We’ve not had a Dilbert cartoon for a long time, so here’s an old one …

The Currywurst Museum in Berlin, located just beside Checkpoint Charlie — the most famous crossing point in the Berlin Wall, until it was knocked down in 1989.
The museum’s existence speaks of the astounding success of a very late arrival on the wurst scene, not the heir to proud traditions of an Imperial Free City, but the result of food shortages in post-1945 Berlin. Parodying John Maynard Keynes, who wrote a book about The Economic Consequences of the Peace, you might say that the currywurst is one of The Gastronomic Consequences of the Peace. And it is still very much with us — an essential part of the Berlin experience.
“Currywurst was invented by the help of an unknown British soldier, who sold curry powder on the black market in Berlin in the late 40s. And for these very cheap sausages, they need some sensory contrast, so they decided to sprinkle curry powder on the sausage,” says [Peter Peter, the food correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung].

“It was a time when we frenetically discovered foreign dishes, so it was interesting having something Indian, something exotic. It became a symbol of a town that had never had excellent sausages.
“After 1989, Berlin became very popular; a lot of Germans discovered Berlin – so going to a currywurst stall became an experience of a lot of young people. So a dish that in a certain way is a white trash dish became a symbol of visiting Berlin, of young lifestyle.”
From: Neil MacGregor, “The Country with One People and 1200 Sausages”; BBC News Magazine; www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29380144

This week a very old Wizard of Id …

Click the image for a larger version

This week’s cartoon is for all my former colleagues!

We bring you another right royal selection of oddities from the catalogues of our local auction house. Their last sale wasn’t interesting enough to make a post on its own but the current sale has well and truly made up for it. As so often it is not just the strange things people (try to) sell but the variety of old toot that gets put together as a lot. Here are the highlights(!!) of the two sales.
Some cigars, a bottle of absinthe and a boxing photograph of Jack Bloomfield against Bombadier Billy Wells, and a book on absinthe, etc.
Two small oak lecterns and a book on Jerusalem — The Saga of a Holy City, limited edition with hand coloured plates.
A tooled brass powder flask by J.W. Hawksley, a pair of 19th century andirons and a 19th century chamberstick with naïve decoration.
A large African storage bucket covered in animal hide
A large Oriental chrysanthemum decorated figure of a rabbit …
Two old gaucho spurs
A Teletubbies lot, incl. 5 unused Teletubbies in original packaging, plus a boxed one, Teletubbies posable figures (smaller), a Teletubbies giant Tiddleywinks, a beach ball and a video
A large collection of ladies tights including fishnets …
Various Roman pottery and fossils in two boxes, a rolled-up ‘Scotland of Old’, a collection of posters including Howe Bicycles, tricycles, a Few Translations of the 13th Century, La Dame aux Camelias, etc.
A box containing 125 small boxes, each containing two magnetic bracelets including freshwater pearls.
A framed, signed and sealed manuscript for the United Ancient Order of Druids.
Two shelves of decorative china and brassware, including table lamps, trays, vases, candlesticks, animal figurines, goblets, eggcups, etc., a large copper kettle and tray, silver plated comport, a blue 1980s Metropolis telephone, a quantity of decorative tins, a set of Le Jockey Club, Paris binoculars, a small quantity of planters, a figurine of a horse, a Holy Bible and Book of Common Prayer, onyx table lamps, a glass milk bottle, a Heald Ltd Foodbank Farm, Didsbury, and another similar, a barometer, lacquer box and cover, an old miner’s lamp, tea caddy with mother-of-pearl cartouche, a military Burroughs tin box.
An old brass Valor fire extinguisher, a Trio TS530S HF transceiver, a large green and clear glass outside lantern, a stoneware hot water bottle by The Old Fulham Pottery, a large jasper ware cheese dome and cover, a pair of modern silver plate and leather table lamp bases, a Mackintosh style butterfly table lamp, etc.
Two pokerwork boxes, one decorated with cherries, a pair of German cases binoculars, 8×22, Kodak Retinette 1A camera, a PD15 camera, Bakelite flash, three brass candlesticks and a small quantity of silver plate including candlestick and bowl, Art Deco figurine of a fawn, plus other animal ornaments including birds, zebra and monkeys, a quantity of silver plated cutlery and a handmade interesting figure of an elderly couple sitting in their drawing room made by Magda Watts.
Interesting items incl. an Agfamatic 1A cased camera, a Comet 2 cased camera, and a boxed Brownie, approx. 8 African figural wooden carvings, a Murano green glass decanter with gilt and floral decoration and 6 matching wine glasses, stoneware mug set, etc.
A pewter tea and coffee set on matching tray, an old leather suitcase and green lady’s hat by Della
An old knobkerry, slightly curved, a carved African throwing spear and twisted walking stick, and a shooting stick
A percussion cap musket with ramrod and a Second World War papier-mâché helmet
An Oriental boxwood walking stick, well carved with rats on a length of bamboo, with hidden compartment
A box of various door locks, handles, fittings, etc., three cartons of old tools including moulding planes, a fire, and two cartons of Kilner jars and jam jars.

A mixed lot to include Royal Doulton Morning Star chinaware, treen, old Christmas decorations, stationery, old tins, metal ware, cutlery, old phones, etc.
Seven various leaded windows.
But the pièce de résistance has to be …
A purple porcelain sink and toilet, a blue and white decorative sink and a concrete garden urn.
However these sales were stuffed (and I use the word advisedly) with taxidermy and similar …
A cased set of mounted butterflies incl. the Jay and Lime butterfly [plus lots of other toot]
A quantity of dik dik horns, claws, etc.
Three items of taxidermy: a bird of prey in a good mahogany and glazed case, a show pigeon, again in a glazed display case and a stoat.
A taxidermy stag head, and further horns and heart-shaped mahogany mounting board
A small quantity of taxidermy including a pheasant, jay and one further small bird.
A small quantity of taxidermy including a mounted deer head, another mounted doe and mounted jackals.
A stuffed gannet on a rock, in glazed case
A quantity of taxidermy items incl. a wooden glazed case with a trio of squirrels and a bird, a mounted crocodile’s head, a fox’s head, stag head, and a humming bird
And again we leave the pièce de résistance to the last …
Caught by the vendor in an exotic location, this Hammerhead shark has a manmade skeleton covered in the original skin that was preserved in Formaldehyde prior to being carefully stretched over the bones.
As Kenny Everett would have said “All in the best possible taste”!