What gingerbread men say about you

No, they don’t gossip behind your back. This research, from The Garbing Reed Institute in Bern tells us that when faced with eating a gingerbread man, 76% of consumers feel some degree of guilt.

Question: Once you’ve got past your unease, how do you eat a gingerbread man?

 

1. Snapping off a limb (leg): Indicates a tentative nature, a desire to be liked and an unwillingness to be confrontational. Extremely insecure, often puts the needs of others before themselves.
2. Snapping off a limb (arm): Confident and inclusive. An achiever who is prepared to act even if those actions might incur some risk. A leader who is comfortable making decisions.
3. Biting off a limb (arm/leg): Biting off a limb from a whole gingerbread man suggests that the more negative traits indicated above can be more prevalent. Tentativeness leans towards sloth – decisiveness can tend to manifest itself as bossiness.
4. Snapping off the head: Forthright, somewhat aggressive with narcissistic tendencies. Little regard for the views of others. Generally unaware of the effect ones actions are having on others.
5. Biting off the head: Downright nasty bit of work (paraphrasing here). Self-centred despot with no time for the weak or those who do not conform. Destined for board level positions and early retirement on a fat pension.
6. Breaking in half/random destruction: One of life’s dreamers. Happy to go with the flow and rub along. Can be prone to introspection, which might be interpreted as selfishness. Never knowingly upsets anyone – but never the first to volunteer.
7. All in one go: Dr Baring didn’t actually address this one. But it’s not hard to interpret. Your just damn greedy!” – This was Derek Dog’s technique. We baked and decorated Gingerbread trees one Christmas, put a ribbon through a hole and hung them on the Christmas tree. We heard an odd noise as we went, then realised it was crunching – Derek was munching as we hung!!!

I’d make an educated guess and say the same or similar would apply to the eating of Jelly Babies.

Via Stephen’s Lighthouse blog.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas – Heidi X

Christmas Gift Suggestions

How about a poster like these on your living room / bedroom / library wall?

These posters are created by Postertext. Postertext creates these elegant posters using the full text of the book in question.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes one depicted on the left for instance has been created from a collection of twelve stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his famous detective.

If you have a favourite book and they haven’t already made a poster of it, you can email them and put in a suggestion. I’m guessing they mostly work with out of copyright works though.

Also the New Yorker’s blog, The Book Bench, had some Christmas gift suggestions the other day that were quite good too. I particularly fancy the goldfish bowl book ends.

Anyone feeling generous?

Heidi

Merry Christmas boys and girls!

For the kids

My family has been using the NORAD Santa Tracker for a few years now.

NORAD is the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada. NORAD, created by a 1958 agreement between Canada and the United States, provides advanced warning of impending missile and air attacks against its member nations, safeguards the air sovereignty of North America, and maintains airborne forces for defense against attack.

NORAD began tracking Santa in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations hotline. The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.

Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls and emails from children. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa’s whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

The NORAD Tracks Santa website helps you count down to Christmas. In addition there is a Kids Countdown Page with lots of fun games and activities and you can follow Santa on Google Earth.