Isipingo stands by
AMERICA'S federal government has closed down operations across a range of activities as a result of the failure of Congress to pass the budget.
What are the implications world-wide? What if the same kind of thing were to happen here?
A snap survey reveals South Africans to be divided. Fifty percent of those polled said it would make no difference at all. The remaining 50 percent were under the impression it had already happened years ago.
Meanwhile, political scientists are speculating that we are witnessing the disintegration of the large-scale political systems that developed over the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
"America will dissolve into its constituent parts, the same way as happened to the Soviet Union," says Dr Fritz Hoffenskoffen, of the Alabama Institute of Navel Studies. Then the European Union will disintegrate. Next will be the United Nations. 'Small is beautiful'. That will be the watchword of the 21st century.
"Then when the international system is thoroughly atomised, it will start to coagulate again around the small entities that still exist and show themselves to be efficient, vigorous and possessed of vision and drive. We can expect some surprises."
The Isipingo town board is standing by for its big moment.
Skinny-dipping
MARY Ann Grafetsberger, the lady who cares for feral cats and stands up for the interests of vervet monkeys, confirms the phenomenon of phosphorescence in the sea at night on the North Coast, and the way it lights up skinny-dippers.
"I remember my skinny-dipping days, but further north at Zinkwazi, and it was indeed fascinating. We would swim like mermaids, leaving behind a trail of phosphorescence. Those were the days!"
Mermaids! Oh, to have been a nocturnal octopus or something at Zinkwazi in those halcyon times.
| Almost human SCIENTISTS in China have discovered what could be the earliest example of a creature with a distinct human-like face. A fossil dug up near the southern Chinese town of Quijing could be a missing link in the development of animals with backbones. Brian Choo, of Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, says the prehistoric fish fossil has a jaw and skull-like features similar to humans. The new discovery, which has been named Entelognathus primordialis - meaning primordial complete jaw - lived in the seas off China during the late Silurian period around 420 million years ago and had a heavily armoured head and trunk and a scaly tail. Other palaeontologists worldwide are thrilled by the discovery, which they describe as "stunning". Brian Choo and the others should divert their investigations to Durban. The Street Shelter for the Over-Forties, for example, abounds in fishy characters with distinctly human-like faces. They are clustered at the bar. Their head and trunk have all the attributes of heavy armour and, who knows, some of them might even have scaly tails.
High mileage IRV GORDON is a fellow who just can't stop driving around. He was at college in Massachusetts when he bought his red Volvo in June 1966. He picked it up on a Friday night and drove it around the local pubs to show his friends. Then he kept on driving and found himself showing it to friends in New Jersey, then Connecticut, before driving back to college. And since then he's kept on driving. The other day – 47 years after taking delivery - he was up in Alaska when he clocked his three millionth mile in the Volvo and got himself (and the Volvo) into the Guinness Book of World Records. The Volvo manufacturers don't know whether to laugh or cry. Great publicity for their product – but imagine sales if every purchaser held on for 47 years.
Tailpiece SEAMUS and Mick are in a pub watching the Tour de France on TV. |
|
|
Last word
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition. - Timothy Leary
No comments:
Post a Comment