5 February 2012

Today

In 2008, a publisher called Florence Sandeman decreed that the first Sunday in February would henceforth be known as British Yorkshire Pudding Day. It would be a day to celebrate this humble "pudding" - that has accompanied roast meats in the British Isles for at least three hundred years. Mrs Sandeman had various reasons for picking this particular day - mainly its temporal distance between Christmas and Lent.

Though I support the idea of a day designated to rejoice in  the existence of Yorkshire puddings, I am affronted, nay hurt that Mrs Sandeman did not think to discuss arrangements for the day with me - a man who after all changed his name to Yorkshire Pudding several years ago - someone who has always been a loyal ambassador for the kingdom of Yorkshire and a champion of all things Yorkshire.

If she had met with me, I would have proposed the following for Yorkshire Pudding Day:-
1) All Yorkshire schoolchildren to wear larger Yorkshire puddings like flat-caps for the day or two smaller yorkies as ear muffs.
2) Yorkshire pudding hurling events to be held in Yorkshire parks - flinging the pud like a floppy frisbee to win various prizes in several age groups.
3) RAF Red Arrows acrobatic team to drop thousands of small Yorkshire puddings on troubled hotspots around the world like Syria, Canton GA and Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The delight engendered would create genuine pathways to peace.
4) For charity, all members of the British Coalition cabinet to be force-fed burnt Yorkshire puddings - which should of course normally be avoided at all costs.
5) If snow is on the ground, extra large Yorkshire puddings to be baked then allowed to dry till hardened before being used in municipal parks as sledges by young families from urban areas that are blighted by poverty and joblessness.
6) On BBC, a musical talent show to be launched in which contestants are only allowed to sing self-penned songs that are about or refer to Yorkshire puddings.

Perhaps next year Mrs Sandeman will pick up on some or all of my ideas and the whole world will notice that it's Yorkshire Pudding Day!

Six years ago on this li'ol blog I posted my Ode to the Yorkshire Pudding. On such an auspicious day the time seemed right to recycle it:-


How simple thou art, risen through the years
I recall you marked my Sundays
Fat laughter and glass tears
Golden wert thou - a vessel for mum’s gravy
Mashed potato memories
Brown ocean for a navy
Of minted garden peas

What an ordinary pudding you are
Milk and eggs and plain flour
In a hot oven for half an hour
You’re even made now by the famous Aunt Bessy
Supermarket packaging being not quite as messy
As beating those ingredients
In an old mixing bowl

You bear my county’s name
My land of hopes and dreams
From Flamborough’s chalky cliffs
To Barnsley’s deep coal seams
But in googling the world wide web
I find your fame at last has spread
From Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
The Yorkshire pudding rises…

9 comments:

  1. who will open this wonderful day?
    sean Bean?
    Brian Glover?
    Michael Palin?
    Alan Bennett?
    Leslie Garrett?

    ReplyDelete
  2. EARL GRAY In Yorkshire we are of course spoilt for famous celebrities. My personal choice would be either Jeremy Paxman, Roy Chubby Brown or Dame Judi Dench.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmm. British Yorkshire Pudding, eh? As opposed to Senegalese Yorkshire Pudding or Zimbabwean Yorkshire Pudding, I suppose.

    FYI - In the U.S., hurling is synonymous with regurgitating. I'm just saying....

    I like your poem.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RHYMES WITH... I'd rather have a Senegalese Yorkshire pudding than a Canton GA one! BTW hurling is very popular in the Republic of Ireland!
    EARL GRAY He may be a c*NT but at least he's a Yorkshire one! Come on! Come on!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is indeed a shame that Mrs Sandeman did not see fit to consult you, YP. The spectacle you conjure up would be worth the trip from north Wales to see. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right about the event needing a bit of clout to get it noticed. It definitely passed me by.

    Couldn't someone have persuaded the queen to include it in her diamond jubilee address? I suppose she didn't want to risk reigniting the War of the Puddings -- Black versus Yorkshire.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You're right about the event needing a bit of clout to get it noticed. It definitely passed me by.

    Couldn't someone have persuaded the queen to include it in her diamond jubilee address? I suppose she didn't want to risk reigniting the War of the Puddings -- Black versus Yorkshire.

    ReplyDelete
  8. JENNY Perhaps next year...
    SHOOTING PARROTS Okay man, no need to say it twice! Now you come to mention it, it is surprising that The Queen did not refer to Yorkshire Pudding Day yesterday as her husband is of course a Yorkshire lad - raised by a mining family in a pit cottage in Dinnington before being adopted by the Greek royal family.
    Please - no racism in the world of puddings!

    ReplyDelete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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