Preserving for posterity
HOWS DOES a zebra crossing get "listed" as being of architectural significance? It's happened to the zebra crossing in Abbey Road, London, leading to the studio where the Beatles recorded much of their music.
A photograph of the Fab Four using the crossing more than 40 years ago to get to the studio was used as the jacket cover for one of their albums. It has since been reproduced many thousands of times.
Now the site has been given Grade II status by the heritage minister John Penrose - a status normally given to buildings. Says Penrose: "It's a fantastic testimony to the international fame of the Beatles that, more than 40 years on, this crossing continues to attract thousands of visitors each year."
Says Roger Bowdler, head of designation at English Heritage: "This is obviously an unusual case, and although a modest structure, the crossing has international renown and continues to possess huge cultural pull."
It means nobody can interfere with that Abbey Road zebra crossing. Nobody can "improve" or develop it. The crossing will remain broad white stripes on the road and a pair of flashing belisha beacons.
Does this have any application to Durban? As it happens, the municipality is indeed considering establishing a road crossing that will be fixed immutably in time, not to be altered in any way. I'm told the Overport interchange is a strong contender, though there are others.
Traffic lights will function. Repairmen will be on hand to put them right the instant anything goes wrong. Metro police will be constantly stationed there to direct traffic if this should happen; otherwise to arrest red light jumpers.
As a spokesman for the city manager's office explained: "We want to create a relic of the past, virtually a time capsule. We want people to know and never forget the full wickedness and oppressiveness of the era we have left behind."
Hopeful tweet
I LIKE the tweet received by the commentary box during the current Test against India. Somebody on the Gold Coast, Australia, asked plaintively if there's any outside chance that Dale Steyn has Aussie roots "so he can be brought in for the second day at Melbourne".
Ol' Dixie
A message in a bottle delivered to a Confederate general during the American Civil War has been deciphered, 147 years after it was written.
The small bottle was given to the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, by a former Confederate soldier in 1896.
Earlier this year the museum's collections manager, Catherine Wright, decided to investigate the note it contained. She enlisted the help of CIA and US Navy code-breakers to decipher the encrypted message.
What did it say? "Send more Jack Daniels"? "The chorus line at the New Orleans Boa and Feather are on our side"?
Alas, rather more prosaic. General John Pemberton is told that no reinforcements are available to help him defend Vicksburg, Mississippi. "You can expect no help from this side of the river."
The message is dated July 4, 1863 - the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces. Historians regard the fall of Vicksburg as an important victory for the Union. The Confederates were eventually defeated in 1865.
It's not explained why the message was in a bottle. Confederate commanders surely didn't just throw bottles into the Mississippi to communicate. That would be even worse than the famous World War I miscommunication by field telephone from the trenches to HQ when "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" became "Send three-and-fourpence, we're going to a dance" – which was interpreted as facetiousness and ignored, with serious military consequences.
Chelsea tractors
RANGE Rovers, Land Rover Freelanders and other SUVs are known in London as "Chelsea tractors", driven mainly by yummy mummies between the Knightsbridge shops and the smarter schools.
In the current freeze-up they are now showing themselves to be the most practical vehicle on the snow-blocked roads.
Now an insurance company has produced statistics to show that almost one in five vehicles registered in Chelsea actually are 4X4 "tractors".
It might seem an astonishingly high figure – but I'm sure the Berea would beat it. Lots of shopping, lots of top schools and lots of yummy mummies.
Tailpiece
WHY DID THE fool shrug?
He was the court gesture.
Last word
THE race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet. – Damon Runyan.
GRAHAM LINSCOTT
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