I might have eaten horse in Malta, where they do. At a café, I had a baguette curiously labelled as "meat and salad". But it could just as easily have been beef. So there's the answer: just label things as "meat (produce of more than one species)", and add disclaimers like "prepared in a facility where horsemeat may be processed". Then the meat wholesalers can do their deals with the Romanian mafia above board. Come to think of it, Indian restaurants in the UK often list their curry options as chicken, prawns, or meat. I'd always assumed it was because there's something of a taboo against eating cows in India, but perhaps their "meat" doesn't come from cows.

This all reminds me of this story about the lack of lamb in lamb curries (and kebabs).

Hello. Just a heads-up that this site will go down for an hour or two on the night of the 1st March, as the physical hardware is moving to a new home. Not that anyone will notice, but I just thought I'd mention it.

(rab) Blimey, there's posh. I didn't understand a word of it. Thanks for your efforts, as ever.

I don't understand it either but I get these hilariously breathless emails from time to time about technical incidents, the impact of which is always minimal.

Don't worry, Rosie, rab, like the Mayans, talks in mysterious ways.

It's been up to over 15° here and very nice too except that I now have no excuse whatever for not doing a bit of gardening. In parts of Yorkshire and near the east coast it's stayed below 3°. That's spring for you. Of course it were always below -20° when ah were a lad.

We've had a couple of nice sunny days over here on the rock but now it is starting to cloud over again, I suspect that we shall soon get the forecast rain. It has been dry for 10 days - fantastic, even managed to mow the lawn this morning.