I was reading the daily's this morning (Feb 4th) and came across an article that made me laugh. The title itself was enough: Quarter of Brits think Churchhill was myth: poll

Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out today which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real. Other historical persons and events that the Brits thought were a myth included:

• 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart.

• Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale.

• Charles Dickens.

• Mahatma Gandhi

• Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington

• Many thought that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed

I myself then did a similar test in my local online paper, and got only one wrong answer. But in my own defence, I must admit that I was thinking that it was the Aboriginal people of Australia that discovered Australia, so I got the question about Captain Cook wrong.

It just goes to show you that we are certainly not as certain of the things of which we should be sure - to paraphrase Yul Brenner's character in 'The King and I' movie with Deborah Kerr.

In the meantime, I was reading the story Suspected bomber kills three in Israel in which Hamas and Islamic Jihad both praised the attack (in which two of the three killed were suicide bombers), as a blow against "Israeli occupation". With those percentages, there should be far more suicide bombings. The success ratio would,  by a process of elimination, (pun intended), enable the Israelis to kill two birds with one stone: Reduce Urban overcrowding, and Reclaim all of Biblical Israel.

In the same article, recorded as if it made absolute sense was this line:

• The suicide bombing in Dimona, a desert town where a top-secret nuclear reactor is located,...

It reminded me of one of Leo Rosten's jokes (The Joys of Yiddish) about the man who goes knocking on an apartment door in Tel-Aviv in the middle of the night. When asked repeatedly by the occupant who is knocking, the visitor keeps saying 'The oranges in Valencia are ripe!' Finally the exasperated visitor says: 'You are Horowitz right?'

Mr. Horowitz, the occupant, finally sees the light and announces: 'Sorry! - I am Horowitz the violin teacher. This is apartment 3 D.  You want Horowitz the spy up in 4 D.

On a personal note, those of you who read my story China's Heaviest Snow in 50 years will have figured out that my trip to AnHui province on February 3rd obviously never occurred. But here is the update.

Someone who had been wanting to come spend a few days with me, kept pestering me to say whether or not I was in fact going to AnHui, so when my hosts did not show up yesterday to cart me off, I invited my friend to come stay for a few days over New Year.

This morning I got a telephone call from my hosts to announce that they would go today, if they can actually catch the train. So I informed them that I would not now be able to go. They then informed me that they were coming straight to my place 'right now' to talk to me. So rather than go to the supermarket to buy much needed food as I had planned, I waited, and waited and waited.

After 4 hours of waiting, I went down the street to buy biscuits and fruit. At least I have some food to tide me over until tomorrow.  Maybe they will turn up in the morning as I am headed off once more to the supermarket in the hope of buying food to get me through New Year.  Oh Well!. It Doesn't matter! It is not important! Do not Worry!

R.P.Bendedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

Photographic Stories from China at Magic City

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.