A Sunday Times food critic got into trouble a few years ago for calling all Welshmen "sheep shaggers" because there's nothing else to do in Wales, apparently. It was the old story of them putting the sheep's back legs into wellington boots to stabilize them. Perhaps Mike can verify whether this happens, due to boredom, or whatever. A group of indignant Welshmen threatened to sue, so the food critic had to issue a humble apology, which he did by repeating the slander at very great length: "I am VERY SORRY FOR CALLING ALL WELSH MEN SHEEP SHAGGERS; I should never have implied that Welsh men SHAG SHEEP ALL DAY LONG", which only got him into more trouble.
And in defence of my adopted country, Canada has not only produced Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, but also: Alanis Morrisette, Neil Young, Avril Lavine, Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot, Shania Twain, Bruce Cockburn, Ian Tyson, Burton Cummings, Celine Dion, Sarah McLaughlin, Anne Murray, Bare Naked Ladies, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Leslie Nielson, John Candy, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Robert Goulet, Raymond Burr, Dan Aykroyd, Glenn Ford, Michael J. Fox, Mike Myres, Matthew Perry, Christopher Plummer, Jason Priestley, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carey, Lauren Green the actor that played Ben Cartwright in Bonanza, and the great William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk of Star Trek. I can recite these names like an incantation because Canadians are forever talking about them. Watch television or listen to music here and it's: "he's Canadian", "oh look, Canadian" and "hey, bet you didn't know that she's Canadian, eh!" and so on. Canada is 41 times bigger than the UK but has a smaller population, which to me is incredible. Good in the sense that you can drive for miles without seeing any towns, houses or cars. Bad in the sense that you can drive for miles without seeing any towns, houses . . . ;-) Sarah At 11:26 AM +0100 01/23/2003, mike pritchard wrote: >According to my Economist screensaver, Canada is 41 times bigger >than the UK. What surprised me when checking this out is that New >Zealand is also bigger than the UK, but only by a little. Wales, in >comparison, is 460 times smaller than Canada and although Canada has >Leonard Cohen, Mags and of course, Joni; Wales has David Grey, >Gwynedd Jones, Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cale, Anthony >Hopkins, Sian Phillips, Bonnie Tyler, the Manic Street Preachers and >my not inconsiderable good self. IMHO, of course.
