The Mystery of Wardell's Ginger Ale

Here is our starting point.  It is a "hutchinson" style soda bottle.  These were pretty much the standard pop bottle in the 1880's and 1890's.  

The embossing reads R.T. WARDELL EAU CLAIRE WIS.  That little gizmo in the bottom of the bottle is the stopper.  Replacing earlier corked bottles this allowed you to open up a bottle, drink some of it, and reseal it.   

So, what's the story here?  Well, its complicated.

The earliest local clue is from the summer of 1884.  Summertime is generally when pop bottlers started a venture, or advertised an existing one.  From an Eau Claire paper of June 21st we read:

"R.T. Wardell, of Michigan, is opening up an establishment on the West side for the manufacture and sale of ginger ales, etc."

There is a bit of confusion in early reports.  At one point it was said to be an F. Wardell starting the business.  And embarrassingly, on the July 3rd, the paper described ginger ale as an alcoholic beverage.  A hasty 4th of July retraction was published:

The reference to three million bottles being sold in the previous year is rather audacious.  Where?  And by whom?

Wardell bottles from Eau Claire are pretty scarce.  R.T. gets mentioned briefly among citizens signing a petition in 1885.  After that there is but one enigmatic and somewhat jokey reference from 1886...and this from a Minneapolis newspaper.

It sounds like somebody the editor knew well, perhaps on a drinking buddy sort of level?

As it happens there was another branch of the Wardell family over in St. Paul, Minnesota.

John G. Wardell is said to have moved from Battle Creek Michigan to the Twin Cities in 1882.  After briefly being in Minneapolis he set up shop in St. Paul, doing business as The Spa Bottling Company.  He was quite successful, both at the original Spa Bottling company and later, in 1900, when he left that firm and started his own venture.  The Consolidated Bottling Company became Highland Spring Water company later in 1900, actually lasting until the mid 1960's.  For more on this branch of the Wardell clan I found THIS quite helpful. 

When Spa got started in 1882 it had Minneapolis and St. Paul branches, and was variously described as having relocated from Grand Rapids Michigan or being an offshoot of an earlier company there.  John G. Wardell is described as being "....long connected with the Grand Rapids house..." I'm not sure how that fits with the report of him being from Battle Creek, but they are not far apart. 

John G. was born in 1857.  R.T. is described as a young man in 1886.  They must have been related.  Same last name, both came from Michigan, both in the soda business.  The presumed difference in ages does not fit for father and son, but perhaps brothers?  Maybe he was a sort of black sheep of the family.  The claim of three million bottles sold in 1883 is hard to believe.  Maybe if the output of the Minnesota and Michigan branches was combined.  Interestingly there also was a Diamond Ginger Ale sold out of Connecticut starting in 1865.  Maybe that three million figure suggested an early franchise set up?

John G. lived a long and productive life.  He died in 1935, his son and grandson carrying on the business.  Heck, I might have had a swig or two of Highland Spring Water when I was a kid.

Eventually I tracked down an on line City Directory of Grand Rapids from 1880.  John G. Wardell is listed as a "clerk" for Mills and Lacey.  No listing of them in the beverage business.  Robert T. Wardell was, if I am reading the abbreviation corrctly, a cradle maker!   There is one soda bottler and one ginger beer manufacturer listed,  but oddly the Wardells do not seem to have been associated with either.  

4th of July - America at 250

Fourth of July is usually a surprisingly personal holiday for most Americans.  We  get the three day weekend off - ER docs being the exception - and are expected to go do summer things that please us.  If you have a lake cabin, go there.  If there are jobs to do, keep them at a minimum.  Grill stuff.  Have a cold beer.  That's the Midwest paradigm at least.  As for other parts of the country, well, YMMV.

250 years seems like a less impressive feat than the Bicentennial was.  It's kind of like one's 40th anniversary.  A big number but less substantive than say 25 or 50.  That's not really fair of course.  With longer life spans lots of people reach their 50th anniversary.  Very few countries on earth last for centuries.  I mean, obviously the land does, the form of government not so much.  

There is a tendency of late to be very downcast about America and the future.  I don't share this pessimism.  

1976.  The bicentennial.  I was in college.  My waistline was thin.  My hair was not.  We'd just waded through the apparent defeat of Vietnam and the difficulty of Watergate.  Gas for our horrid 1970's cars was expensive.  Interest rates were ridiculously high.  Current home seekers despair over 6.3% mortgage rates.  Hey, try 18% on for size.  (ok, that was a couple of years earlier, but still....).

