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| Column 1 | |
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LOOKING back on the weekend over our
Column One records, we realised that we’ve spent much time and effort
encouraging readers to smile on Monday mornings and leave their grumbles
at home. *** GOOD morning ... there we go again. So we’ve decided to make the last Monday of each month our very own Groan, Grouch and Complain Day. Readers will just have to make-do once a month and create their own jollification. *** RIGHT then – to begin: We believe that the current huge wave of conferences, meetings, seminars and general let’s-get-together-and-discuss-things gab-fests should cease forthwith. Very little of any consequence emerges from these gatherings, which involve people who’ve either known each other for yonks, or those who have no wish to know each other. Ever. *** SO the atmosphere is either one of them good old boys drinking whisky and rye, happy in the knowledge that they’re all of one mind; or one of slit-eyed, purse-mouthed animosity, with the cocktails based on vinegar and an end-of-conference statement describing the occasion as “cordial”. Translation – nobody was actually assassinated. *** LET there be an end to these hugely expensive celebrations of much ado about nothing, we say. Developing nations should host such formal posturing only rarely and use the vast sums of money saved to weed out corruption in the ranks. *** GOODNESS, we do feel better. Let us now joyously turn to the Guild of Quizzers and their thoughts on wormwood and to Irene Gashu waiting patiently in Tokyo to continue her rudely interrupted contribution from last Friday. Good morning Irene; you were about to share with us Oscar Wilde’s thoughts on that heady tipple absinthe, based on extract of wormwood. *** MR Wilde wrote: “The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see, wonderful curious things.” And Irene added: “I think Oscar Wilde’s short story The Happy Prince is one of the most beautiful, sad and moving stories written by a European author.” Many thanks, Irene; more entries tomorrow. Er ... cheers! |
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| - Dee Nesenolis | |
| Editorial | |
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