That does sound as if I might be about to find a Youtube clip of the Andrews Sisters singing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy…hmmm.
No, this is a “real life” story. I’d relayed a “joke” to an old friend of mine and he replied with this story:
Reminds me of an incident that happened when I was up in Fort Churchill, Manitoba in 1950!
Polar bears are always prowling around Churchill, and the town dump in the early winter while they wait for the pack ice to freeze up along the shore of Hudson’s Bay so they can go out onto the ice to hunt seals!
At that time many of the camp buildings were the old wooden ones covered with tar paper and we got an unusual mount of snow early that winter that the ever present winds there had driven up into huge drifts around the low buildings. A big bear hunting for food managed to climb a drift and finished up on the roof of the sergeants’ mess.
The roof, like the rest of the building was made of fairly thin timber, covered with tar paper, and the bear weighed upwards of half a ton! The inevitable happened! The roof would not support him, and he broke through and landed on his ass in the middle of the big wood-burning stove that was being used to prepare the evening meal!
Oh, the excitement, with the scent of singed bear fur in the air and the big bear and people running in all directions!!!
Thank you, Frank, for providing me with a blog post! 
Today, in Australia, it’s dish out the gongs day, when various people are presented with medals for various acts of worth. I don’t think the Leader of the Opposition will be a recipient. Bad timing to call for Canberra’s Tent City to be struck, Tony!
It’s also a day when many people eat what is thought of as the National Dish. Meat pies with tomato ketchup. And a curious item, known as Lamingtons.They seem to consist of lumps of stale sponge cake, dipped in chocolate icing and sprinkled with dessicated coconut. Said to be enormously popular and I’ll probably be vilified for suggesting they might serve a purpose as wheel chocks for cyclists.
I think I might shut the toys off and opt for an early night now that the pre-and-mid-teens next door have run out of noisy steam. I think they may have adjourned to the Showgrounds. Apparently, there are 17 bands playing there. Chez Dinahmow we’re enjoying some smooth, smoochy jazz. Light on the trumpets, easy on the ears.And a glass of fizz.
Good night!
I had to re-read that a couple of times before I realised you didn’t serve as a soldier on the northern frontier… phew! By the way I AGREE about Lamingtons. Bloody awful things – haven’t had a nice one yet, and after five years I’ve decided I’m not trying any more. Good grief, what sort of country is this? Give me an Eccles cake any time. Where’s my fizz?
“Bloody awful things!” Indeed.
Noooo! A good lamington (certainly not a shop-bought job) is a wonderful thing. Delicate sponge cake, rich dark choc icing, a light dusting of dessicated coconut. The only time I’ll eat dessicated coconut – and what an awful name that is – is on a lamington. Maybe it’s because I’m so old that I remember the real thing. I even remember making them in a past domesticated life…
So…that’s two votes for the Lamington and a description. OK, I’ll accept your opinions, but still refuse to eat them! Too sweet for me.
I’d kill for a few Eccles cakes! I didn’t think that anyone in Australia knew about them but me!
Same applies to Goosenaugh cakes, I’m pretty sure that no aussies know about them either! My paternal grandmother used to make stacks of them around xmas time every year! Yummy! (Kind of a very crumbly butter shortbread topped with a layer of castor sugar)! 8-))
This may need some clarification for readers not of English background! Most localities have their own versions and I’ve heard some very heated arguments among afficionados of all sorts! I wonder if Polar bears like Eccles cakes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccles_cake
I had a nice seafood lunch by the water – no lamingtons, no meat pies.
Aha! Another non-native to show how things should be done. Go! Nurse!
happy Australia day – meat pies and lamingtons notwithstanding! i happen to adore the andrews sisters! and have a very nice ear-worm to start my day!
You’re welcome! And the Andrews Sisters were a damn’ good close harmony group. What about” Rum and Coca Cola”
Ha! Never thought I’d read a story about MY province on an Australian blog!!! How cool is that! The polar bears haven’t changed, but the buildings have, so not too many singed bears bums happening anymore. The snow is still driven by the howling Arctic winds, though.
Happy Australia Day! Sounds like smooth jazz and a glass of fizz is the way to go. Love the Andrews Sisters too! Grew up listening to them.
I’m reeling in a few fans with this one!
I could do with a meat pie…but not the coconut horrors!
They existed in France, but since i didn’t buy them i never found out what they were called.
I think the Lamington was trying to be a Madelaine. Epic fail! (I’m not a lover of Madeleines either, but at least they have a little more class!)
Smoochy jazz and bubbly sounds good to me.
Well, you’re a bit far away to join us, but you’d be welcome.
Not certain whether I dislike lamos or meat pies more.
Fairy bread on the other hand goes very well with a glass of bubbles. Truly it does (or did the last time I tried it)
I had the bubbles, but no fairy bread last night. And was content. Jazz is also a winner – the music not the cat. Thanks.
Fairy bread? Hang on – I’ll ask someone…I just asked and Wiki has this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_bread i
commonly served at children’s parties on both sides of the Ditch. Not when I was a children! I’ll just take your word for it, EC.
We had fairy bread at children’s parties when i was a children in NZ
Wow! I missed that. My mother made butterfly cakes, real sausage rolls, and set jellies in orange skin “cups” with flower handles. There were sandwiches, but I never knew Fairy Bread.
Oh I loved those orange skin cups but I don’t know anything about flower handles. now I feel cheated
I seem to recall Mother set jellies in half orange skins and when set, halved them and attached twists of honeysuckle stem as “handles.”
She did other fun things at parties, but that’s another post!
I love fairy bread, too. We still make it for the kids’ parties, and chocolate crackles, and honey joys…
Fortunately I do also have a yen for triple brie, Sicilian olives, buffalo mozzarella, fizz and NZ wines, just to let you know that I’m not completely stuck in the nursery.
Just as well you listed all those “grown-up” delights or we’d have been staging an intervention!
I hear Geoffrey Rush got something.
That is all.
Back to the bears here in O Canada.
Yes, Rush did get something(I forget what)
do i have to have chocolate/coconut breath to partake in the smoochy jazz? love the Andrews Sisters, from the sublime (Apple Blossom Time) to the kinky (Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar [that is about kink, isn't it?] to the festive (Pistol Packin’ Mama) to the humorous (Sonny Boy with Bob Hope).
And another one for the Andrews Sisters.Yay!
Sorry! You are all wrong! No STALE sponge! Lovely fresh sponge, lovely rich moist dripping chocolate sauce and coconut. You should disappear up to the elbows in chocolate when you try a GOOD lamington.
If only I wasn’t gluten intolerant these days!
Aha! A local has the goods on the Lamington. I guess all the horrors that are peddled as fund-raisers are the cheap-n-lazy version then? Thank you, Amanda.
Yes, yes, yes! Amanda and I are in the same page.
And three cheers for Patty, Maxine and Laverne, and don’t go sitting under any apple trees.
Until you come marching home?