I’d like to make a moment, if you’ll permit me, to offer thanks to the memory of Percy Shaw, a Yorkshireman from the town of Halifax. I don’t know if he was an especially upstanding or moral man, whether he was kind to others or donated a fortune to charity. What I do know is […]
Sarah Britten
During the day Sarah Britten is a communication strategist; by night she writes books and blog entries. And sometimes paints. With lipstick. It helps to have insomnia.
Posted inLifestyle
Where do you go to pick up women these days?
Perhaps it’s the white wine I am drinking (the bar opens on Wednesdays here. Most ad agencies run on slightly advanced versions of the dop system). Perhaps it’s the fact that I am single again after nearly nine years of marriage. And perhaps it’s the fact that I was once hit on by a German-Nigerian […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Would you change your bank account for Droolius?
So Julius Malema has upped the ante in his campaign against Nedbank, the unfortunate target of his ire after they withdrew their sponsorship of Athletics South Africa in the wake of the Caster Semenya debacle. “When we called for Nedbank senior managers to engage us on this matter, they sent junior black managers. We will […]
Posted inGeneral
Why love really is like shopping
Sometimes food for thought can come from the least expected quarters. The other week, I watched a fascinating presentation on pricing theory by Greg Classen from TNS. He showed us graphs predicting the percentage of sales a brand could expect to lose depending on the size of a price increase. The more loyal consumers a […]
Posted inLifestyle
Let’s give the dikkops their due
Lo, I stand before you and say without shame: I am rather fond of dikkops. In fact, I think they’re underrated, and we should feel privileged to have them in our midst. The dikkop to which I refer is not, as an English friend of mine assumed, a dickhead, but rather the nocturnal, ground-nesting cousin […]
Posted inLifestyle
Knersus, the Gummi Bears and nostalgia
I think the Gummi Bears rocked. Sure, technically, they bounced, here and there and everywhere — at least when they’d ingested gummi berry juice — but I still think they rocked. They’re one of my fondest memories of the 80s. (What else does the 8-s have to offer? PW and his Rubicon speech? Big hair? […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Spit for money: Only in South Africa
Jawellnofine. We South Africans are all too fond of thinking we’re unique, special, different. Uniquely scenic, uniquely crime-ridden, uniquely challenged, uniquely corrupt etc etc. The technical term for this is exceptionalism and it is a very bad habit, because it dupes us into thinking that we are more special than we really are. Think of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The students are trashing the place, again
Oh look, it’s protest season again. Wits students campaigning against a fee increase have participated in the time-honoured tradition of trashing the campus, invading lectures and intimidating non-protestors. I was in first year when all of this first started, back in 1993. Back then, dewy-eyed liberals like me were trying to get our heads around […]
Posted inLifestyle
If only time was more like plasticine
I am typing this as I sit in one of our boardrooms. I’m waiting for a meeting. I’m always waiting for meetings. Nobody ever shows up at the time at which Outlook says a meeting should start; sometimes it’s because I didn’t get the update, or there’s been a last-minute cancellation, or everybody else has […]
Posted inGeneral
Tainted blood, machine guns and metaphor
Earlier this afternoon, (it’s a Sunday, and I last watched a Formula 1 Grand Prix when I was nine years old and Nelson Piquet was still around), I found myself, as usual, collating material for my chapter on Jacob Zuma, Helen Zille and the Wild Whore Libido, when I happened across this quote from fellow […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Some of my favourite examples of the race card
Ah, the race card. Where would we be without it? Zapiro sums the latest up quite nicely here. Owing to my research for the insult books, I’ve been collecting fine examples of the use of the race card for years. Amongst my more recent acquisitions: “They want to undermine the African Union and (South African) […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why would the Canadians want Huntley?
Why didn’t former Capetonian Brandon Huntley get off his skinny backside and apply for permanent residence in Canada through the normal channels like everyone else? Oh, for sure, the emigration process involves spending a lot of money, filling in lots of forms, and spending a lot of time in queues at home affairs, which is […]