6
www.thevillagenews.co.za
FROM THE EDITOR
3 February 2021
Help us Love a Little Local
The arrival of the first batch of vaccines for essential medical staff is hopefully the start of the serious fightback against the Coronavirus. Despite the fact that current vaccines seem to be less effective against the South African variant of the virus, we should not lose hope. The American vaccine producer Moderna said that while the antibodies created by its vaccine were less effective at neutralizing this variant than previously dominant ones, it is already developing a new booster shot and
testing out a three-shot regimen to increase the vaccine’s efficacy against the variant. Pfizer and its research partner BioNTech released the findings of a study showing that its vaccine was only slightly less effective against the variant. While this is not the silver bullet we were hoping for, at least it gives us a fighting chance in the battle against the virus. It is important to note that while the efficacy of the vaccines is lower than anticipated, it still offers a great deal of protection against severe illness. Thus,
THE VILLAGE
NEWS WhatsApp or SMS your stories and photos to 083 700 3319 De Waal Steyn
PUBLISHING EDITOR T: 083 700 3319
E: dewaal@thevillagenews.co.za
Hedda Mittner
CONTENT EDITOR T: 083 645 3928
E: hedda@thevillagenews.co.za
Raphael da Silva ONLINE EDITOR T: 074 125 5854
E: raphael@thevillagenews.co.za
Elaine Davie
JOURNALIST T: 084 343 7500
E: elaine@thevillagenews.co.za Taylum Meyer PRODUCTION MANAGER, PHOTOGRAPHY & DESIGN T: 084 564 0779
while the vaccine will not make you immune to the virus, it will offer protection against ending up in hospital or even dying. As far as options go, a degree of protection far outweighs the alternatives or any possible side effects from the vaccine.
vaccines. And while these announcements regarding the vaccines and a sustained decline in new infections are good news, the battle against the economic impact of the pandemic now needs more urgent attention than ever before.
According to reports, South Africa has secured 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The Pfizer order is set to complement the 12 million vaccine doses from the WHO-backed Covax facility, the 9 million Johnson & Johnson shots and 1.5 million AstraZeneca/Oxford
Many businesses in our region are suffering greatly and it is up to us to assist them through this difficult time. To this end The Village NEWS has decided to put its money where its mouth is. From this week we will be publishing stories every week about the business-
es in our region. These stories are not meant to be promotional articles about how great and wonderful these businesses are, but rather a glimpse into who owns and runs them. We will aim to introduce our readers to the men and women who are working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the wheels of our economy turning. We urge our readers to support us in supporting these businesses. Together we can make a huge difference. We call it Love a Little Local. Will you help? This is the good NEWS – Ed.
Going to the dogs By Murray Stewart murray.stewart49@gmail.com
pretty soon that Rinty was eager to learn more, so tricks like jumping through hoops, or crawling through pipes were soon mastered.
I
t was 1918. The horror of the First World War was thankfully in its final stages, and round-ups, clear-outs and clean-ups were underway throughout Europe. During these mop-ups, soldiers in the Allied Forces would often nick the odd souvenir to take home to the family – like an enemy helmet, empty shell-casings, or maybe a street sign. Corporal Lee Duncan’s battalion was in Lorraine, France, doing exactly that when they came across a bombed-out dog kennel. Inside they found a starving German Shepherd dog which had recently given birth to five pups. Members of the battalion immediately adopted the family and Duncan chose two – a male, and a female who sadly snuffed it on the way back to the USA. Perhaps even some of our younger readers may recall the name of the surviving dog, which became a sensation nearly a century ago. Although many of us have never seen any of his movies, we know him as a canine super-hero, and the brave saviour of those in peril. His name was Rin Tin Tin. His mother and siblings didn’t survive, but thanks to Duncan, ‘Rinty’ arrived home safely in LA, and started life as an American. As a pup, he displayed an unusual amount of awareness and intelligence, and Duncan immediately started training him with the basics like sit, fetch and shake hands. He realised
nanigans best not discussed with their vicars. Sex and drugs and rock and roll, as immortalised by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, seemed to spur some bands on to more outrageous acts – as if in competition with each other.
Duncan entered him in various dog shows, and a photo of Rinty leaping over a hurdle convinced him that he deserved a crack at something bigger – perhaps a dog-food commercial or a bit-part in a movie?
Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, drove a Rolls Royce into their hotel’s swimming pool which got the band banned from all Holiday Inns worldwide. Keith Richard, an avid coke-sniffer at the time, once snorted a line of his deceased dad’s ashes when he ran out of Bolivian Marching Powder. Yikes!
Well, his first break came when they were walking past a small B-grade film set, busy shooting a scene involving a wolf. It wasn’t performing to the director’s wishes, and Duncan claimed his dog could do the scene in one take. He did, and the rest is history.
Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne – no shrinking violet when it came to sniffing things – snorted a line of ants when he, too, was out of snow. He was also arrested in a drunk/ drug stupor while peeing against a statue commemorating The Alamo, and was persona-non-grata in Texas for 40 years till he apologised.
He subsequently starred in 27 films and is credited with saving Warner Brothers from bankruptcy. At the time, silent movies were screened world-wide with subtitles in various languages, so Rinty shot quickly to stardom and fan mail poured in from around the globe.
Led Zeppelin was banned from numerous establishments. For some reason (could it possibly be drugs?) they developed a penchant for throwing TV sets out their hotel windows, or blowing up the occasional toilet bowl. Charming chaps, those rockers of the ‘60s and ‘70s...
At the first Academy Awards in 1929 he was voted ‘Best Actor’, but the committee decided to withdraw him and award the prize to 2nd placed German actor Emil Jannings instead. This was not to become a three-ringed circus or a dog show, they insisted; these awards were for serious human thespians. Well, R2-D2 or Chewbacca might disagree. Between a hard rock and a harder rock
Today, Jagger, Richards, Ozzy, Robert Plant, Alice Cooper, Roger Daltry and Steve Tyler – all hard-core rockers – are well into their seventies and still rocking.
Musicians from the sixties and seventies were renowned for indulging in post-concert she-
Rappers are obviously doing the wrong drugs.
E: taylum@thevillagenews.co.za
Charé van der Walt MARKETING & SALES MANAGER T: 082 430 1974
FORECASTS: HERMANUS, OVERBERG Proudly sponsored by Talisman Tool Hire Hermanus
LEGEND / KEY
Wed | 3 Feb
Thu | 4 Feb
Fri | 5 Feb
Sat | 6 Feb
Sun | 7 Feb
Mon | 8 Feb
Tue | 9 Feb
E: chare@thevillagenews.co.za
Wind
ADMIN & FINANCE
Sunrise/set
18°/22° Clear
18/23° Clear
19°/23° Clear
20°/22° Clear
19°/21° Some Rain
17°/25° Clear
18°/28° Clear
22km/h
32km/h
29km/h
18km/h
22km/h
29km/h
29km/h
06:05/19:47
06:07/19:46
06:08/19:45
06:09/19:44
06:10/19:44
06:11/19:43
06:12/19:42
E: admin@thevillagenews.co.za
www.pressreader.com www.issuu.com/dwaal
www.thevillagenews.co.za
Tides
De Bos Dam 90.53% Last week 91.77% Weekly Rainfall 13m Last week 1mm
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
00:39 07:02 13:24 19:27
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
01:29 07:55 14:26 20:33
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
02:33 09:05 15:48 22:04
LOW HIGH LOW HIGH
04:05 10:37 17:23 23:45
LOW HIGH LOW
05:47 12:08 18:42
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW
01:01 07:04 13:16 19:40
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW
01:56 08:00 14:08 20:25
