Glob-a-log

It is often suggested that politicians always react too slowly in times of real crises. Whether it’s a hurricane called Katrina, mass slaughter in Ruanda or a sudden drop in the markets, politicians only seem to do something after the fact – if they don’t try to actually bury same facts, of course.

The terms ‘political classes’ and ‘whirlwind fashion’ are not usually on speaking terms.

So, it’s always nice to see the occasional exception.

Enter the president of France, monsieur Sarkozy:

A Spanish magazine has published an exclusive picture of French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s fiancée Carla Bruni wearing only a pair of black leather boots - and what appears to be a wedding ring.

The image, published online in the February edition of DT, shows the model-turned-singer-turned French President’s fiancée lying on floor cushions with her arms protectively crossed over her chest.

The presence of a simple gold band on her wedding finger will further fuel rumours the Italian beauty has wed Sarkozy after a whirlwind romance.

I know that many people disapprove of president Sarkozy’s public wooing of his fiancée. While most people would agree that mademoiselle Bruni makes a very pretty picture indeed, many a French intellectual has bemoaned the fact that the latest photos of petit Nicolas and his amour were taken at Euro Disney, of all places.

While it’s true that it is a small step from going to Disneyland to wearing novelty condoms it must be said that it isn’t all that easy to court someone in style these days. Sure, a Mickey Mouse photo shoot is rather tacky but what’s a man to do in this new and brave Millennium?

Write long and passionate love letters? Not with the way out postal offices are run these days…:

It’s official. Postal delivery is as slow as snails, at least in Poland.

An IT worker, after receiving a letter on January 3 that was sent on December 20 as priority mail, calculated that a snail would have made it even faster to his home than the letter.

Daily Gazeta Wyborcza said Michal Szybalski calculated that it took 294 hours for the letter to arrive at his home. He also said the distance between his home and the sender was 11.1km.

Given the distance and the time, the speed of the letter was 0.03775 km/h. Mr Szybalski calculated that a garden snail travels at around 0.048 km/h.

Oh, talking about moving slowly – and this new Millennium with its ever-louder calls to go green…

So, you’re worried about the environment and you don’t want to use the car all the time. That’s good. Very laudable, of course. More people should walk, or take the bicycle or use the good old public transport system.

Problem is, buses, on the whole, don’t move as fast as a Sarkozy in heat. Most of the times, they resemble the Polish Post and believe me, when you are in a certain line of work it does pay to remember that small fact:

After botching a bank robbery in Sandy Springs and ditching the money, police said a robber was caught flat-footed — waiting for a bus. Channel Monae Gaskin admitted to robbing the Wachovia Bank at 8721 Roswell Road.

Gaskin went into the bank shortly after 1 p.m., Wednesday and demanded money, police said. She didn’t show a weapon. After being handed a bag of cash, she ran across a parking lot to a restaurant, where a dye bomb exploded orange-colored ink on her and the money. She then left the restaurant and tried to stash her dye-covered clothes and the money in a women’s bathroom in the Publix nearby.

Gaskin apparently changed clothes and went to the bus stop at Dunwoody Place and Hope Road, just behind the grocery store. A police officer responding to the report saw Gaskin waiting for a bus, matched her to the robbery description and apprehended her.

The Sandy Springs bank branch is no stranger to bumbling bandits. Another woman blew a robbery at the same place. She put a black bag and a white bag on the bank counter, and had the teller load all the money into the white bag. She took off with the black bag.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27th, 2008 at 16:33 and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.