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www.thevillagenews.co.za
2 September 2020
FROM THE EDITOR
Happy birthday to us! The next edition of The Village NEWS will be available on 9 September 2020. The NEWS can be found at over 300 distribution points in the Overberg.
De Waal Steyn PUBLISHING EDITOR E: dewaal@thevillagenews.co.za T: 083 700 3319
Hedda Mittner
Five years ago, The Village NEWS published its first edition with the headline, All we need is a bit of magic, referring to the finishing touches being added to the Whale Festival preparations. That headline was prophetic as far as the newspaper is concerned and the spark of magic has not left us. Over the past five years, we were fortunate enough to be awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the municipality in 2017; the following year we were crowned Newspaper of the Year by the Forum for Community Newspapers, and there have been several other accolades since then for
CONTENT EDITOR
ONLINE EDITOR E: raphael@thevillagenews.co.za T: 074 125 5854
Elaine Davie
By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com
A
rticles in the For Fact’s Sake columns are – according to Google and the Duck ’n Fiddle’s Explanation of Everything – based on facts. Occasionally though, names and places have been changed to protect innocent people involved. The Mighty Atom
JOURNALIST E: elaine@thevillagenews.co.za T: 084 343 7500
Taylum Meyer PRODUCTION MANAGER, PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN E: taylum@thevillagenews.co.za T: 084 564 0779
Charé van der Walt MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE E: chare@thevillagenews.co.za T: 082 430 1974
Nickey Jackson
We were frequently told by our peers that a good news newspaper would never succeed, but we have bucked the trend and have proven that good, insightful journalism coupled with But we are certain we are on track eye-catching design is a winning to getting our groove back. This formula. week we have increased the number of printed copies by 1 000, due to And while all around us newspapers overwhelming demand. At the same are either closing down or radically time, our online presence is continuchanging their business models, ously expanding and for the first time we have decided to stay true to our this week we will be publishing addifounding principles of good news tional content in our online edition, and community first. Yes, Covid-19 starting off with exciting motoring has taken its toll, as with all other pages, courtesy of veteran motoring businesses. We have had to reduce journalist, John Floyd. More pages
will follow in the next few weeks. As mentioned elsewhere, we are also launching our Village Insider programme this week. For the cost of two cups of coffee our readers will now be able to assist us in increasing our print run even further over the coming weeks. We invite everyone to become part of this initiative to keep the good news coming. With the help of our readers and advertisers The Village NEWS is excited about tackling the next five years. Bad news travels fast, good news travels faster. This is the good NEWS – Ed
Tough as Nails and the Nordic Influence
E: hedda@thevillagenews.co.za T: 083 645 3928
Raphael da Silva
our staff numbers, we have been forced to close our offices for the time being and we have been publishing fewer pages and fewer copies than before.
writing and design.
We’ve all come across those ‘Strong Man’ contests on TV or in the papers, where huge brutes from around the world compete for the title of ‘The World’s Strongest Man’. These raucously popular spectacles involving the regular vein-popping, sinew-snapping and tendon-tearing events, require various heavy objects to be lifted/pushed/thrown or pulled from one place to another. The fastest/heaviest/furthest wins. Judging by their expressions of excruciating pain, strain and anguish, the contestants certainly don’t look like they’re enjoying themselves. One wonders why they keep doing it. Foolhardy flattery, or fame and fortune?
Well, above the Old Harbour, Hermanus hosted its own regional Strong Man competition, and among others, two Duck ’n Fiddle regulars, Druiwe du Toit and Klippies Combrink entered. Growing up on adjacent farms in Heaven’s Valley, they were bred tough. They’d been throwing tractor tyres to each other like frisbees for years, and played touch rugby with a bag of cement. Together they could lift Sparky Snyman’s Mini right off the ground – no sweat. Hell, even their muscles had muscles, so this competition would be a walk in the park. Sadly, being deemed far too drunk, they were disqualified in the preliminaries by the eventual winner Johan Kruger, and as a prize, he received life-long membership to the Duck ’n Fiddle’s new 18-hole virtual golf course and pole-dancing academy. Anyway, going global and back in time, we notice a strong flow of Viking blood coursing through the veins of many World Champs. Perhaps the pristine Arctic waters give them those larger frames and bigger bulging muscles, making hurling boulders around a little bit easier. But the accolades must go to an extraordinary guy who earned a living as
the world’s strongest man around a hundred years ago – without being Scandinavian. Meet Joseph Greenstein. He weighed around 68kg and stood 1.6m in his socks. He was born prematurely and underweight, and contracted TB aged 14. On both occasions doctors gave him little chance of survival, but the ‘Strong Man’ from the local circus took him under his wing and taught him the skills required to become extremely strong through diet, exercise and mind control. For the next few years he did just that, and excelled in the art of becoming physically and mentally tough. By the time he was about 20, he’d earned a reputation as a wrestler, and his family emigrated from Poland to America where he married the lovely Leah. A jealous would-be suitor shot him between the eyes from 10 metres, and witnesses claim that the bullet actually flattened on impact, leaving Jo with only a superficial wound on his forehead. This incident kicked off his career as ‘The Mighty Atom’ – The World’s Strongest Man. His travelling show amazed people around the globe. He could change a
tyre with his bare hands, and prevent an aeroplane from taking off with a rope tied to his hair. He would hammer nails into wood – palm down – with only a hanky round his hand, and bend steel bars, not only lengthwise, but into spirals with sheer strength and willpower. He could tie horseshoes into knots, and also pulled a two-ton truck 30 metres with his teeth. I’m not making this up. He maintained that the brain instructs us to stop when the pain threshold is reached, but this is when he would accelerate his pressure and ignore the negative signals. At his shows he sold his various health elixirs and potions well into his eighties and died in 1977 aged 84 – without a drop of Scandinavian blood in his veins. The Nordic Influence As we know, the English language accumulated a lashing of many tongues from India through to Iceland, and here are some randomly chosen English words derived from the frozen Norse: mistake, mug, husband, rotten, fellow, knife, slaughter, happy, scant regret. Ladies, please don’t try this at home.
HERMANUS: SEVEN-DAY WEATHER AND TIDE TABLE Wed | 2 Sep
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Fri | 4 Sep
Sat | 5 Sep
Sun | 6 Sep
Mon | 7 Sep
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14°/15° Rain
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11°/18° Clear
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