Some interesting (well I think so) mistletoe coverage here and there on the radio recently – including more local radio interviews for me (today I did BBC Radio Suffolk again, for the second time this season, and Suffolk has hardly any mistletoe) and a slot on BYU Radio, a talk radio station based at Brigham Young University, Utah but broadcasting widely via satellite and the web. The BYU interview was unusual – not simply because […]
Biodiversity , Gardening , Mistle Thrush , Mistletoe , Orchard
Posted on:
Turdus turds – of pure mistletoe
‘Turdus’ – the latin name for thrushes, can sound a little rude. But it’s simply the latin word for thrush and therefore perfectly apt. Nothing to do with ‘turd’, which means excrement. But making the link is inevitable – and many people snigger when told that a Blackbird’s latin name is Turdus merula, a Song Thrush Turdus philomelos, a Redwing Turdus iliacus, a Fieldfare Turdus pilaris or a Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus. So much turdus! That last […]
Biodiversity , Current Affairs , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , Science , social history
Posted on:
Mistletoe media 2016, so far…
A quiet season so far, with Morrisons, giving out mistletoe in their supermarkets again, decisively in the lead (nothing to do with me – I helped their media campaign in 2015 but haven’t been asked back!). Their campaign was trending all over the place yesterday – getting promoted in lots of local newspapers across the UK, plus a few national (e.g. the Mirror) and going viral on bargain-hunting websites, including Martin Lewis’ MoneySaving Expert and on […]
Current Affairs , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , Science
Posted on:
Growing Your Own – not yet… later!
It’s that time of year again. When people (and the media, today it was BBC Suffolk’s turn) ask, how do I grow mistletoe? And expect to be told ‘how to do’ details now, at Christmas-time, as that’s when they have mistletoe. But no, now is not the time for planting. Planting time is a couple of months away – in February, March or even April. When most people don’t have any mistletoe… Now is […]
Media , Mistletoe , social history , Travel
Posted on:
World records for Mistletoe Kisses – whose methodology?
Last year I reported (briefly) that Six Flags Over Georgia, a theme park near Atlanta, Georgia, had just set a new World record for kissing under mistletoe – with their record officially recognised by Guinness Book of Records. The record involved 201 couples simultaneously kissing under mistletoe. Each couple had their own mistletoe spring (provided by the organisers – and the American Phoradendron mistletoe, not the classic Viscum of Europe) and had to kiss, on […]