Dr. Betty

My teenage son's interpretation of the lovely Scottish placements, you know, those square ones that have pictures on them with matching coasters? He thought I had set the table with mouse pads. Can you beat that?

JOdy

Dr Betty, too funny..maybe we are out of date !!

Andrea

Oh! Oh! I've got one! <BR> <BR>We were in Nice around Christmas last year, and were in a wonderful little cafe for breakfast. Sitting two tables away from us were obviously two exchange students who were in the earliest stages of a little romance. They awkwardly exchanged gifts. He (American) gave her (Swedish?) a bottle of purfume. She gave him a gift. He opened it. It was a nice cheese slicer. He lifted it. "Oh, thank you! It's nice!" Tossed it from hand to hand. "Heavy! Great!" She asked him: "You know what it is, don't you?" He said: "Of course!" (putting it on his cheek and rubbing it up and down) "It's a razor!"

rufus

In a way, this might qualify: <BR> <BR>http://theonion.com/onion3719/ <BR>mom_brought_to_tears.html

Mel

First trip to London, sent home large Christmas puddings from Fortnum & Mason for EVERYONE. Thought it would be a wonderful "touch of olde England" for them. All thanked me but, at least family members, suggested I not go to the trouble next time. I decided their palates were just too, too unsophisticated to take such strong fare. Next trip, I sent the same from Harrods for my boss and a few friends. Would you believe NO ONE, NOT ONE ever said anything about it after Christmas?? So, guess what? No more Christmas puds (okay, even I wasn't crazy about it, but the vanilla sauce helps!)

Ryn

Love the pud story. As children, we used to commit acts of sabotage to prevent my mother from carrying out that particular culinary mission. "There's no flour (currants, suet, etc)? Oh, what a shame." For twenty years, we always managed to make sure that pudding never cursed the Christmas table. <BR> <BR>I sent someone a toast rack once, and later saw it in her china cabinet with saucers displayed in it. I'm not sure if she mistook it, or just hated cold toast.

JOdy

Ryn, <BR>What a good idea! I can only use 1 or 2 letter racks, but saucers!! Brillant!

dianeg

a variation on the same theme... <BR> <BR>Bought myself a really nice stone mortar & pestle one trip, with grandiose plans of using it for spices. It's only ever been used to grind cat pills...

Lauren

Wait til you take your children/grandchildren to the library someday and they ask you "Why is it called a card catalogue when there are no cards?"

pam

In the vein of Lauren's response, a few years ago, my son, who was then 7 or 8, asked, "Mom, why do you say, 'Dial the phone?'" I went to a junk shop and bought an old black telephone and demonstrated for him (of course, this was also about the time I got a new phone number, with lots of 8s, 9s and 0s, and groaned about it...until I realized I no long have to wait for the dial to go back before I can enter the next number).

topper

Any more?

Betty

May be slightly off target, but... <BR>Many years ago I sent a wedding gift to some friends in France (He, French, she, Welsh - they had met when we were "assistantes d'anglais" in Albi). It was a nice set of Corning ware which had a detachable handle that could be used with any of the pieces. For some reason I can't remember I sent each piece separately, including the handle. <BR>Guess which piece arrived first? A year or so later when visiting them, Jean-Claude confessed that they spent a couple of days wondering what the heck that thing was!