1. Celebrate ’til the cows come home
Parading sporting heroes in open-top buses has become popular, but also a challenge. What does a city without an open-top bus do? In the case of Kimberley, home of Currie Cup rugby champions Griquas, the bright sparks of the diamond city improvised: a cattle truck was festooned with regalia and took the players on a tour, acclaimed by the cheering locals.
2. For war or for show?
Kevin Dunn, a retired colonel in the US army, was not impressed by China’s recent military parade. “How many months did those poor troops practise for this spectacle?” he asks in a letter to The Economist. He says US soldiers are bad marchers “because we do so little of it, and for good reason. It is a waste of time when the troops should instead be in the field honing their skills for war.”
3. Crime does pay
The genre of cosy crime thrillers got two newcomers last week. The 26th book of Alexander McCall Smith’s No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in Botswana and featuring the resourceful Mma Ramotswe, appeared. Also the fifth book in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series. McCall Smith has sold 20-million copies, Osman 10-million. Neither comes close to another practitioner of the genre, Agatha Christie. She’s sold 2-billion.
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