Congratulations Jim & Martin.

Sam won 25 whole pounds sterling, eh? Should come out to -- at least 30 bucks, right -- even after the middlemen chew on it?

Let us know how much you end up with, Sam.

Thanks, Wendy! And congrats to you, Jim. I thought your piece was really clever and funny.

Best wishes,

Martin

Got a better idea, John. I give you the checkque and you buy a good bottle of single malt while you're over here. We drink it, then you cash the chequek at home and buy another bottle which we drink if I get over there in June. What could be fairer? More fair?

"Pears" = "Pierce"? And "Pierce" probably rhymes with "nurse." Damn Brits and their surnames. Next you'll be telling me that Cholmonderley has only three syllables.

Sounds good to me re Malt Sam, particularly as single malts are CHEAPER over here, yes really. When I worked in London near Little Venice and and consequently Lord's was but a step away Middlesex had a batsman called Featherstone pronounced Featherstone. I would never say that Cholmondeley had three syllables under any circumstances whatever.

There once was a curate of Salisbury
Whose manners were quite halisbury-scalisbury.
He ran about Hampshire
Without any pampshire
Till his bishop compelled him to walisbury.

Chew on that. And while we are about it I have found a competition judged by two respectable people, Fleur Adcock and Michael Schmidt, with a set subject, a very old-fashioned sort of thing. And Fleur is a sucker for metrical verse, being a dab hand at it herself. I shall open a thread on it. She wrote a celebrated poem arguing that smokng was much less dangerous to women than sex. I'll bet you can google it.

Well, I sent in my bears bit but I can't say I was tempted to write humor. It just ain't funny! Even Jon Stewart took it pretty seriously, fer pete's sake.

Thanks again for the info, John!