And for all that I don't remember people being nearly as disturbed as some are today.  

Times are different.  We are different.  Which changes which?

Fifty years ago there were still certainties.  Our parents were of durable stock, having endured the Great Depression and the Second World War.  There were even plenty of "doughboys" around whose lives started in an agrarian, isolationist country.  These were not stupid people, they'd seen a great deal come to pass.  But they kept their focus on making their lives and that of their families better.

Odd times for America on its 250th.  We are now exposed to continuous outrage on our electronic marvels.  But at the same time we have as a culture been sleep walking.  So many important questions just kicked down the road like an old tin can...a can that contains the accumulated debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off. You can be supportive, neutral or antagonistic to this administration but at least difficult questions are being asked.  Hopefully the right answers will be forthcoming.  If not, we'll elect a different bunch.   

So Happy Birthday.  Life is not perfect.  It is in fact always going to be a mixture.  That phone that brings you Tiktok slop and panicky dispair...it also contains more information that we could have imagined 25 years ago.  We are smarter than we used to be: the percentage of Americans with college degrees is up markedly.  Wiser is another matter.....

Well enough of this.  Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness means, get out there and enjoy the day.  Burgers and beer optional.

Upstairs, Downstairs

Our house was built in 1908.  Not old from the standpoint of our community, which got going in the 1840's, but it does represent an interesting moment in time.  The Lumber Baron era was just over.  The modern age - indoor plumbing, electricity, telephone lines - had arrived.

It was also a time of class distinctions.  Oh, not so much as in England, but there was a definite expectation that people of quality lived on the top of the hill, while smaller houses full of working class folks were further down the slope.  

I should really know the story better, but evidently our house was built by a guy who worked in a bank during the lumbering era.  His daughter lived there after he passed.

It's a nice enough house.  But today's focus is on the Upstairs-Downstairs world of early 20th century servants.

They were mostly women, mostly recent immigrants.  Usually from Scandinavia or perhaps Germany.  They were probably some combination of maid, cook, nanny.  I don't know a lot about the woman who lived here as a servant.  I've seen her name on a census.  My "office" a small room where I am allowed to set up computer, files, random junk, used to be her bedroom.  When we were new in the house it still had a sink.  This was pretty handy when we made it the nursery for our three kids.

Downstairs there is one room that was a bit fancy.  A dining room with decent woodwork.  On the floor there is a metal plate that used to have a button.  When the Man of the House, or perhaps the Woman of same, pushed a button with a toe there'd be a buzzer or bell that would sound.  I think we found a few remnants of this system's wiring during an early remodel.

And going from the kitchen to the Dining Room there was a swinging door.  You certainly would not expect people of quality to see pots, pans and dishes!  The door swung on a hinge.  Specifically, here:

I did say it was not all that Grand.  But lets focus on a little area down at the bottom of the doorway.....

There is a little square of wood there that does not quite fit with the rest of the flooring.  There used to be something else there, something that could be removed. leaving a gap between first floor and basement.  Small people used to like to yell things and drop messages down from above.

What used to be there was a very fancy hinge, the sort of thing that would articulate a nice door.  I could see the Servant Girl gently pushing it open while carrying in platters full of whatever upper middle class folks dined on back in the day.

And as it happens, I still have that hinge.  It's more interesting than most bits of 126 year old hardware...

OK, that's only mildly interesting.  Let's flip it over to read:

BOMMER FLOOR HINGE  PAT. DEC 25 1900

I've seen other things patented on Christmas Day.  It must have been a thing back then.  Certainly the Patent Office would not have been open on December 25th, so they must have had some sort of paperwork gimmick to make this the patent date.*

The Bommer Company is, remarkably still around.  HERE'S their story.

Alas, on a closer read of their website it appears that in the summer of 2025 they decided to wrap up the business, no doubt in the face of overseas competition, and it looks as if they are selling off remaining stock.  😔

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* The most famous patent date of this sort is on the "Christmas Coke" bottles that are the classic shape for CocaCola when it came in glass.

Lumberjacks (and Jills)

Timber Sports.  Now there's a phrase you probably have never heard.  It's basically modern people competing in lumberjack activities.  To some extent using modern tools like chain saws.  And there are Lumber Jills as well as Lumber Jacks.

Hayward Wisconsin, near where our up north cabin is, has quite the center of Timber Sportsdom.  In fact they have the Lumberjack World Championship competition there.  Really talented people chopping, sawing, log rolling, climbing poles, that sort of thing.  

