Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Idler, WEednesday, March 4, 2015

Colour or shape?

AN EXTRAORDINARY debate has sprung up among the celebrity Twitterati as to 

the colour of a dress posted on the internet by singer Caitlin McNeil

The dress encases a most shapely derriere but the tweeters are concerned not 

with shape but with the barred colours of the dress..

Kim Kardashian tweeted: "What color is that dress? I see white & gold. Kanye 

sees black & blue, who is color blind?"

Taylor Swift said: "I don't understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it's 

a trick somehow. I'm confused and scared. PS it's OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND 

BLACK."

Actress Julianne Moore said: "What's the matter with u guys, it's white and gold."

Now a university boffin says the difference of opinion is caused by the way our 

brains process what we see.

"The phenomenon of colour constancy means your brain will adjust the colour of 

an object depending on its surroundings or illumination," says Ashley Wood, a 

lecturer and optometrist at Cardiff University.

"So if there's a lot of blue in the environment, for example, the brain will subtract 

blue from the image your eye sees." 

"There's also the process of colour adaptation, where the colour you perceive is 

affected by what you have previously been looking at."

The dispute could be caused by a combination of the two effects, he says.

It's odd but even Ashley Wood doesn't comment on the exquisite shapeliness of 

that derriere – what the less refined among us might call a "nice piece of ass".

Sorry, I can't remember what colour the dress was.

Visa issue?

TWO llamas caused chaos as they darted through the traffic pursued by men 

with lassoos. 

No, these weren't Home Affairs officials concerned that the Tibetan leader had 

entered in spite of not being granted a visa. In fact it was America, in a place 

called Sun City near Phoenix. Arizona, where the llamas had escaped from a 

zoo. It took an hour to recapture them. And, of course, the spelling is different.

As Ogden Nash reminds us:

The one-L lama, he's a priest

The two-L llama, he's a beast

And I would bet a silk pyjama

There isn't any three-L lllama.

Chaos

MOTIVATIONAL speaker Sarita Mathur is so aghast at recent 

events in Parliament that she has penned a few lines.

Chaos in parliament

The Speaker loses her cool,

Calling Malema a cockroach ,

She didn't stop at fool .

Baleka Mbete was forced to retract

And apologies were due.

With remote jamming and no access to information

What is South Africa coming to?

Addendum

READER Ismail Kathrada says there's an addendum to last week's alertness 

test involving people getting on and off a bus in New York City.

"By the time they got to Philadelphia station, there was not a single person on 

the bus. How can this be?

"Every one of those passengers was married."

Tailpiece

Four fellows have been going on the same golfing trip to St Andrews for many 

years.

Two days before the group is to leave, John's wife puts her foot down and 

tells him he isn't going. John's mates are very upset that he can't go, but what 

can they do?

Two days later the three get to St Andrews only to find John sitting at the bar 

with four drinks set up.

 "Wow John, how long you been here, and how did you talk your missus into 

letting you go?"

"Well, I've been here since last night. Yesterday evening, I was sitting in my 

living room chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over 

my eyes and asked: 'Guess who?'" I pulled her hands off, and there she was, 

wearing a nightie.

"She took my hand and pulled me into our bedroom. The room had candles 

and rose petals all over. Well, she'd been reading Fifty Shades of Grey... and 

on the bed she had handcuffs and ropes.

"She told me to tie her up and cuff her to the bed, so I did. And then she 

said: 'Do whatever you want!'"

"So... here I am."

Last word

Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. 

Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy 

sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. 

Alice May Brock

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