A Bumper Compendium of Fun!

As Walter Mondale's Alex can attest one of the great English family get together tradtions is the breaking out of the compendium of games (back me up here Alexander, or I'm in trouble). The compendium was usually a box or book with a single board that doubled as the playing surface for a whole range of games (here's a posh version). This being England in the seventies the compendium, as with all our children's entertainment, was still stuck in a late fifties time warp. Hence games such as Make Way For The Officer, You Coolies!, Doff Yer Cap, Half a Guinea on The Nag Squire, and Duck the Gypsy in the Village Pond (still alas played today).

With the holidays approaching (for my transatlantic chums in Blighty, it's Thanksgiving this week. Why is it that English people seem to take such offense to the theory of the Thanksgiving holiday by the way? Stop being so sadly parochial- not everyone has to celebrate 'whitsun') I thought I would come up with my own compendium of a couple of websites to help stave off that tryptophan nap come Thursday.

First up, how about giving it up for a bit of lard, the other white shortening?

Why not hang out with the family and share the latest Howard Dean speculation, or learn more good gossip about American politicians from The Hill?

Join in the general yelling without the bother of getting your own blog- hang out on Metafilter

Get a jump on the crowds and pre-select your favorite tunes for the holiday gift season by checking out Bizarre Records.

Finally, in the true tradition of British family entertainment and the compendium of games, laugh at how those funny foreigners seem to always name their food after eupemisms for genitals. "Look! A Swedish crisp bread called 'Knackered Dick!' Tee Hee!" Its all right here, at Rude Food.

Not the most fun ever, but true to the spirit of the compendium of games.

I might be back later with a sense of awe and wonder at how the Republicans, with the White House, Senate, and House cannot get their own legislation passed, as the Intelligence Reform Bill founders on the rocks of Rumsfeld and a couple of his lackeys in Congress...