Well my friends, once again it’s {drumroll} Monday!  Yes, the weekend has gone … but there’s some good news … only 5 more days ‘til the next one!  Hey!  Who threw the tomato???  Our apologies for skipping Jolly Monday last week, but we’re back this week with some stories, toons and a critter video that we hope will help you start the week with a smile!  So, grab a snack and a nice warm drink, and let’s see what we can find.

Yummy or Yucky?

McDonald’s is selling a sandwich made of Spam topped with crushed Oreo cookies Monday in China in an attention-grabbing move that has raised eyebrows.

Global brands from restaurants to automakers sometimes roll out offbeat products to appeal to Chinese tastes in the populous and intensely competitive market.

This is undoubtedly one of them.

“I thought it was delicious,” said a comment signed Feifei Mao Enthusiast on the Sina Weibo microblog service. “Is that because I love McDonald’s too deeply? Or is something wrong with my taste?”

The sandwich is made of two slices of Spam, a product of Hormel Foods LLC, and Mondelez International’s Oreo cookies, topped with mayonnaise.

McDonald’s Corp. said the sandwich was part of a series of “members only” promotions to be released on Mondays in China.

“There is no need to release unnecessary products,” said a comment left on the company’s microblog account. It received more than 2,000 “likes.”

McDonald’s said it planned to sell no more than 400,000 of the “Lunchmeat Burgers.” It wasn’t clear how many have been sold or how many people who flooded social media with scathing comments had eaten one.

“When you hate someone but have to invite him to dinner, you can ask him to eat McDonald’s Oreo lunchmeat burger,” said a separate comment on Sina Weibo.

A century old tradition …

The headline caught my eye … “Celebrate 100 Years of Sawing People in Half!”  Um … okay.  Turns out that one hundred years ago next weekend, an English magician called Percy Thomas Tibbles literally and laboriously sawed through a sealed wooden box that contained a woman.

It was a sensation and has since become one of the best known magic tricks, performed with all manner of tools and varying degrees of blood – always involving someone cut in half and nearly always with them miraculously put back together.

I’m happy to say that I never saw this trick performed.  Heck, as a child I was freaked when my uncle, an amateur magician, pulled a coin out of my ear!  But, I gather this is a very popular ‘trick’.  According to The Guardian …

On Sunday 17 January, the Magic Circle will mark the centenary of sawing someone in half, an illusion as iconic, its president Noel Britten said, as pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

It has a “rich and fascinating” history, Britten said, although the reasons for its almost instant popularity in 1921 may not be the noblest. Suffrage was the hot topic of its day so was it “for every person who thought it was great that women were getting the vote there were other people who thought it great that a woman was being put in a box and sawn in half?”

The US magician David Copperfield will show viewers round his magic museum in Las Vegas and talk about his interpretation, using a huge “death saw” which cut through him after he failed to escape the table.

The evening will also see Debbie McGee, the partner of the late Paul Daniels on stage and in life, recounting her experiences of being regularly dismembered. “Debbie has been sliced, diced, cremated, crushed, divided and decapitated more than most so has a great story to tell,” said Britten.

Details of how to watch the Facebook streamed event will be on the Magic Circle Unlocked Facebook page.

Personally, I’ll pass … I’m just really not a fan of blood ‘n guts!

And after that, I think we need some ‘toons, don’t you?

And we can’t end Jolly Monday without a cute animal video …

Well, folks, let’s hope for a calmer week this week than last, shall we?  Remember to share those beautiful smiles … we all need them right now!  We hope you have a good week … keep safe and warm!  Love ‘n hugs from Filosofa, Jolly and Joyful!