The sheriff
rides off into
the sunset
THE revolving door at the White House continues to whirl. Who can count the number of cabinet high-fliers who have come out? The latest to emerge is the Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, John Bolton, who has had to hand in his tin star.
Why this Wild West apellation for the erstwhile National Security Adviser? It seems apt. His white moustache, gimlet eye and gung-ho attitude make him the embodiment of the old-style sheriff.
It seems his disagreement with President Trump is over the appropriate approach to the world's dictators. While Bolton divides the world into goodies and baddies – clear-cut, no wriggle-room – and for the baddies it's a policy of "Slap leather!", Trump would rather sit down and make a deal with them, whether the North Koreans, the Iranians or the Taliban.
Slap leather or wheeler-deal, a kind of game of poker. The Trump administration has at least made foreign policy a lot less complex than before.
Disapprovals
MEANWHILE, a fellow in Sweden has been denied permission to use to use the letters TRUMP on his car's personalised licence plate.
The applicant says he was a bit sloshed when he made the application online, according to Huffington Post, but he thought it a good idea because he drives an American car.
However, the Swedish Transport Agency said it does not approve of letter combinations that have political connotations.
Recently a woman in America was refused the licence plate PB4WEGO because the authorities disapprove of lavatorial connotations.
Ptroved right
A MOUNT Everest climbing pioneer is proved right, 66 years on. George Lowe was not hallucinating due to altitude when he saw geese flying over the world's highest mountain.
Lowe, a New Zealander, was in the climbing party that assisted Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norbay in their first-ever ascent to the summit of Everest in 1953.
He afterwards reported seeing flocks of wild geese, which scientists poo-poohed saying that would be impossible at an altitude of almost 9 000m. He must have been imagining it.
But other climbers have since claimed similar sightings of geese. Now, according to Sky News, researchers have found that geese – in particular a species known as the bar-headed goose - can alter their metabolism to adapt to low-oxygen atmosphere at high altitudes.
They emulated conditions at Everest altitude by kitting out geese with censor-laden backpacks and breathing masks that mimic oxygen levels at 9 000m before analysing their flight in a wind tunnel.
Conclusion: Geese may well have the ability to fly over Mount Everest.
The geese are no doubt are happy enough to be kitted with backpacks and breathing masks, then fly in a wind tunnel – all in the interests of science and building the reputation of their species.
Words, words
LIMERICK time:
There was young curate of Salisbury,
Whose conduct was halisbury-scalisbury.
He wandered round Hampshire
Without any pampshire,
'Til the vicar compelled him to walisbury.
Huh? Well it works if you recall that the old Latin name for Salisbury is Sarum and the postal code for Hampshire is Hants.
Tailpiece
PICASSO surprised a burglar in his studio in France. The intruder got away but Picasso gave the gendarmes a rough sketch of the man.
They arrested a mother superior, the minister of finance, a washing machine and the Eiffel Tower.
Last word
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. - Max Beerbohm
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