A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
‘Why?’ asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
‘Well, I’m a panda,’ he says, at the door. ‘Look it up.’
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’
I know we’ve probably all heard the joke before, but I include it because it still makes me laugh and to flag up that this week Nikki is going to be reviewing the marvellous Eats, Shoots & Leaves. We also have a review of a brilliant debut novel and two interviews.
Monday: Nikki discovers that grammar is quite a giggle in Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.
Wednesday: Sam enjoys one of the best debut novels he’s read in years: After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld.
Thursday: Sam talks to Evie Wyld, recently named one of The Culture Show’s 12 Best New British Writers and author of After the Fire, A Still Small Voice
Friday: Kirsty talks to Alberto and Carlotta Guareschi about their father Giovanni and his Little World.
Picture of a giant panda to tie in with Eats, Shoots and Leaves courtesy of Smithsonian Wild of Flickr, using a Creative Commons license.
Oh what a cute little panda cub! *squee, squee*
And I, for one, have never heard that joke. It was bizarre, but funny.