Cuckoo..Cuckoo

After a few days off from this blog due to..well, lazyitis, I return with today's addition to the YOYWYW banner and a suggestion from a subscriber to this blog...THE CUCKOO CLOCK.

Now OK, I'm sure a lot of you are saying 'Cuckoo Clock' what's that got to do with Switzerland an Austria, that's a German thing and well, you'd be right. But what you may not know is that for whatever reason or other if you ask someone 'Where does the Cuckoo Clock originate?' they're highly likely to say Switzerland.

One person who takes a good bit of the blame for this misconception is Mark Twain. In his story 'A Tramp Abroad' one chapter is entitled 'The Nest of the Cuckoo-Clock' and describes how Lucerne is the home of this style of clock...which, as you now know is a load of Cuckpoo!

Switzerland did have a big influence on this style of clock and one of the most common, and the kind I have chosen to add to the banner, the 'Chalet' style originated in Switzerland in the nineteenth century and were regarded as higly valuable souvenirs from the country.

You must think I'm 'Cuckoo' sitting writing this in relation to Euro 2008..you'd be right.