You may think that my few days away from blogging were caused by the announcement of the end of the world on 21st May by Mr. Harold Camping. The Guardian reports that one of his followers, Robert Fitzpatrick, spent his life savings of $140,000 advertising the imminent Armageddon. I don’t know if he was disappointed when he woke on the morning to find he had not been taken to a Better Place. I expect he ‘phoned his friends just to make sure they hadn’t left without him. Mr. Camping is reported to have raised $100 million to publicise the non-event. He has now decided that the last day, which he calls ‘The Rapture’ will be on 21st October.
Actually it could have been mistaken for The Last Day here: violent electrical storms which blew not only the antenna, the router and the electrical supply to the computers but also the backup system. I am still looking for a system which works in bad weather.
Even worse news than the End of the World is that the BBC has now officially given up trying to pronounce Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s name. It should be Stroasse-Kahn but they say Strauss-Kahn. An insider tells me they have said it is an acceptable Anglicisation*. Of course an Anglicisation would be Strawss-Kahn. This is a Germanisation, to make it sound like the family of 19th century Austrian composers.
As to DSK, he is out on bail, but the police are telling sordid tales of Clintonian substances on the woman’s dress. It may be true, it may be false, but I fear we are about to hear the bits we really didn’t want to hear.
*Of course the BBC does not comment on what is acceptable. I should have written 'an established Anglicisation'
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