Peter Rhodes on propaganda, graffiti and something that annoyed the late Queen
A woman who was alleged to have died of starvation in Gaza because of the Israeli food blockade turns out to have been suffering from leukaemia. It's a timely reminder that Gaza is chiefly a propaganda war and that what we see is always what somebody wants us to see.
The parcel company Evri has unveiled Robo Dog Milo, a robotic delivery dog which can negotiate even the roughest terrain and staircases. I'm sure we all wish Milo well, while wondering how long it will be before Robos are being stolen in broad daylight and containered off to China in the ballooning global industry of widget-harvesting.
Containered? I may just have invented a new verb.
Will Milo and his robot pals ever live up to the high standards of the human postie, as famously decreed in the unofficial motto of the US Postal Service: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” After those stirring words were inscribed on a post office in New York, someone wrote underneath: “So what is it, then?”
Yet even that pithy little question doesn't qualify as the all-time funniest signpost graffiti. That honour surely goes to the scribble once found in Liverpool, next to the sign for the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board. Someone added: “And little lambs eat ivy.” You have to be at least 97 to get this joke.
The old phrase “do not speak ill of the dead” is beginning to fray in the case of the late Queen Elizabeth, possibly because we were not expected to speak ill of her when she was alive. A recent flurry of candid anecdotes paint a picture of a woman with her own faults and foibles. Take the yarn about one of her remote royal cousins who was furious when airport staff, citing security rules, refused to let him take his shotguns on board a plane. Clearly “irritated” by his treatment, Her Majesty allegedly retaliated by refusing to open the airport's new terminal. Did our beloved Queen have a vindictive side? Wait, watch and listen . . .
“The whole problem with post-Cold War Ukraine is that it has been lost in geo-strategic ambiguity.” Boris Johnson, keeping it simple for his readers.
Comment Guidelines
Iconic Media encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.