FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Terror Alert of the Day:
Jelly!
Yes, the latest innocent victim in the relentless, paranoid hunt for terrorists is the humble jelly & ice-cream or celebratory birthday trifle. Fire officers in the German town of Halle cordoned off a large area while they inspected a pile of "red, orange and green substance". After TWO HOURS of investigation, they concluded that it was nothing more than normal, edible jelly left over from a wedding party!
Of course, my major concern about this is the reckless nature in which the wedding caterers mixed various flavours of jelly into one dessert - disappointing for those guests with a more discerning palette for these things. Moreover, I can't help feeling that the security team responsible for this investigation have neglected to consider the fate of the missing vanilla ice-cream. So, if you're visiting mainland Europe sometime soon beware - around any corner or lurking in any dark alley could be hundreds of litres of life-threatening Carte D'Or just waiting to pounce.
Luckily, Halle is also notable for one other thing, at least via some tenuous link: The Hallé Orchestra was named after the conductor who founded the group, Karl (later Charles) Halle, whose own surname is presumed to have its roots in the German town by the same name. Although The Hallé was founded in Manchester (where it is based to this day), Karl was actually born in an area in modern German and the accent was added to the last letter of the orchestra's name simply to make it easier for English people to pronounce.
Yes, the latest innocent victim in the relentless, paranoid hunt for terrorists is the humble jelly & ice-cream or celebratory birthday trifle. Fire officers in the German town of Halle cordoned off a large area while they inspected a pile of "red, orange and green substance". After TWO HOURS of investigation, they concluded that it was nothing more than normal, edible jelly left over from a wedding party!
Of course, my major concern about this is the reckless nature in which the wedding caterers mixed various flavours of jelly into one dessert - disappointing for those guests with a more discerning palette for these things. Moreover, I can't help feeling that the security team responsible for this investigation have neglected to consider the fate of the missing vanilla ice-cream. So, if you're visiting mainland Europe sometime soon beware - around any corner or lurking in any dark alley could be hundreds of litres of life-threatening Carte D'Or just waiting to pounce.
Luckily, Halle is also notable for one other thing, at least via some tenuous link: The Hallé Orchestra was named after the conductor who founded the group, Karl (later Charles) Halle, whose own surname is presumed to have its roots in the German town by the same name. Although The Hallé was founded in Manchester (where it is based to this day), Karl was actually born in an area in modern German and the accent was added to the last letter of the orchestra's name simply to make it easier for English people to pronounce.
