Maggie Davey On certain days when all is right with the world, and the sun tilts at a fine angle, it can make sense to know that Frank Sinatra’s favourite colour was orange. Or that practically every item in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century had rounded edges and art deco design […]

channel vision Robert Kirby This is the last column of the year and, as is the habit of columnists, I take a fearful look across the year behind us to see what really stood out in television. No prizes for guessing that the coverage of the World Trade Center attacks was the winner in a […]

SOCCER Ntuthuko Maphumulo It’s an African Champions’ League final that has all the ingredients of greatness. If Sundowns can upset the form book and get a victory in Egypt on Friday they will earn the respect of the whole continent and pocket more than R10-million. To emulate Orlando Pirates the only South African club so […]

Suzan Chala meets Funky Ngobeni, one of thousands of young children forced to support their family Every second day after school 13-year-old Joe Ngobeni fetches water for villagers from a well an hour and a half away. Funky his mother called him that charges 50c for 25 litres of water. He says he carries about […]

Fiona Macleod In the reality game that people play on the planet, South Africans have evicted more than 50 species and nominated hundreds more for eviction. We also have a fair number of popular favourites voted to win the survival race. An ambitious report being prepared for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development shows […]

There are many stories about the whims of Czar Nicholas I. One of them concerns the railway line between St Petersburg and Moscow, which was opened in 1851, towards the end of his reign, and is still in use today. The line was remarkably straight except for a pronounced kink about 160km from St Petersburg […]

Watching sport was put into perspective by the September 11 attacks Gavin Evans Any history of 2001 has to start with September 11, and so it is with sport. The impact of three aeroplanes on two towers and one military command centre may have no connection with fairways and fields, baseball diamonds and boxing rings, […]

Ian Tasman It’s that time of year when people take stock, be it in the form of a year-end bonus for the lucky ones or, for the others, just a general look at their mental and physical health. Amazingly, another year has come to an end, and as we slowly move from the office to […]

GOLF’SYEARINREVIEW Andy Capostagno Tiger Woods had a poor year, winning just six times on the United States PGA Tour including the US Masters. That such a season could be described as one of underachievement underlines the way Woods’s astonishing talent has changed the way we think about the game. The fact is that Woods could […]

music Riaan Wolmarans Aquadome,Emerald SafariResort and Casino. The Dance Till Dawn party on New Year’s Eve from 9pm has DJs Lea, Morgan, Lalicia,Chris and others. Tickets are R100 (R85 for students), including some free drinks, at Computicket or the Aquadome. More info:Tel:(016) 982 8000. Bassline, 7 Seventh Street, Melville. 340ml from Mozambique perform on Thursday […]