flash

Another animutation, "Elvis Lives in Flash"... although this is no longer in flash.

 

Recorded in 1968, it's still a catchy tune.

 

Halloween Divination Food

There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties, most of which are played as forms of divination. The most well known being apple bobbing, which is called "dooking" in Scotland.  A bunch of apples float in a tub of water and the someone must remove an apple from the basin using only their teeth.  After the person has rubbed their germ filled mouth and drool all over the apples trying to get one, it's the next persons go.  If you put the apple under your pillow you are supposed to dream of your future spouse.  A more hygienic variant involves holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into one of the apples.

 

A traditional Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.  In the early 1900s a Halloween game that was played involved walnut shells. People would write fortunes in milk on white paper and, when dry, the paper was folded and placed in walnut shells, a bit like a fortune cookie. When the shell was warmed, the milk would turn brown and the writing would appear.

 

One custom that continues in Ireland is the baking of a barmbrack (often shortened to brack), which is a light bread with raisins and used as a sort of fortune-telling game. Baked into the barnbrack is a ring, a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a medallion, usually of the Virgin Mary.  Commercially produced barmbracks for Halloween still include a toy ring but not a filthy rag or a dirty stick from they yard.  Each item carried a meaning for the person who received it in their slice.  The pea meant the person would not marry that year; the stick meant an unhappy marriage or constant disputes; the cloth meant bad luck or poverty; the coin meant good fortune or wealth; the ring meant they would be wed within the year; the medallion symbolised going into the priesthood or joining the nuns, however, the medallion is not widely continued today. 

 

Another similar old Irish Halloween tradition is to serve colcannon with a ring and a thimble hidden in the fluffy green-flecked dish. Prizes of small coins such as threepenny or sixpenny bits were also concealed in it.  Mush like x-mass pudding, there are probably many stories of people finding their coin by choking to death.  Colcannon is a traditional dish that is made from mashed potatoes and kale (or cabbage), with scallions, butter, salt and pepper. Occasionally it contains other ingredients like milk, cream, leeks, onions and chives.

 

Yet another fortune-telling game involved paper cut out symbols on a platter and some ice.  The paper symbols included: a dollar sign or a penny for wealth, a button for bachelorhood, a thimble for spinsterhood, a clothes pin for poverty, rice or a ring for a wedding, an umbrella for travel, a cauldron for trouble, a 4-leaf clover for good luck, and a key for fame. Someone would enter a dark room and would put their hand on a piece of ice then lay it on the platter and their "fortune" would stick to their hand.

 

Pineapples

The word for pineapple in 45 languages.

Azerbaijani: ananas
Belarusian: ananas
Bulgarian: ananas
Croatian: ananas
Italian: ananas
Macedonian: ananas
Maltese: ananas
Norwegian: ananas
Polish: ananas
Romanian: ananas
Russian: ananas
Serbian: ananas
Slovenian: ananas
Swedish: ananas
Turkish: ananas
Ukrainian: ananas
Estonian: ananass
Georgian: ananasi
Greek: ananás
Portuguese: ananás
Slovak: ananás
Gujarati: Anēnāsa
Haitian: anana
Hindi: Anannāsa
Hungarian: ananász
Czech: ananas
Danish: ananas
Dutch: ananas
Finish: ananas
French: ananas
German: ananas
Icelandic: ananas
Indonesian: nanas
Malay: nanas
Irish: anann
Latvian: ananāsu
Bengali: Ānārasa
Lithuanian: ananasas
Tamil: Aṉṉāci
Swahili: mananasi
Kannada: Anānas haṇṇu
Telugu: Anāsa paṇḍu
English: pineapple

Thats right English you go do your own thing.

Music with a banana

A friend once pointed out to me: You can add the phrase "with a banana" into the lyrics of almost any song and it will make complete sense.  To illustrate here's a selection of lyrics by well known artists.

Bob Dylan: The answer my friend is blowing in the wind with a banana

The Beatles: It's been a hard days night with a banana

Elvis Presley: Love me tender with a banana

Michael Jackson: Billy Jean is not my lover with a banana

The Rolling Stones: I can't get no satisfaction with a banana

Madonna: Music makes the people come together with a banana

AC/DC: Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap with a banana 

Nirvana: I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks with a banana

Led Zeppelin: And she's buying a stairway to heaven with a banana

Britney Spears: Oops, I did it again with a banana

U2: I still haven't found what I'm looking for with a banana

Oddly the one song that it appears not to work with is the theme song to The Banana Splits TV show.  One banana, two banana, three banana, four, with a banana...  It doesn't quite work.