Is it me or are the Christmas lights slightly dimmer this year, the holly less berried, the carols less harmonious, the mincemeat less fortified, the turkey less stuffed, the crackers less explosive, the tinsel less glittery, the Christmas trees less piney?
Christmas 2008 is been played diminuendo. This is particularly so for readers of The Independent, who are deprived of the Weasel’s column
It would scarcely be surprising if these benighted souls did not follow the advice of Elizabeth David about Christmas. Musing on “the whole circus” in 1978, she wrote: “I stay in bed, making myself lunch on a tray. Smoked salmon, home-made bread, butter, lovely cold Alsace wine.”
To provide some solace which you are curled up under the duvet, below are some of the Weasel’s yuletide musings from previous years.
The Weasel website aims to provide a changing archive of past columns for readers old and new.
We would like to thank the many readers who are writing to this website and those who added comments to the last Weasel column on The Independent’s website. Their expressions of commiseration were reassuring and embarrassingly fulsome – though not too embarrassing for us to quote a few snippets here.
“I was so sad to see the demise of the Weasel… I’ve been a devoted reader for nine years.”
“I was heartbroken when I read the news.”
”Your disappearance marks the end of civilized society as we know and love it.”
”I was shocked and saddened to read the news on Saturday.”
”The demise of the Weasel has hit me harder than the credit crunch.”
”Oh please let the Weasel awaken from a coma, resurrect as an evil twin or have faked his own death!”
Weasels mentioned in our final column
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Tasty narratives 22/12/07
Normally we eat The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle on Christmas Day, but since we’re going to friends for the feast this year, I suspect it may be A Christmas Carol with all the trimmings. Jumping the gun a bit, we’ve already tucked into The Mayor of Casterbridge and jolly filling it was too. As devotees of Victorian literature may have guessed, I refer respectively to goose, ... Full text
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Pick of the Prezzies 22/12/05
“Argh! Not again!” Mrs W expostulated, though she was talking about much-anticipated feature of Christmas.
“Yes, I owe it to my public,” I replied, like an aging diva being roped into her stays. “They need, nay, demand my annual guide to the best gift ideas from the cream of British journals. The Weasel’s Pick of the Prezzies is with us again.”
“But aren’t you a bit ... Full text -
Starter motors and Shangri-La 18/01/03
Do you know what a clutch release bearing is? I don’t either – but I imagine it as being small and spherical, somewhere between a cherry tomato and a Brussels sprout, though probably made of metal. This teensy widget has an impact quite disproportionate to its dimensions. It has, for example, forced a certain Mr Weasel to extend his post-Christmas break in a North Yorkshi... Full text