There is also a regular "show" for entertaining tourists.  Not quite World Champs level stuff but with lots of banter, and still many amazing things to be seen.  We had some out of town visitors with us recently and they went to see the show.

Afterwards I got them to split a season's worth of kindling.  Happily with no mishaps.

Tree Shaped Tombstone - Between Luck and Frederick (Wisconsin)

Like the example the other day from McKinley Wisconsin, this tree shaped tombstone was encountered on a little road trip.  Baseball tournament destination.  Prior to setting out I usually go to Google Maps and scan for small town cemeteries.  Sometimes you see interesting things, sometimes not.  A few are not even "on the map".  This little place - St. Peter's Cemetery - did not look like much, but I pulled in anyway.  And found another "one off" tree.  It is also another late one, and has an unusual inscription.  Perhaps related in some way to the one in McKinley?

Some purists might not count these "rugged cross" variants, but I rather like them.  The horizontal elements often have interesting features.  Like this "dying dove".

And another cryptic inscription.  This time Google helped out.  It seems to be Norwegian and say "Dedicated to your Memory".  

Lolling About

It's summer time.  And my dog alternates manic energy and exhausted sloth.  In the latter state he is often "lolling around".  For some reason I've always associated this particular phrase with dogs.  And with dog's tongues.  Turns out I was mostly right...

Like many of the best descriptive words it has obscure origins.  Possible Middle Dutch in the form of "lollen" meaing to doze or mumble.  By the mid 1300's it had changed a bit and now meant to lounge idly or to hang loosely.  You can see how, by the early 1600's, it picked up the connotation of a tongue hanging out.  And a century later being a generic term for lazy inaction.

Lollypop turns up in the late 1700's.  Although they originally did not seem to have a stick, it was certainly something you would pop into your mouth.  Lollygag is a later word, well into the 19th century.  It implies a more deceptive inaction rather than just being worn out.  Lolly, as above, plus gag, meaning a joke.

Lounging about is by the way much different from lolling about.  At least by the complexity of its etymology it seems like much more work

Tree Shaped Tombstone - McKinley Wisconsin

Oh, my.  The tree shaped tombstone in this photo is really the less impressive part...

Welcome to McKinley Wisconsin.  It's just a wide spot in the road really.  But it has a cemetery.  And next to it a church.

As you can see, the church has taken a big hit.  A lightning strike in the summer of 2025 started a fire.

At this point the building had been repurposed into a home, and the family was just barely able to escape unharmed.

Almost a year later there do not appear to be ongoing repair efforts.  

Now, on to that tombstone.  It is unusual in several respects.  For one thing, it is the only one in the cemetery.  My rule of thumb is that when you see one you will almost always see another.  Not here.  And it has some other unusual features.  It is a really, really late example.

As is common, its a husband and wife.  He died in 1918.  She in 1937.  Monuments of this sort were becoming uncommon as the 1920's approached.  Perhaps they were the kind of people who really planned ahead and bought this earlier?

Something else odd here, and this one really bothers me.  The inscription at the bottom is in some language that I can't make out.  I've run what I can see through Google Translate and come up empty.  Of course my policy is that I never scrub at such things, I keep my hands off.  But what is this?   (Note, based on another example from a few miles away I'm thinking it is Norwegian)

June Wild Life

Seen on a morning walk.  Pretty lame camo, bro.

Seen hiding in the side yard bushes.  I guess this is the time of year when fledglings get ornery and hop out of the nest a few days before they are actually able to, you know, fly.  Momma bird seen in the days that followed.  Checking several days later, no adolescent punk bird.  No sad pile of feathers.  So probably OK.

Seen on a "butterfly weed" next to the compost bin.  Tubby little guy, with a slightly smaller sidekick 'piller.

Hunting Land Update

Good thing I got my working sessions up north in before I went overseas.  Now that we are well into the hot weather season it would be much less fun.

Some things have not worked out.  I've written on several occasions on The Bean Project, whereby I'd take pounds of surplus Navy, Black and Pinto beans and turn them into huge feed lots for the plumpification of next year's venison harvest.

The results were underwhelming.  I planted hundreds of them in shallow scrapes and just tossed handfuls off into open areas.  Most just vanished.  Although in one area where we had turned the soil over well last year they are fighting it out with the thistles....

Also, I had plans to put in a rudimentary "facility".  Well, an outhouse if you must know.  As mostly guy users there is no problem with stepping outside and watering the nearest tree, but on infrequent occasions more dedicated facilities could be useful.  Staying over night in the one humble structure already on the site could make those evening and sunrise hunts much easier.

