annabelhodges.com

I was discussing my newly chopped bangs with my lovely colleague Allan which somehow led onto talks of Judy Blume (she had characters with bangs in her book and that always seemed so cool) which then somehow again led on to talks of Mallory Towers, Enid Blyton and so – of course – Pop Biscuits and GOOGLE BUNS.

Photo credit

Yeah I’m an SEO and I’m really cheaply entertained by the name – so sue me. Anyway I really couldn’t remember why they were so special and what weird or wonderful thing each of these baked goodies did. I mean yes now we all know that Google comes from googol, 10 to the power of 100, thanks to the search engine but hell what’s that compared to the crazy deliciousness it really has its roots in thanks to Blyton in 1943?

A call out to twitter and some err yes googling later and my curiosity is sated. Though my desire to actually eat one of these amazing things is by no mean satisfied.

So – thanks to Karyn Fleeting for finding Google Buns for me here, they still sound as desirable as ever.

“Come on,” said Moon-Face. “Come and eat a Google Bun and see what you think of it.”

Soon they were all sitting on the broad branches outside Moon-Face’s house, eating Pop Biscuits and Google Buns. The buns were most peculiar. They each had a very large currant in the middle, and this was filled with sherbet. So when you got to the currant and bit it the sherbet frothed out and filled your mouth with fine bubbles that tasted delicious. The children got a real surprise when they bit their currants, and Moon-Face almost fell off the branch with laughing

Seriously, like seriously – I want to eat these so bad. Pop biscuits are also pretty cool though I think they pale in comparison (thanks to funtrivia):

Cake on the outside and honey in the middle. As soon as the children bit into a ‘pop biscuit’ it would explode and fill their mouths with a delicious honey. In the latest editions of the stories the word ‘biscuits’ has been changed to ‘cakes’.

Photo credit

Other awesome things from The Faraway Tree that have absolutely no relation to search engines (but I will shoehorn some in) but are clearly inestimably cool are:

The Slippery Slip – A massive slide that ran all the way down the inside of the Faraway Tree and was the quickest route down. Maybe Google did take some inspiration from the book judging by some of the transportation methods in their offices:

Photo credit

Clouds that carried new lands at the top of the tree – There were new lands that came and went on clouds at the top of the tree, that the children visited – these includes Topsy-Turvy Land, the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of Dame Slap. I like to think of this as Google who hold so much power with their offer of endless exciting goodies just round the corner. Some are awesome and great – Google Maps, Google Images and who knows Google TV one day- and some are terrible – hello Google Wave – but you never know what is coming next. Will Google shoot you to the top making all your dreams come true? Will it come crashing down on you and make you vanish in a nanogoogol second?

Ok that’s some major shoehorning. I’ll stop there.

Oh and just for kicks – ridiculous changes that have been made as stated by Wikipedia – just cos it’s funny like.

In modern reprints, the names of the children have been changed:
Jo is changed to Joe, because the character is a boy and this is the more commonly used spelling of the name for males;
Bessie is changed to Beth, because the former name is now less commonly used as a nickname for Elizabeth;
Fanny is changed to Frannie, because the former name is slang for vulva in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand (see Wiktionary entry) and “bottom” in the USA.
Cousin Dick, who appears in “The Magic Faraway Tree”, has been changed to “Rick” as “Dick” is American, Australian and British slang for penis.
In modern reprints, the character of Dame Slap has been re-named to Dame Snap and she no longer practises corporal punishment but instead reprimands her students by yelling at them very loudly.