FEEDBACK understands the motivation for expressing unfamiliarly large quantities in blue whale units, and so forth (19 June 2010). But what can have been going through the mind of a journalist on the New Zealand Herald? That paper published on 19 August the news that 鈥渢he Manawatu Gorge is likely to be closed for a week after a slip reported to be 鈥榖igger than Ben-Hur鈥� came down last night following heavy rain.鈥�
Mike Kean asks whether road contractors in his country are 鈥渟o slow that a Charlton-Heston-sized slip takes a week to clear?鈥� That led us to the invaluable discovery of 鈥� a website dedicated to answering our next question: how tall was Heston? Apparently, 1.9 metres when he played Ben-Hur.
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Or would the comparison be to the film itself? It鈥檚 212 minutes long, which is 7270 metres of 70-millimetre film, not counting any overlaps between reels. That would be a long landslide. Or are we to compare the landslide with the most famous scenes, set in a stadium in Roman Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina) 鈥� which very likely had no stadium?
鈥淎n email informs Freya Savidge that by completing a survey she can 鈥渆arn up to 0 points鈥�. She is concerned. Does this mean they may take points away?鈥�
MEANWHILE Graham de Vahl Davis tells us that the August issue of Choice, the publication of the , that Malaysian and Indonesian orang-utan habitats are being destroyed, as forests are cleared to make way for palm tree plantations, at the rate of 300 soccer fields a day.
Should the agile orange primates, called in Malay 鈥渕en of the forest鈥�, form some teams, before it鈥檚 too late?
MELBOURNE, Australia, has an even less zoologically correct unit of large mass. Road safety signs there say, 鈥淚f a rhinoceros on a giant skateboard was headed your way, you鈥檇 get out of the way, right?鈥� That we would, just before trying to enumerate last night鈥檚 refreshment in detail. 鈥淲ell, guess what,鈥� it goes on, 鈥渁 tram weighs about the same as 30 rhinos鈥︹��
Howard Arber wonders 鈥渉ow many rhinoceroses could fit in a tram鈥�, which makes all the difference to the conversion to blue whale units.
IT DID mean something after all. We couldn鈥檛 understand the import of a sign in an Australian polling station saying 鈥淎bsent voters queue here鈥� (15 January). A person going by the nickname Catprog sends us a quote from the Australian Electoral Commission鈥檚 鈥溾��, explaining: 鈥淎bsent vote: Electors who are out of their division but still within their home State or Territory, may cast an 鈥榓bsent vote鈥� at any polling place in that State or Territory.鈥� That鈥檚 a relief to know.
THE 鈥淐onfidential Intelligence Briefing鈥� supplement to The Week magazine, Cary Seidman reports, contains an article entitled 鈥淗ow Darwinism will create a conservative dynasty in America鈥�, which considers the 鈥減rofound implications for what kind of society we leave our ancestors鈥�. Time to read Darwin again, then.
Strange ways of the City of London
LAZY Sunday afternoon 鈥� and it鈥檚 time for a colleague to browse an east London local council鈥檚 free newspaper for planning applications. One catches the eye: 鈥淧roposed development of 38-40 Trinity Square鈥� any owner of the land or tenant who wishes to make representations鈥︹�� And 鈥渢enant鈥� is footnoted. The colleague, being a Feedback reader, reads the footnote: 鈥溾�榯enant鈥� means a tenant of an agricultural holding any part of which is comprised in the land鈥�.
We sort of understand why, legally, this had to be included 鈥� in the same sort of way we understand, quantum mechanically, that the electron goes through both slits. Perhaps there was an agricultural tenant at some point. But the land in question is a stone鈥檚 throw from the Tower of London (started AD 1080) and even closer to 鈥� on the inside of 鈥� a surviving fragment of the wall enclosing Roman Londinium (about AD 220).
It is, to be fair, possible that there was agricultural use around AD 500, when Londinium seems to have fallen into desuetude: we make a note to ask an archaeologist. It鈥檚 likely, though, that this site has been continuously urban for 2000 years.
But then the penny drops. This is legal language. It concerns the City of London. What are the tax advantages of being an 鈥渁gricultural tenant鈥� there, we wonder.
AND finally: the Bow district in London鈥檚 East End has never been reputed for its slavish adherence to laws. It was here, for example, that Sylvia Pankhurst chose to launch her anti-war and pro-working-class feminist movement by lobbing a flint through a funeral director鈥檚 window in February 1913. She got headlines in the papers.
It鈥檚 not an enormous surprise, then, to see a sign in a taxi office there: 鈥淒river鈥檚 wanted鈥�.
Since the office in question is next to the courthouse, which is across the road from the police station, the question must be: why has the sign been there for a year or more? Could it be that the local forces of law and order have become complacent about breaches of the laws of punctuation (30 April)?