The toad's affair....   I found this story quite interesting and funny!! The affair happened in England but one can never know so, beware of your green salad! :o))

"We will assume that Mrs. Henderson, a schoolteacher, had had a hard

 day curbing an unruly class. After work (I am improvising with scant information) she popped into Sainsbury's supermarket for some

refreshing, as-good-as-home-grown green salad for the family tea. De-packaging it at home, she touched something slender. The leg of a live

toad. Said toad hopped happily onto her kitchen table. Sainsbury's is

investigating, as well it might.

The United Kingdom has only two toad species. This specimen, reportedly

 four inches long, must be a female of the common type (Bufo bufo).

Toads may not win many beauty contests, but British ones (even in a hole)

 are harmless. Furthermore, they have an appetite for many garden pests, including slugs. But I think it is unlikely they are employed on Sainsbury's farms. And anyway, this salad happened to come from Africa ("as good as home grown"?), not Britain.

The salad was, however, packed in the UK. Shredded, washed, spin-dried

 at great speed, popped in a plastic bag, heat-sealed and weighed. It had

 been through the supermarket mill to ensure that although "home grown,"

it was clean beyond nature. Yet the toad was alive and well in the lettuce.

Is the incident a hoax? A fairy tale after all? I wonder if Sainsbury's

has thought to enquire as to the incidence of princes listed as "Missing Persons"?"

Christopher Andreae

What would be your reaction if a thing like this happens to you?

 I'm an urban human being and I must confess I'm quite afraid of

 toads so I presume I would have fainted... :o))

Line by Lisa l Back l Site index l

Page created on June, 21, 2001