IвЂ™ve used a mixture of cheeses here вЂ“ Emmenthal, Gruyere and Comte. Convivial and delicious вЂ“ who could ask for more? You can do all the preparation of the fondue on top of the stove, and move it to the table and its little stand with the flame when youвЂ™re ready to eat. IвЂ™ve always held that the foods that require you to *do* something with whatвЂ™s on your plate, whether itвЂ™s wrapping stuff in lettuce leaves, dribbling sauce down your arms or making minty little parcels, taste all the better for the work involved. This, dear reader, is how I became a dipso at the tender age of three.ДЇondues are fantastic interactive food. I would then while away the small hours eating any remaining cheesy bits and polishing off any leftover wine. EverybodyвЂ™s parents had a set back in the day which they used for entertaining, and I remember hiding on the landing listening to raucous parties, then sneaking downstairs once theyвЂ™d all finished and my parents had gone to bed. He must have a thing for zombies, as there is even a zombie category on his highly recommended blog!ДЄnd the latest addition to my list of funny PH projects: Traumatic brain injuries in Asterix comics! (thanks Dominik for the link!).I was born in the 1970s, which makes Dr WвЂ™s gift of a fondue set a pleasingly retro and apposite birthday present. In this funny article, Professor Andrew Gelman from Columbia University uses the zombie analogy to make a methodological point.

Questions like вЂњ How many zombies do you know?вЂќ ! (full title continues with вЂњUsing indirect survey methods to measure alien attacks and outbreaks of the undeadвЂќ). You might smile all you want, but the existence of zombies has caused other scientists to ask questions as well. The 253 comments this post received is quite indicative of how much people appreciate humor in PH. Next one in the list of creative PH ideas has to be CDCвЂs preparedness strategy during a zombie apocalypse, should there ever be one. Watch all about it in this video! Apparently, they were not the only ones interested in this matter, as their article received a few responses at BMJ and quite a lot of media coverage (examples here, here and here). And that is what some researchers did! In this study that was published in BMJ in December 2010, they tried to answer a question that has been raised around the tables of Swiss and International fondue lovers alike: what is best for digesting a cheese fondue? Wine, black tea or schnapps? They tried to answer this important question by conducting a randomized, controlled, cross over trial.

Then one needs to find an appropriate design, implement it and seet the results. I have previously tried to convince you that Public Health can be fun! Today I would like to add that some Public Health researchers have been really creative and I think their efforts deserve some sharing!ДЄs a Public Health researcher, one might get ideas by just looking around and taking a note of the unanswered questions.

Asterix fondue