The Idler, Thursday, October 10, 2019

Megaptera

Novaeangliae –

and homo sapiens

 

A HUMPBACK whale came up the River Thames from the sea the other day, riding on a high spring tide. Then it gradually made its way downriver again, marine specialists watching anxiously from a distance to make sure it got back to the sea without mishap, urging no interference because that could panic it into action that could get it stranded.

For a time the whale seemed to be grazing contentedly enough off the underwater vegetation of the Thames.

But what would a humpback whale want in the Thames estuary? Had it not heard that London has been chaotically taken over by climate change activists? Or about the Brexit crisis, the bizarre antics in the Mother of Parliaments, close by on a bank of that same River Thames? The threat by the current prime minister to "squat" in No 10 Downing Street if he's voted out of office by parliament? Or about the pole-dance factor?

Maybe the whale was a scout from the deep-sea world, gathering information on the strange, self-destructive impulses of the species that calls itself homo sapiens.

But now, sadly, the whale has been found dead, washed up on the Kentish shore, according to Sky News. The marine biologists are puzzled because it had seemed to be doing well. An autopsy is to be conducted.

Was it killed by the human political toxicity described? Would that show in an autopsy?

 

 

 

Arts Centre

 

THIRTY-FIVE years ago, glamorous wordsmith Wanda Hennig wrote her first article for the glossy magazine Cosmo, based on an interview with noted sculptor Andries Botha. This week at the regular St Clements arts soiree she interviewed him again.

It was a tour de force. Andries – she calls him "Boetie" – is a natural raconteur and he held his audience entranced as he described with self-effacing humour his career from humble beginnings as the child of a railway worker, through university and then on to his present niche in the world of arts.

Andries would never say it himself, but he's today a sculptor of international ranking, though firmly rooted in the cultural mélange of KwaZulu-Natal.

The St Clement's soiree is generally a reflective sort of gathering – different facets of the arts looked at in a convivial atmosphere. But this week a nugget of significant news.

Andries has been involved in plans for the establishment of a KZN Arts Centre in what I gather is a fantastical, exotic, park-like sculpture garden in Kloof. Architect Peter Amm, owner of the site, is building a series of light, cathedral-like structures for the display of local art.

Andries's own output over 40 years is being taken out of storage; also the sculpture of earlier artist Mary Stainbank. The Centre will also have resident artists and will become an important stop-off on the tourist route.

Yes, it's more than beer and skittles at St Clement's.

 

 

 

 

Smouldering love

 

RED-HOT love? A 19-year-old gal in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the US, fell out with her lover and burned his letters.

She did this then took a nap. She awoke to smoke and discovered the carpet on fire, according to Huffington Post.

Firefighters were called and they extinguished the blaze. Damage to the apartment was an estimated $4 000 (R59 800).

We're not told if there's been a reconciliation.

 

Tailpiece

 

THEY met in the local bean restaurant. It was instant inflatulation.

 

 

Last word

 

What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge