Old fart gets stented: Cost of Crimbo: Confiscated cupcake: Evicted snap: and the twelve days of Irish.

A cold, damp and slightly dismal start to the last sleep day before Crimbo at the Castle this morn, I have stuffed so many fat teenagers into the furnace that the Elfandsafety elves have been round to complain about the amount of smoke coming from the chimney, his Maj is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a big fat bloke in a funny red suit and this will be the last post for a few days. 

But I would like to wish all the visitors and commenter’s who were unlucky enough to happen on my Piss Poor blog, and blogosphere friends a very happy Crimbo and a merry new year (after all it couldn’t be any worse than this one...can it?).

Apparently a ninety year old has been airlifted to hospital for heart surgery

Phil the Greek is in Papworth after suffering from chest pains at Sandringham, the palace said that following tests the duke was found to have a blocked coronary artery which had caused his chest pains.

This was treated successfully by the minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting.

And as the old git lays there being waited on hand and foot I hope he has a think about the thousands of “older” people who are going to have to wait for a year or so to have their damaged hips replaced, their dodgy knees done and other bits repaired.

But he probably won’t; especially if the “staff” comes from foreign climes....

Allegedly:

If you do the 12 days of Crimbo thing

It will cost $101,000, an annual Christmas "price guide" says.

The "price tag" for all 364 items and services in each of the song's verses breaks $100,000 for the first time this year, the Christmas Price Index released for the 28th year by PNC Wealth Management, part of the PNC Financial Services Group, said.

The prices included nine ladies dancing at $6,294 and 11 pipers piping at $2,427.60.

And if you can't afford the $2,629.90 for the 12 drummers drumming, there's always that partridge -- although that's up this year to $15.

And that pear tree will run you $169.

Not too bad, I reckon that works out at about £64,421.39 for the lot in English, that’s only about twenty year’s money if you are unemployed....

Meanwhile the Crimbo spirit is thriving over to the left

A woman who just flew back home from Las Vegas says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought the icing on it could be a security risk.

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport took her cupcake Wednesday, telling her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives. She said the agent told her the frosting was conforming to the jar it was inside.

Hains, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the agent didn't seem concerned that the cupcake could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited. She said he even offered to let her eat it away from the airport security area.
The TSA, which is entrusted with protecting the nation's transportation system, was reviewing the situation, agency spokesman Nico Melendez said. Passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints, he said.


Apart from this time apparently.

Still in the land of the evicted and the home of the free

A pair of grandparents in Indiana were kicked out of a mall for taking photos - of their grandson.

Debbie Cassella and Don Oberloh were at the University Park Mall just outside of South Bend, Ind., on Tuesday with their five-year-old grandson who was visiting from California, local TV news outlet WNDU reports.

The couple had planned to take their grandson to see Santa at the mall, and were sitting in the mall's food court when Oberloh snapped a photo of their grandson, the station reported.

That's when a mall employee told them to stop taking pictures or risk getting thrown out of the mall.

"I thought she was joking and I said, 'I'm taking a picture of my grandson,'" Oberloh told WNDU. "I'd understand if I was taking pictures of the architecture or the products in the stores and she became a little hostile and aggressive."

Oberloh asked to speak to the mall's manager but security staff came and asked him to leave instead, he told the station.

A spokesperson for the mall told WNDU that mall managers are investigating the incident, and noted that the mall does have a policy prohibiting photography.

Sounds like the security staff were a bit “snappy”...

And finally:
 

The Irish version of the twelve days.

That’s it: I’m orf to raise the drawbridge, lower the portcullis, man the murder holes and boil the oil in case the carol singers come round.

And today’s thought:

Angus