Author: Sipu

The President and I

I have been to San Clemente. It is a few miles north of San Diego in Southern California. An old school friend of mine has a beautiful house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I mention the fact because just the other night I watched the film ‘Frost and Nixon’, well, all bar the first 10 minutes. When President Nixon fled the Whitehouse in August 1974 he retired to his home, La Casa Pacifica, in San Clemente and it was there that the famous interviews with David Frost took place. Continue reading “The President and I”

The Merry Wives of Tshwane

Yesterday it was confirmed that South Africa’s very own Falstaff is to marry for the 6th time. Our polygamous President Zuma, currently enjoys the company of only three wives, having divorced  his second, while his third committed suicide. He has been engaged to his latest fiance for a number of years, but the forthcoming nuptials will formalise the arrangement. JayZee as he is sometimes known, has publicly acknowledged upwards of 20 children by various wives and mistresses, but others claim that the real number of progeny far exceeds this.

In any event here is a happy picture taken at his recent 70th birthday bash.

Got to say, though, that the missus on the right doesn’t look too chuffed.

The Merry Wives of Tshwane

The Etymological Compendium – By William Pulleyn

One of the problems that have arisen out of the ubiquity of such internet tools as Google and Wikipedia is our increasing tendency to rely on them for answers to our questions. I am sure we have all had experience of quoting a definition from these sources, only to be disproved subsequently. In any event, when looking for the origins and definitions, I frequently revert to Google Books. Here one can sometimes find definitions that pre-exist the internet era. It is not always a guarantee that such definitions are likely to be any more accurate than those posted by enthusiastic amateurs on Wikipedia or Wiktionary, but they do often provide an interesting alternative.

One such book is this The Etymological Compendium –  By William Pulleyn. Written in 1830 it provides all sorts of explanations of the origins of words, customs and inventions. Continue reading “The Etymological Compendium – By William Pulleyn”