Happy Birthday, Paddington!

Today is the 50th birthday of Paddington Bear... the bear responsible for making me an anglophile. I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of tea and marmalade. It seemed amazingly refined. But Paddington does not fit any idea of "refined" yet he still enjoys tea and marmalade. If not him, why not me? So tonight, brew yourself a pot of tea and enjoy a bit of toast with marmalade and enjoy of taste of refinement. In the morning, grab a copy of A Bear Called Paddington and introduce your children to the most polite, if not the most refined, bear to come from Darkest Peru.

Paddington, who all this time had been too interested in his bun to worry about what was going on, suddenly became aware that people were talking about him. He looked up to see that Mrs. Brown had been joined by a little girl, with laughing blue eyes and long, fair hair. He jumped up, meaning to raise his hat, and in his haste slipped on a patch of strawberry jam which somehow or other had found its way on to the glass table-top. For a brief moment he had a dizzy impression of everything and everyone being upside down. He waved his paws wildly in the air and then, before anyone could catch him, he somersaulted backwards and and landed with a splash in his saucer of tea. He jumped up even quicker than he had sat down, because the tea was still very hot, and promptly stepped into Mr. Brown's cup.

- p. 16

From the huge birthday cake down to the last marmalade sandwich, everyone voted it was the best tea they had ever had. Paddington himself was so full he had great difficulty in mustering enough breath to blow out the candle. But at last he managed it without singeing his whiskers, and everyone, including Mr. Curry, applauded and wished him a happy birthday.

-p. 120