How to Write About Africa

How to Write About Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina

Flip Magazine Zambia

Zambian satirical magazine:

It's a tech thing

From Bonkers World by Manu Cornet:

Etonian Elan

The best way to become a millionaire

The best way to become a millionaire is to start off as a billionaire and start an airline.

- Sir Richard Branson

Knowing where to tap

Good one (author unknown):

The engine of a giant ship failed. The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, from top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ......................... $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap .....................$ 9,998.00

Just Musing by Augustine Lungu

Pure comedic genius: Augustine Lungu's Just Musing columns are back online.

Modernity, Majority and Generality

And now for something COMPLETELY different...

Simon Butteriss sings the Modern Major-General's Song from Gibert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance:

Write-down Comedy

I recently happened to be reading, at random, some pages from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (her best work of fiction, in my opinion) and I found some myself chuckling at some rather good jokes. Now, we don't think of Ayn Rand as a funny writer (of the ha-ha variety, I mean). Philosophical, combative, polemical, controversial, even implacable perhaps, but never funny. And yet she was. Here are a few jokes from Chapter 3 ("Gail Wynand"), randomly selected of course, in keeping with the random motif:

• The Banner was permitted to strain truth, taste and credibility, but not its readers' brain power.
• When a newspaperman received an invitation to call on Wynand, he took it as an insult to his journalistic integrity, but he came to the appointment. He came, prepared to deliver a set of offensive conditions on which he would accept the job, if at all. Wynand began the interview by stating the salary he would pay. Then he added: "You might wish, of course, to discuss other conditions--" and seeing the swallowing movement in the man's throat, concluded: "No? Fine. Report to me on Monday."
• The succession of his mistresses was so rapid that it ceased to be gossip. It was said that he never enjoyed a woman unless he had bought her--and that she had to be the kind who could not be bought.

Double dog dare

Seen recently with my own eyes (physiological and digital) on the mean streets of Gauteng Province (GP):

Cigars of the Pharaoh

A new article in Foreign Policy examines the link between Egyptian politics and Egyptian humour.

Fire Sale

(AP Images/Ben Curtis)

True story

This happened earlier this evening:

My son (4, and who's had a runny tummy lately) asked me: "Can diarrhoea kill you?". The wee lad had a very worried look on his face.

So I tried to put him out of his misery: "No, of course not."

Wee lad: "But how come it has 'die' in its name?"

PHD

PHD = Piled Higher and Deeper (Cham, J. G.)

To infinity and beyond

The 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes.

How many economists does it take to change a light bulb?

Either one or fifty-five, depending.

If the shoe fits...

...it won't slip off. (Something I heard from my five-year-old son the other day.)

Vuvuzela on Newsnight

What do you get when you cross a Paxman, a Wallen and a vuvuzela?

This.

Who worked with whom?

Stanislaw Ulam was once asked whether he worked with Edward Teller on the development of the hydrogen bomb. He replied: "Dr Teller worked with me."

Vuvuzela goes viral