FIRE IN THE ICE
By Peter Wilhelm
For those in whom the very phrase Merry Christmas induces a leaden wish to retract into their shell, it's evident that the film-makers rubbed a few neurons together to come up with an appropriate English title. Alas, they couldn't: the...

TWO-TIMING AND TWO-FACED
By Heather Formby
Watches used to have two hands and some numbers, and were made to tell the time. Now they are objects of desire, collectors' items and fashion accessories. And some people still use them to tell the time. BRM More likely, however, th...

THESE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Drawing up top 10 lists is always an exercise in subjectivity, no more so when it comes to choosing the best technology products of the year. There was a vast number of excellent products released in 2006, so any list would leave out...

A POOR COUSIN'S REVENGE ON HIGH ART

It was a name of manifest ambiguity. DIRT Contemporary. Located in a glass-fronted retail space on the lower end of Cape Town's Kloof Street, this tiny gallery ran for less than a year through 2005. Pitched at younger, more adven...

LIQUID LUXURY
By Neil Pendock
From R140 000 for a bottle of Glenfiddich 1937 - an ideal stocking filler for Gauteng finance MEC Paul Mashatile - to R57 for a taste of Heaven on Earth and a R60 almost-unbreakable glass to drink it from, all bases are covered: ...

THE PEN'S NO FRIEND OF BOB
By Richard Steyn
Geoff Nyarota is a journalist of rare dedication and courage. For 20 years - as editor of the Chronicle, Financial Gazette and Daily News in Zimbabwe - he tried to keep his readers informed and expose corruption in...

DON'T SWALLOW IT ALL
By Neil Pendock
Economic necessity makes for strange bedfellows, as can be seen by the latest subscription special for Wine magazine: sign up for a year at R230 and they'll throw in a copy of the 2007 Platter guide. Which translates into a cost...

HOT TYPE
By Richard Steyn
The presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme demonstrates that he is more than just an ugly face in Jeremy Clarkson's And Another Thing: The World According To Clarkson (Random House; R205): he's also a "must read" columnist in the...

MAIN GOES MODERN
By Linda Stafford
If you're not at The Grand Café (see FM Fox, chances are that if you're holidaying in Plettenberg Bay you will be at The Upper Deck. The recently opened, R60m mixed-use development in the heart of resort town has the favourite snack of the u...

SONGS FOR SWINGING STOCKINGS
By Don Albert
Teen rockers and teeny boppers are growing up; and, through the efforts of Rod Stewart and his ilk, these new adult listeners have been exposed to the songs of the Great American Songbook, written by Gershwin, Berlin, Rogers & Hart, Po...

CREDIT ST KNICKERLESS
By JUSTICE MALALA
'Tis the season to be merry - but you can't really see it. Walk into any shopping centre and you are met by hundreds of harassed-looking men desperately trying to find a Christmas gift for their partners. And failing. They look g...