Alas, there are pesky rules and regulations on such matters.  Specifications.  Soil inspections.  Fees to pay.  A permit.  Sigh.

Such are the puny efforts of man.  Or at least of this man.  But nature continues on without much notice of said efforts.  It was a mild winter and game populations seem to be robust.  A couple of recent trail cam pictures....

Awww....

And, oh my....

A New Species Caught!

We'll get back to this guy in a minute....

It was a warm early summer day.  Fathers and sons fishing.  Specifically, bank fishing for odd fish.  I wore my Wisconsin's Least Glamorous Fish T shirt for the occasion, and sure enough the first one up was a Freshwater Drum, featured on same.

I'd only every caught one of these before.  I quadrupled my tally in a couple of hours.  In fact that was all we were catching until we moved to another spot.  Then a Golden Redhorse showed up.  I asked this youngster to try and imitate the dopy horse like face of the fish.  He's just too darn cute to pull it off.

My goal for the day was to catch a Mooneye.  It's an odd one, a fish that mostly lives in the top few inches of water.  They spend all day making little ripples on the surface to taunt me.  Eventually I did reel one in.  Here's my attempt at a Mooneye Face.  I know, not much different from my usual look.

A very lazy day.  Kids ran around and looked at rocks, dug holes in the sand, basically were just kids being kids.  Dads watched the bank poles.  The can by the way contained soda.  The area does seem popular with folks who "party fish" in the night time hours, if old campfires and the occasional beer can can be taken in evidence.

I believe my life time list of freshwater species stands at 41.  And I have some extra time and nightcrawlers this week, so might go out in search of another particularly tough one.....the Northern Hogsucker!

Mostly for my own records, here's my freshwater fish list.  Yes, the salmon can be fresh or salt water.  

Northern Pike, Musky, Walleye, Sauger, Large and Smallmouth bass, Black crappie, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Green Sunfish, White Sucker, Common Carp, Black and Yellow Bullheads, Golden, Shorthead and Silver Redhorse.  Pink, Sockeye, King and Silver Salmon.  Rock Bass, Yellow Perch, Smallmouth Buffalo, Lake Sturgeon, Channel Catfish, Creek Chub, Horney Head Chub, Common Shiner, Freshwater Drum, Round Goby.  Brook, Rainbow and Brown Trout.  Dolly Varden, Mooneye, Log Perch.  Dogfish (aka Bowfin), Lake Trout, Short Nosed Gar, Silver Carp,   (41)  I've also caught a few minnows and some sort of sculpin that I don't have enough evidence to identify.

My salt water list is shorter, and obviously harder to add onto.  I think its around 9.

Food and Drink Reviews - Northumbria 2026

Well, at least the small part of Northumbria that I've gotten to know well.  These suggestions might come in handy for folks walking or otherwise visiting Hadrian's Wall.  No Star ratings or major negatives, just my observations.  Each of these places could make for a good experience.

Going from East to West.....

1. Carts Bog Inn.  This is way off the beaten path, down to the south of Haydon Bridge.  It's been an inn since the 1770's.  It got its start, and its name, because carts loaded with ore went down this lonely road...and got stuck in a low spot.  The drivers needed a place to collect themselves, perhaps waiting for the equivalent of a tow truck. I'd been wanting to visit the spot for years, and finally managed it in May.  It did not disappoint.

The place has retired greyhounds snoozing on cushions.  Lots of campy artwork, much of it also dog related.

Really good food.  I recommend the Bog Pie.  It's a concoction of steak and mushrooms, and it was so tasty it even made mushrooms edible.  I hate mushrooms.  Another of our party had lamb shank, also good.

Two minor caveats.  Only open a couple days a week, and a small place.  So call for reservations.

And the beer selection was so-so on our visit.  One tap seemed to be "out".  They probably do better most nights, it is after all said to be on the location of a brewery from the 1500s!

2. The Bowes Hotel.  My home away from home in the UK.  Convenient as a place to stay, as there are bus and rail connections right outside the door.  A brisk walk up to Vindolanda if someone shows you the sneaky path!*  But for food and drink purposes.....  I recommend the Cumbrian sausage with mash, and any of the curry dishes they rotate through.  The owner's wife is from Thailand, when she's in the kitchen dial your spice request down a notch!  For drink I favor Reiver, an ale made about 10 miles to the north.  

