J. R. Daeschner

Amusing, although a bit bloated after all. Most traditions could have been described at length on half the pages. But then again, the accurate descriptions are often where the funny parts are to be found,. The only tradition that fully deserves its length is certainly the Darkie Day one - Daeschner struggles to understand it or to say what - if anything - to make of it. Maybe the easy way out to let the only black man in town decide on the matter, but probably the the best thing to keep the activity local...… (more)

Daeschner romps around Europe, covering the strange and the odd so we don't have to. There's some very interesting and funny moments included in here, although sometimes it seems to get lost as Daeschner runs out of steam or gets stuck covering a tradition which did not end up being as interesting as it apparently promised to Daeschner during his research.

The book starts well, with Daeschner visiting a small village in Spain as it celebrates its tradition of grown men dressed in odd costumes jumping babies (who apparently were dressed in normal attire), before dawdling through German Carnivals, goat throwing, penis-shaped biscuits and so on before the eventual arrival of Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Father Christmas.

It's not on my list of best books I've ever read but "Tossers and Arseblowers" helped pass the time agreeingly.… (more)