ONE THING has always puzzled me about ministers of state when I watch them on television, either in London or Dublin. Even if they've only been in office five minutes they never say "we" or "us". It's always "I" or "me".
"I have decided, in the interests of the nation, to build a hundred foot wall around the
coast to stop the north wind corning in . . ." When you know darn well and he knows darn well that at least twenty civil servants have been involved in the decision and probably half the Cabinet.
The first Minister I hear saying "we" gets my vote next time.
Pearls of wisdom
FOR THOSE ladies at present boning up for Mastermind (I wonder nobody's made a case for Mistressmind) let me pose the question what is a cultured pearl?
Now it may he that everybody knows what a cultured pearl is but, since I didn't know until five minutes ago, I assume the opposite and pass on the information.
I am now reliably informed that, while a real pearl grows naturally inside the rich oyster, a cultured pearl is achieved by placing a small piece of motherof-pearl inside the said crustacean and letting it develop therein naturally over a period
The technique has been developed over the centuries in the Far East and the clever Japanese have; of course, brought it to near perfection.
You might, therefore, say to yourself that the only difference between a natural pearl and a cultured pearl is that one is intentional and the other accidental, so to speak.
There must, however, be a little more to it than this since I read that a string of cultured pearls fetching four or five hundred pounds would fetch more than ten thous-and pounds if they were real. So, there you arc. I hope you win.
Sky-high breakdown
SEVERAI, times during the we do. In Belfast, I suppose one afternoon, I noticed a helicopter pair of eyes would see swoop over the house in that protection, another pair typical long, drooping, sideways aggression.
loop before clattering away into I leave it to Frank Carson to silent invisibility. I was idly cheer us up on that score. curious but no more — a Standing with his dad on the photographer, a traffic spotter, Falls Road, they watched a
a joy-rider? helicopter floating in the I began to think of all the distance.
other places in the world where "It's been like that for ages," it would be a sinister, said Dad.
threatening monster in the sky. "Maybe it's broken down," How lucky we are to live where said Frank.
There are so many credits on some television programmes you might wander who, back in the studios, is watching whom?