3. The Twice Brewed Inn.  Right on the Military Road and just down the hill from the Hadrian's Wall waling path.  So, great location.  When I started going there it was a humble, funky kind of place.  I like such places.  Now it has gone upscale.  They have their own brewery on site, whose wares I recommend.  They have fun stuff like night time stargazing.  The outdoor gazebo seating areas are nice on a warm day.  I have not had the food there in times recent, but its probably pretty good.  This place is big enough that reservations might not be essential, but are appreciated.   Located exactly in the middle of the Hadrian's Wall Path this spot will always be enjoyed by hungry/thirsty walkers.  

4. The Milecastle.  A long time favorite, this is one of the first places we visited when walking Hadrian's Wall Path.  It's a small place, so reservations needed.  Very good pies, which of course in the UK will not be apple and lemon meringue sort of stuff.**  Nope, steak, poacher's pie, kidney, that sort of thing.  The place is no doubt popular with my digger pals due to the proximity of Roman stuff which gives it its name.  Supposedly in business since the 1600's, although its not just Roman buildings that come and go.  They seem to have a mobile pizza operation that I saw set up this summer, but I did not have a chance to sample this new venture.

5. The Black Bull.  Moving just a bit further west and south to the delightfully named Haltwhistle there is a little pub on the back side of the main square.  It is what I call a Time Warp establishment.  By that I mean it looks and feels just like the pubs you see on Brit TV when they are depicting the 1950s.  The owner is ex military.  He can be a bit brusque, but switched gears immediately when he noted some "ink" on one of our excavators who was a former British Army sergeant.  I've never had food there, but they serve it intermittently.  But I very much enjoy the atmosphere and the ale.  I suggest Tim Taylor Landlord, although it makes me think of Tim the Tool Man from the old Home Improvements show.  He'd find a lot to "fix up" in this ancient building.

There are lots of other food and drink options as you go here and there in the Hadrian's Wall country.  Some appear and disappear, as is the rule in the hospitality industry.  

Of course your enjoyment of a place will depend on the pleasure of the company you are with...and how badly you need sustenance and perhaps to get in out of the rain.  The above list covers quite a few places along the "best" central portion of the Hadrian's Wall Path, but I have not included entire categories, such as tea rooms.

I don't much care for tea and tearooms, but such places will often have sandwiches and so forth.  Off the top of my head I can recall places at Chollerford and Greenhead, plus the in house establishments at the "attractions" of Vindolanda, the Roman Army Museum, Housesteads and Birdoswald.  There also appear to be various "Honesty Stands" along the walking path where a much needed can of soda could be acquired on the rare days when hot sun is overhead in Northumbria....

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* The owner of The Bowes is happy to arrange pick up and drop off services for guests.

**In the UK "pie" is a rather generic category.  For desserts most everything is called a "pudding", although confusingly things like Yorkshire pudding are really what we'd call pop overs.  Sticky toffee pudding with custard is recommended highly.  I think all the above places could manage a good one.

England 2026 - A Poison Garden

Here's another in the series of "Digger's Day Out" jaunts.  Alnwick Gardens.

These are adjacent to Alnwick Castle, which would also be worth your while.  Among other things it was used as a filming location for Downton Abbey.  Also Harry Potter.  They offer special Broomstick Class on the open square where young Potter first learned to fly a Quiddich broom.

In both cases the pronunciation is "Ann-ick".  Not to be confused with a spot near Hexham that is spelled Annick but pronounced differently.  You get used to this after a few visits to the area.

Now I'll say up front that neither the Castle nor the Garden are a cheap day out.  You have to go into this as we did, with the knowledge that your travel dollars (or whatever currency) are helping to maintain something wonderous and worthwhile.  OK, on to the Gardens....

The centerpiece is this grand array of fountains and waterfalls.  It's the sort of thing that you really can't capture with a photo.  But here it is from the bottom looking up:

And from the top looking down. The structure you see on the end is a nice restaurant/garden center complex.  Very dog friendly by the way, albeit with ongoing discussions between dogs and the small groups of ducks that waddle around begging for scraps.

Every now and then the fountains fire up and do interesting things.

The garden proper has all sorts of plants.  Early in the season not all are at their best, but enough were that the gardener types in our group were impressed.  Me, I was just as happy to wander through the hedge maze and find a naughty monkey sculpture...

We all have our particular interests I suppose.

There were some side trips adjacent to the Garden that we did not visit.  For a small extra fee you can visit an area called Lilidorei.  This seems to be a gigantic play area for kids with a sort of fantasy theme and what claims to be the world's biggest play structure.  

If I had grandkids in tow it would be a tempting option.  For the kids of course.....

