The news that can fix a babalaas

Donald and Elon's BS-talk

Fanboy Elon Musk's much-discussed interview with Donald Trump predictably turned out to be a damp squib. This dude sums it up neatly.

Cat gripes

Tim Walz unwittingly demonstrates a bit more class than Trump...

Devilish uncle is just so cuddly

In the American presidential “war", Republicans are struggling to demonise Tim Walz.

Judge a book…

An entertaining X thread discussing The Don's tailored suits.

Last hurrah for the Olympic Games!

A wonderful Paris Olympic Games is behind us, but there are still a few jokes and anecdotes to be shared, especially when it comes to Australia's newest celebrity, the breakdancer Raygun, also known as Dr Rachael Gunn, a lecturer in gender and politics at Macquarie University in Sydney.

For those who don't remember the context of this meme, at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Australian Steven Bradbury won the gold medal in a speed skating event when all four of his opponents surprisingly fell just before the finish line and he nonchalantly skated through from behind.

Dressed to look a gift horse in the mouth

If America had to get a prince today, it would certainly be Snoop Dogg…

Take a chance, win a wreath

One Byron Ruiters wisecracks about the 18-year-old Bayanda Walaza, a member of South Africa's silver medal-winning 4x100m relay team.

The American speed freak Noah Lyles's razzmatazz before the 200m  final stood in stark contrast to Botswana's gold medal winner in the race, Letsile Tebogo, and also to his own performance in the race.

Lovely documentary

When the photojournalist Willem van der Berg returned to the farm in the Hardemans Karoo where he worked as a boy to look for his friend and mentor, the fence maker Hans Jors, he couldn't find him. The farmer, Tienie, for whom Hans had fenced an entire Karoo kingdom, wouldn't say where he was.

And so Willem's search begins. The short documentary that tells the story will be shown at the Silwerskerm Film Festival at 10.30am on August 29 and 2.15pm on August 31 at the Rotunda in The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay. Tickets are available at Quicket.

Work is bad for golf, who would have guessed?

It's difficult to figure out the purpose of some research, but academics at Stellenbosch University have determined that weekend golfers' performance predominantly decreases when they view work-related emails on a smartphone or take work calls on the course. However, when players look at personal WhatsApps or social media posts, or take personal calls, there is no impact on their game.

The phenomenon is attributed to “attention residue", which means the content of a work email or call lingers longer in our thoughts than the content of a regular call, and it affects concentration during shots. What are the practical implications of this? Nobody knows. Nevertheless, it has been published as an academic article in the International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport.

The taxman makes waves and saves penguins

The fate of a colony of endangered African penguins on St Croix Island, near Coega port, has (probably temporarily) turned due to a tax dispute between the South African Revenue Service and owners of bunker ships that refuel cargo vessels at sea, according to Renée Bonorchis on the Groundup website.

Sars believes this practice of not refuelling in the port leads to large-scale tax evasion – it says an estimated R7 billion has been lost. However, the ship owners went to court and won a ruling stating that Sars's regulations are unclear. Until Sars clarifies them, no refuelling of vessels at sea by bunker ships is allowed.

For the penguins, this is excellent news, because the noise from the bunker ships, and commercial fishing boats depleting fish resources, has had a devastating impact on the colony. Before the bunker ships arrived in 2016, there were 7,000 breeding pairs of penguins on the island. By 2023, only 700 remained. According to researcher Prof Lorien Pichegru, this number has recovered to 1,200 pairs this year due to the absence of noise pollution. However, the future of the penguins remains uncertain because the noise could return at any time.

Kiff old gender-bender ad

Sasol's ‘Glug-Glug' commercials in the 1990s were extremely popular, and this one with the baby in the stroller was South Africa's most famous television ad for years. The actors were a real-life couple, Tilana Hanekom and Eghard van der Hoven, both long since passed away. In 2018, the magazine Sarie decided to search for the baby boy, and when it succeeded it discovered he was a her. Tayla Farrell was 23 and living in Johannesburg.

Afrikaans is not always as easy as people make out.

Coke, hamburgers and Oude Meester never a problem here 

One might ask, where was this minister when we needed him in the 1980s in Pretoria, Potch and Bloem? James Talarico is a Democrat and a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Old but gold

In this week's version of a good old joke that's worth reheating: Jack Nicholson receiving a British Academy Film Award (Bafta) for Chinatown while he was on the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

♦ VWB ♦

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