On Tuesday the front page of The Star's PM edition yelled in large and bold type: "Lewd Twitter picture scandal." What's going on, I wondered to myself, remembering that not even the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scored as much space or as large a type size.
It seems that some "weiner" (or is it "wiener"?), a US congressman by the name of Anthony Weiner, admitted to sending a "lewd" photo of his under-wear-clad crotch to "a young woman" over Twitter. (Why, if his crotch was covered, was it lewd? And what if it had been a young man or an old woman? I'm only asking.)
Weiner also came out with the remarkable statement: "My wife is a remarkable woman. She's not responsible for any of this," he said.
Well, I should hope not. What was the suggestion? That she took the photographs for him? I mention this story by way of reminding us that, notwithstanding his questionable reputation among some people with regard to the fairer sex, our president, Jacob G Zuma, has never done anything as reprehensible as Weiner, nor has he ever blamed any of his wives, partners or fiancées for anything.
When Zuma began tweeting on May 10, his first micro-blog comprised the following laudable if boring words: "Democracy is flourishing in SA thanks to the active participation of all citizens. It's wonderful. Vote 18 May."
In fact the president has not only been behaving himself lately, but most folk have - at least for the moment, and with only one exception - stopped picking on him.