But we spent a small additional amount of money for something else, the Poison Garden tour.

I won't give you the entire itinerary and talk, that would not be fair to the very clever staff they have doing this 20 minute or so stroll through a special section of the Garden.  But essentially they have collected a batch of famous poisonous plants in one place.  Famous of course as they have been used in assorted real and fictitious murders, all of which are described in slightly tidied up form.

Rather fun.  After the talk was done I did chat a bit with the guide, letting her know I was a former ER doctor (or A and E in their parlance).  I knew a bit about several of these plants, especially the ones that have/had medical uses.  Small amounts of foxglove, good.  Large amounts, skull n' crossbones territory...

Our authoress was not in the group that visited Alnwick.  But to be sure, we subsequently had another of our Plot Idea chats.  What if a series of poisonings happened, and after a while it became evident that someone had taken the Poison Garden tour and was going down the row using each poison for a different crime????

Meanwhile, in the general category of "name yer poison" our friend who is an aficionado of such things discovered that the gift shop sold a Poison Garden Gin!

I'm sure this will merit a place of pride in her "gin closet".  I have on occasion teased her that it is more like a "gin annex".  Or should I say, "gin Alnwicks"?

Things I'm Doing This Summer - Baseball

I have my priorities.  This summer ranking high on the list are ball games.  The grandkids are on, respectively, softball, baseball league and baseball traveling teams.  And the youngest will be doing some sort of T ball when school is out in a few days.  

Not all games are well played.  The weather is not always idyllic.  But when things are perfect, well, there's nothing better.

The bench.

A new puppy, sunk into comatose sleep after hyperactive play with kids.

The parent and grandparent chair array.  We follow each other from game to game, from year to year, from sport to sport.

When my son was the age my grandson is now, I coached him on a traveling baseball team.  I was a good coach.  My son is better.

With Father's Day near, what better sentiments than: "I did my best.  It was pretty good.  You turned out great and will now do your best.  Your kid will turn out excellent."

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Addendum.  At last report my grandson's two teams - regular league and traveling team - are both undefeated.  The latter just won their second straight tournament when our lad came on in the last inning with the tying run on base.....and put away the batter with three straight strikes.  It's good to be focused and well coached.  It's also good to be left handed.

Digger's Day Out, Continued.

So how do you follow up on a visit to an honest to goodness Plague Village?

For us the next stop was bizarre antiquities.  There is an antiques centre in Morpeth that has some seriously weird stuff on display.  

I suppose your mileage may vary, but I never get enough of Bad Taxidermy.

This place had lots of it.

Bad Taxidermy is a favorite of mine on travels because I can realistically never buy any of it and ship it home.  I mean, how would you even explain a fully dressed mule deer?  And where did they get one in England???

An interesting side light to that question.  Small taxidermy is much more expensive than big stuff.

I really want a wild boar's head for the wall of my cabin.  I can't explain it, I just do.  They are much cheaper than little weasels and stoats decked out in silly little weasel hats.   Probably because of the "how do I pack it?" question.  And, lets be honest, the "what will my wife say" question.

More odd stuff:

And this really surprised me.  My English friends are appalled by the private ownership of firearms.  There are even laws against knives in the UK.  So when you go to the antiques center what do you find?  Cases full of bayonets and "Deactivated" submachine guns!

Across the street was a park area for which I had high hopes.  Why, there was a "Floral Clock"!

Alas, not planted yet.

And a statue commemorating EmilyWilding Davison, a Suffragette from Morpeth whose advocacy proved fatal.  She jumped out in front of a race horse - it happened to belong to the King - apparently hoping to throw a banner around its neck.  She got clobbered and subsequently died.  From what I can tell she was a bit of a nutter, also involved in a series of bombings.  I guess in a worthy cause you can still do some damned foolish things....

Aldi has a Sense of Humor?

Apparently they do.  Parody mugs featuring variations on their logo are pretty common.  Here's one we picked up at the Hexham Car Boot Sale:

And there are others...

When over in the UK I did a quick google search for others in this genre and came across a few with dubious taste.  "Alkie" for instance.  And also, well, one I really would like to show ya but it does not appear on any searches on this side of the Atlantic.  I guess you'll just have to imagine an image of Arnold Schwartzenegger in his most iconic, sunglasses wearing role, promising that 

"Aldi Back"

To their credit the Aldi company takes a very relaxed stance on any parody products that can't plausibly be confused with grocery items.  It's likely that whoever owns the IP for The Terminator sees things a little differently.....