Our older sister
THE MERCURY recently celebrated its 160th birthday. That's a long record of service. But we're mere apprentices compared with the Belfast News Letter.
The News Letter also celebrated its birthday recently – its 275th. It's the oldest English-language daily newspaper anywhere in the world.
It had a special anniversary supplement, containing tributes from former editors and historians, as well as messages from Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Belfast News Letter was established in 1737 – 50 years ahead of The Times of London – and charted world-changing times at home and abroad, including the American War of Independence, the French Revolution and the emergence of the Irish Volunteers and later the United Irishmen.
It would be fascinating to see what coverage they've given to Mangaung and the Nkandla homestead issue.
Yippee!
SHUCKS, it's hard to be humble. A win by 309 runs with a day to spare. Still top of the world Test rankings. And what character, what application, what guts – right the way through. And from such an abysmal start. The batsmen came to the party. The bowlers came to the party. AB de Villiers came to the party with a superb stumping.
And what a spirit this Test was played in. The Aussies came out firing, chasing a mammoth total and with two days and a bit for us to get them out. And for just a little while it looked as if things might be running the Aussies' way – as if the impossible might not be entirely impossible.
Who can dispute that Test cricket is the real thing? This was it.
Python trade
RIGHT-THINKING people about the world – except in China and Vietnam – are outraged by the continuing trade in rhino horn, supplied by increasingly high-tech poaching operations to serve fantasies of male sexual potency.
Not the same attention is paid to a vast illegal trade in python skins – for handbags and other fashion items - which threatens the survival of some species. A report by the International Trade Centre puts the annual snake skin trade out of south-east Asia alone at $1 billion (R8 billion) a year.
The global trade is poorly regulated and international conventions to protect wildlife are largely ignored. Part of the problem is that snakes don't evoke a great deal of sympathy.
"Compared to the good-looking cuddly animals, snakes are far down the ladder in terms of how people feel about them," says Alexander Caillabet, of the ITC.
Yes, but then rhino aren't good-looking and cuddly either – and most people do care about them. Snakes just haven't made it on the sympathy ladder.
I suppose you can trace it back to the Book of Genesis – the serpent, Eve and the apple: "… because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
Yep, there you are.
Swallow dive
LOOKING at a replay of the England- All Blacks rugby epic at the weekend, England threequarter Chris Ashton scored a truly spectacular try.
After his dash for the line he launched into a swallow dive, holding the ball in one hand. And he darned nearly lost it. That would have embarrassing.
It's surely got to happen one day with these show-off dives. Either the carrier will lose the ball or he will break a collarbone as he comes to earth.
Dive for the line by all means, but surely when it's the only way to dot down. These fancy dives when already well clear used to be a feature of rugby at levels such as Matatiele Bushwhackers versus Mount Aylliff Dipping Inspectors. But in the professional era they've crept in at all levels, international included.
Ashton might be worth one of those fancy bets with the bookies. He's going to drop the ball some day.
Tailpiece
"SO YOUR blind date had measurements of 39-23-35?"
"Yeah. But sadly not in that order."
Last word
Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.
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