A Chrismash message

I wish I could be at Chrismash, the latest mashed libraries event, curated (for once the word is exact) by Gary Green. Sadly, I have a date with the frozen food aisle at Sainsbury's.

So I wish the event success. What you may not know is that the pub you are meeting in, like many on Tottenham Court Road, was frequented by Karl Marx on many a pub crawl with his comrades. One night, Wilhelm Liebknecht recounts, they left one of the pubs well refreshed. Liebknecht recalled:

'Now we had had enough of our 'beer trip' for the time being and in order to cool our heated blood, we started on a double march, until Edgar Bauer stumbled over a heap of paving stones. Hurrah, an idea! And in memory of mad students' pranks he picked up a stone and Crash! Clatter! A gas lantern went flying into splinters. Madness is contagious - Marx and I did not stay far behind, and we broke four or five street lamps.'

I trust nothing so unseemly will happen on Saturday.

A correction: I thank Andrew Preater who pointed out that I had incorrectly attributed the description of the lamp-smashing to Karl Liebknecht. It was his father Wilhelm, of course