I'm Often Amazed At The

I Cannot Be Alone In Being Pretty Nauseated By Red Nose Day, Or At Least Its Television Manifestation. Do I Think That Wretchedly Poor Children In Africa Should Get Food And Life-saving Drugs? Of Course. Do I Want To Be Hectored Into Contributing By Celebrities Who Earn More In A 10-minute Slot Than Many Of These Families Get In A Year? Nope.

Curiously, It Is Hard Not To Be A Little Optimistic About The Future For Zimbabwe (as Nobody At All Calls It Yet, Except In Political Speeches). The Fear Is Not That There Will Be Mass Slaughter Of The Whites, Followed By Their Flight To South Africa And The Collapse Of The Economy, But That The Need To Retain White Confidence May Mean That The Blacks Are Badly Disappointed.

Poor Harper Seven Beckham, Having To Live With That Name All Her Life. It's The Boy Named Sue Syndrome; At The Very Least It Will Toughen Her Up.

In Washington, Success Is Just A Training Course For Failure.

Disney World Has Acquired By Now Something Of The Air Of A National Shrine. American Parents Who Don't Take Their Children There Sense Obscurely That They Have Failed In Some Fundamental Way, Like Muslims Who Never Made It To Mecca.