From Wendy Houses to Talking Masks

By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com

It was 1992 and Queen Elizabeth wasn’t a happy camper. “It was an annus horribilis,” she lamented during her annual Christmas speech, which got teenage boys sniggering at the innuendo. However, it had nothing to do with Her Majesty’s bottom line, but concerned a few unfortunate occurrences during the year.

Apart from three of her children’s marriages collapsing, so too did part of her favourite Wendy House which she’d been playing in since childhood. It’s called Windsor Castle. Huge chunks of it caved in when a butler kicked over the braai and a raging fire ravaged the old structure, destroying 100 rooms. One hundred rooms? One wonders how many rooms a self-respecting castle needs, and what the heck does Wendy (or Lizzy) do in all of them?

Out of morbid interest, Wendy was Peter Pan’s bit on the side. In a murky Mafia-style hit, Tinkerbell (the foxy Jezebel), connived to get Wendy shot by members of Pan’s gang, Da Lost Boyz.

Realising too late they’d been out-foxed, they immediately erected a shelter over her body while she recuperated. It became known as Wendy’s House – like a doll’s house but bigger – and the craze went viral. Today they’re available everywhere in multiple shapes and sizes, usually without a bullet-ridden fairy though.

But back to annus horribilis. Let’s face it, 2020 was a real bummer, and I’m sure we’re all relieved it’s behind us. But before looking ahead to 2021, here’s where 2020 fits into the tragic hit-parade of Worst Year Ever for loss of human lives.

A CNN survey reveals that at number 5 is the Visigoths’ slaughter/sacking of Rome in 410. Then at number 4 is the 30 Year’s War plus the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in 1644 – populations were severely decimated globally.

Number 3: Mount Tambora’s eruption in 1816. It was around 1 000 times bigger than the 2010 Icelandic eruption that grounded air traffic for months. It caused a ‘volcanic winter’ across Indonesia, and without sunlight, crops failed and millions simply starved to death.

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