Just ahead of Episode Fourteen of Three Men on the Bummel, thank you again for your kind comments upon The Mark Steyn Club's eighth birthday. Paul Smith, a Steyn Clubber from southern England, writes:
Happy birthday MSC from a fellow May baby. I was designated male at birth mainly because of an obvious appendage which now appears to be not the defining matter when handing out gender tags. My move to becoming a be-penised woman has been put on hold due to a hold up on my light pink nylon wig and a Max Factor fun box I ordered that was lost in the post. Here's to many more years of the Mark Steyn Club and love and kisses from Ofcom.....I mean England..
Do let us know when you complete your transition, Paul, because you'll then be entitled to the special Bepenised Woman membership rate. I believe it's about seventy-three per cent of Club members now.
Meanwhile, we continue our voyage with a trio of plucky bicyclists through the Black Forest in our latest Tale for Our Time: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K Jerome, a saga of mishaps and musings on the Germany of the 1900. In tonight's episode, given what we know about the forthcoming century and the author does not, his observations do not play entirely for laughs:
In Germany you must not leave your front door unlocked after ten o'clock at night, and you must not play the piano in your own house after eleven. In England I have never felt I wanted to play the piano myself, or to hear anyone else play it, after eleven o'clock at night; but that is a very different thing to being told that you must not play it. Here, in Germany, I never feel that I really care for the piano until eleven o'clock, then I could sit and listen to the "Maiden's Prayer," or the Overture to "Zampa," with pleasure. To the law-loving German, on the other hand, music after eleven o'clock at night ceases to be music; it becomes sin, and as such gives him no satisfaction...
They are a law-abiding people, the Germans.
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear Part Fourteen of our serialization of Three Men on the Bummel simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here - so you can choose whether to listen each night twenty minutes before you lower your lamp, or save them up for a weekend binge-listen.
As I first said eight years ago, membership in The Mark Steyn Club is not for everyone, but it helps support all our content - whether in print, audio or video - and keeps it available for everyone, around the world. And, aside from Tales for Our Time, being a Steyn Club member does come with a few other benefits:
~Exclusive member pricing on over 40 books, CDs and our Steynamite specials in the Steyn store;
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To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. Please join me tomorrow for Part Fifteen of Three Men on the Bummel.
