A lucifer to light your fag …
LAST week's mention of Springbok cigarettes reminds an ex-serviceman of World War II when they were issued to South African troops Up North in Italy and elsewhere.
Those Springbok cigarettes had a peculiarity, he says. They had in them small pellets of sulphur, or some such chemical, which assisted with the burning of the tobacco.
But sometimes the pellets would pop disconcertingly while you were smoking, as if the enemy were shooting at you.
Heavens, imagine all that stuff being inhaled into your lungs! Which was more dangerous – the enemy or the fags?
Cape to Cairo
ANOTHER cigarette issued to the troops during World War II was C to C (Cape to Cairo). I was in a pub with a friend once in deepest Herefordshire, in the West Country of England. An old codger at the end of the bar was listening to us intently.
Then suddenly he broke in with the broadest West Country accent: "Ar-r-r-r! Wher-r-r-r's yor-r-r-r tickeys? Wher-r-r-r's yor-r-r –r Zee to Zee?"
He'd recognised our accents. No, he hadn't passed through Durban during the war, he said. "Oi wor-r-r-r in the Wester-r-r-r-rn Deser-r-r-r-t with yor-r-r-r boys."
Then he pulled out his tobacco tin. Soldered onto it was a Natal Carbineers badge. My friend was a Carbineer. He almost freaked. Hands across the sea.
Oval ciggies
MEANWHILE, Dudley Potgieter recalls Springbok cigarettes as having been round – not oval – and coming in packs of 60, plain or cork-tipped. The oval cigarette he remembers was Passing Cloud.
Dudley might well be right. It was a long time ago.
Another oval cigarette was Venus. These came in packs of eight which cost twopence. We used to smoke them on the steam train from Maritzburg to Kranskop, en route to Zululand for the school holidays. We Merchiston boys were very naughty.
Farcical robbery
A ROBBER described by a judge as a man who "ranks amongst the all-time stupidest criminals to come before the courts" has been jailed for a botched armed robbery in Dublin where the raiders had to be rescued by the fire brigade.
Gary Byrne, Ian Jordan and Aidan Murphy held up a gold storage business, using a toy pistol. They tied up and gagged staff in the underground vaults. They had the place at their mercy.
But then Byrne unaccountably went walkabout, leaving his accomplices and the hostage staff locked in the safe, trapped. Eventually they were rescued by the fire brigade and the gardai (police).
In court the robbery was described by Judge Donagh McDonagh it as "one of the most farcical cases in recent criminal history in Dublin".
Byrne got seven years in jail and his accomplices five each. The judge accorded Byrne "the benefit of his stupidity" and suspended the last two years of his sentence.
Cosmic blast
SPACE scientists have caught a delayed glimpse of a cosmic blast that dazzled observers when it was seen from Earth more than 150 years ago. This was the Great Eruption, in the mid-1800s, in which a super-massive star, Eta Carinae, 7 500 light years away, began spewing out unusually large amounts of light.
The experts have now been able to create new images of that violent blast, using a technique that involves taking readings of delayed light that bounced off stellar dust and is only now reaching our solar system.
According to Armin Rest, of America's Space Telescope Science Institute: "It's as if nature has left behind a surveillance tape of the event, which we are now just beginning to watch."
Fascinating stuff. They must be getting closer to answering that age-old question of the number of angels that can dance on the point of a needle.
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Tailpiece
| PADDY and Mick leave the pub. Says Paddy: "I can't be bothered to walk all de way home."' "I know, me too but we've no money for a cab and we've missed de last bus home." "We could steal a bus from de depot," suggests Paddy. They arrive at the bus depot and Mick goes in while Paddy keeps a look-out. Mick takes some time. Paddy shouts: "What're you doing? Have yez not found one yet?" "I can't find a No 91." "Oh for Heaven's sake, ye daft fool! Take de No 14 and we'll walk from de roundabout!" Last word It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. | |||
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