Baby it's cold out there
AS the first cold snaps of winter set in and the count-down to the Football World Cup becomes more urgent, have we covered all bases? Have would-be visitors been warned that South Africa, in June and July, is pretty nippy?
On the highveld the mercury dips below zero most nights. The wind chill can cut through you, day or night. In Cape Town, it's wet and cold; you know you're on the edge of the Southern Ocean. Even in sub-tropical Durban you need a jersey in the evenings.
It ought to be the task of the travel agents, but do we know if the fans have been forewarned that out here it's not perpetual tropical Africa? Factors like altitude and latitude come into play. South Africa in winter is not the place for Hawaian shirts and Bermuda shorts.
It would be sad if we got right things like crime control and travel logistics, only to have the competition marred by things like hyperthermia and pneumonia.
Televised debates
IN the British general election they've experimented for the first time with televised debates between the party leaders and senior party office-bearers. Apparently the participants are somewhat spooked by being placed in close proximity. In the House of Commons there's always a healthy physical distance.
Yes, the distance between the front benches in the Commons is exactly two sword-lengths. It used to be the same in the old House of Assembly in Cape Town.
Debate must have been rather robust in the early days.
Robust exchange
HERE'S an example of robust Westminster debate that had advanced from swordplay:
Lord Sandwich: "'Pon my soul, Wilkes, you will die either of the pox or upon the gallows!"
John Wilkes (a radical MP): "That depends, milord, on whether I embrace your mistress or your principles."
Mini-horse
A TINY stallion just 14 inches high has been born on a farm in the US that specialises in breeding miniature horses.
Einstein, a pinto, weighed in at just 6lb and is thought to be the world's smallest foal ever.
Judy Smith, of Tiz A farm in Barnstead, New Hampshire, says he is the tiniest she has seen in 20 years of breeding.
One wonders though what the point is of such miniaturisation. Horses don't have the instinct to go down badger holes. And these sound still slightly too big for ladies' handbags.
Tragic myth
AS THE closure of Durban International Airport approaches, Rodney Kenyon – himself a former air force pilot – notes a myth relating to the opening of the airport more than 50 years ago.
"The popular story, which has appeared in several books on Durban, is that the 1955 Governor General's Air Race, which that year started and finished at the old Stamford Hill airport, was won by Second Lieutenant Bryan Fletcher, flying a South African Air Force Harvard trainer. Exactly two weeks later the young SAAF pilot returned to Durban, this time in a Vampire jet trainer, to perform an aerobatic display at the official opening of the new Louis Botha Airport (now Durban International).
"During a rehearsal of the display, with the Vampire at full tap and flying low level south to north, a wing touched the ground and the aircraft crashed and exploded, instantly killing the pilot.
"The myth is centred on this tragic event occurring immediately prior to the official opening of the airport, only two weeks to the day after the SAAF pilot had won the country's premier air race by crossing the line at the airfield that was about to be replaced by the venue of his jet-powered display. Add to the mix the fact that the air race was first run in 1937 to celebrate the opening of the Stamford Hill Airport and you have all the ingredients of a local myth.
"My research confirms the basics of the tale, but the dates do not gel. Fletcher did win the air race but in 1954, the first time it was held since hostilities forced its closure in 1939, and more than a year prior to his display crash. His headstone in Stellawood Cemetery confirms his date of death as November 24, 1955."
Tailpiece
DOGS are able to see only in black and white. They thought about breeding one that would be able to see in colour but it would have meant putting up the licence fee.
Last word
A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
Ingrid Bergman
GRAHAM LINSCOTT
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