Sorry this Christmas Challenge! is so late, dear Challenge!rs; but, I've been busy with all the holiday stuff and the return from university of my big fella (a/k/a No. 1 Son). This Challenge! idea is from our own dear Bert, and it's a doozy! Have fun and enjoy!

-- Áine

(P.S. Don't worry, the Golden Cow Chips for Challenge! Part 46 will be given out later today when I return from the mall (aaaarrrrgggghhhh))

Giving Frosty The Cold Shoulder

THE snowman is sexist, out of date and should make way for snow-women, an academic claimed yesterday. Dr Tricia Cusack, of Birmingham University, carried out a five-year study into the "cultural meanings" of snowmen. She believes that they are old-fashioned symbols of gender discrimination. She has called for snow-women to appear on Christmas cards and wrapping paper.

Writing in the cultural history periodical New Formations, Dr Cusack described snowmen as the "rotund relics of Bacchanalia". They were gluttonous and indulgent, and symbolised the grotesque with their portly appearance and carrot noses.

However, she added: "I don't want to ban snowmen or anything, let's just be a bit more imaginative - why not have a snow-woman? We need to be alert to which particular images have got currency. Why is it always male, and why is it so popular at Christmas? At least the snowman has lost his pipe as society is less geared towards promoting smoking."