BritNews RoundUp: Scarfing it down edition

I apologize for neglecting the BritNews RoundUp the last few weeks. Thanksgiving intervened, of course, and then I got busy with another project. I pondered replacing BritNews RoundUp with LiechtensteinNews RoundUp but early prototypes were not promising.

So today the BNRU comes, if not not quite roaring back at least limping back.

We start with a story of critical importance to anyone born with a neck: "A knotty problem: What a man's scarf style reveals about his personality," announces the headline in the Daily Mail. Wrap the scarf folded in half around your neck and pull the ends through the middle and you're desperate to give off a "whiff of continental glamour." Tie it like a kerchief and you're trying to convey a "fashionable insouciance to ordinary neckwear."

Or maybe you just don't want a cold neck.

Chris Hunt of Leicestershire loves potato chips, or as the English call them, crisps. How much? So much that he's legally changed his name to Monster Munch, which is apparently a fried, corn-based snack manufactured by the Walker's crisp company. According to the Telegraph: "Mr Munch, of Evington, Leics., ... says his mates were 'amazed.' 'They looked at me like I was nuts and dared me to change my name. 'I don't think they thought I would go through with it - but now I demand to be called either 'Monster' or 'Mr Munch.'''

I can think of a different first name for him.

That nasty Camilla Parker Bowles. First she stole Prince Charles's heart from fair Diana, and now she parks illegally--or her driver does. That's what the Daily Mail said, anyway. They have photos of the Duchess of Cornwall out doing a spot of Christmas shopping in her Land Rover, parked for two hours in a no-parking zone. Readers are suitably incensed in the comments. "One rule for them & another for us," moans one peasant.

Popping across the Channel we find that a hotel in Nantes, France, is offering a package for people who have always wanted to be a hamster. For 99 euros a night guests can dress up as the rodents, eat seeds and run around in a wheel. This video explains it all.

Reminds me of work.

Talk to me (and Maggie)
My online chat is back this week, too. My special guest will be Maggie Hall, the English ex-pat whose book on Marmite I wrote about this week. Marmite supporters have been out in force and Maggie will be happy to defend the foul yeast extract and tell us little-known facts about it.

Post a question or comment now or join us at noon.