Laddies who Lunch

Must  check calendar, Pancake Tuesday, Ash Wednesday; not April the first.
Gauleiter Pickles emerges from Pickles Towers with another big idea.
The Big Lunch.
Too easy, open goal, Jonny Wilkinson in the pocket 15 metres in front of the posts, a man with his wallet open repeatedly pleading Help yourself! Help yourself! 
Dear god; they just keep him hanging around so they can wheel him out in a handcart when some light relief is needed!
(That was  vicious, unnecessary, sizeist, offensive to the man with a fuller figure and a gratuitous pun the like of which I have not come across in editing nearly six years of this rubbish! ....Ed)

Some of my best friends are trees

At a time of such human slaughter it seems perverse to worry about the death of a tree. Rachel Sussman has a sad tale about the death of an old tree and some interesting musings on age and impermanency from the ever stimulating Brain Pickings.
She has documented some old codgers in her time, yes even older than myself. It's worth reading in full.
For our regular readers  with little time on their hands :-

... the Senator,[ the name of the burned 'bush'] there is a glimmering chance at a second life: clippings from the tree were taken years ago and successfully propagated in a nursery. The resulting trees are now 40 feet tall, and could ostensibly be transplanted into the very spot after a long and careful root-stabilization process. There are also seedlings at its base that, with a little paternity testing, could prove to be its clones rather than its progeny, or perhaps some new growth will be forced from the existing root system stimulated by the stress of the fire.

Lookin Up

(No relation)

A Little Perspective

To paraphrase Peter Cook -
Twitter has done so much to prevent the massacre of civilians in Syria!

Forbidden Apples

Don't you just love capitalism?
Who's been taking a bite out of those little green apples?
Meanwhile something hot and steamy in the Caribbean in connection with a Mr Cashcroft's (?) banking facilities.
I'm glad Buddhist Pizza Inc got its bonuses in early, away from the glare of the anti capitalist spotlight.
I know a boutique bank  in Waziristan. The manager is so helpful on these occasions and it is so far for the wrong type of financial journalists to go! (Discrete Inquiries through the usual channels please!)