Lifestyle

It was the most awesome T-shirt I had ever seen. A funky deep purple dye and a cartoon of a drunken cat on the front. Thirteen years old, I stared at in gobsmacked delight. Gimme! The cat was all starry-eyed with a wasted grin on his face and he was lying inside a whiskey bottle. […]

A large ominous shadow loomed about two metres away. Then a roll and the distinct white belly. I was in striking distance of man’s most feared predator. How, you might ask, did I — not known among my friends and foes for a love of danger — end up there? After a sprightly 5am pick-up […]

By T Osiame Molefe Hello…my name is Osiame and I am a self-diagnosed chronic cyberchondriac. *Pause for group reply* It has been a day since I googled my last set of symptoms. Needless to say, despite the radiating headache and short-term memory loss, I discovered that I do not suffer from encephalitis as I self-diagnosed. […]

The number of page hits that certain blog posts get on this website would suggest that Thought Leader readers like to read about the government, politics and how everything is going wrong, wrong, wrong with the ANC. You, the reader, want to discuss Zuma, Malema and those okes. Well, terribly sorry to disappoint. This isn’t […]

At Eyethu Cinema in the Soweto of the 70s and early 80s, film endings would be announced with the projection of the words “The End” on the screen. At that time, the film-end soundtrack would commence in full voice as we filed out of the cinema in our usual disorderly and noisy manner. It always […]

Although self awareness isn’t a safeguard against misery or a guarantee of happiness, Socrates’ guiding value has significant value. As the non traditional Latin inscribed on a plaque above the Oracle’s door in the Matrix film trinity advocates: “temet nosce” (“know yourself”).

Why do people get so worked up when women get married and the issue of surname change arises? Over the past few weeks several people that I know or know of through friends have decided to get married. In all cases the issue of whether the wife-to-be should take on the husband-to-be’s surname came up. […]

Dear Santa It is that time of year. When we all write you letters telling you what we want to find under the Christmas tree. Crafted in our finest handwriting and our smartest prose, we detail all those things that will make us happy. All those things that will magically make our lives a better […]

I absolutely love Christmas time. Fewer things bring more pleasure to my heart. The socks nailed to the mantelpiece. The merry crackle of the festive log in the hearth. Or in our case, the merry crackle of the kameeldoring trees as they festively burn under the fearsome Natal sun. The sound of the children drowning […]

My shorts and underwear were nowhere to be found. I searched all over the unfamiliar bed, looked under it, searched cupboards and eventually phoned Marion. I had slept over at her home and had only met her two nights before. I was on my own and she had gone off to work. She made a […]

By Roger Diamond Jared Diamond (no relation) says something along the lines of “You will have the privilege of being the last person to die” when referring to the privilege/plight of the rich and powerful during the collapse of a civilisation. I think I am seeing a similar thing when I look at the behaviour […]

I was on the Miller Rock The Boat Cruise. An article in one of the dailies claimed that passengers were fornicating in public. I will have you know I did not even get to fornicate in private (I’m still bitter about that). Having read the article I felt like I was in Sodom or Gomorrah […]