Intrepid Belgian reporter Tintin is continuing his travels in the Hunter, despite the pandemic.
Even when on holiday, a journalist remains a journalist. When they see a story, they snap back into reporter mode - at the ready to document any incidents.
So when Tintin came across the mysterious case of the missing monolith at The Hill in Newcastle, he and his faithful dog Snowy were on the job.
Topics raised serious concerns last Friday for Newcastle's monolith - also known as the Obelisk.
With mysterious monoliths having appeared then disappeared in the Utah desert and Romania, we recommended a police guard for the Obelisk.
The police didn't heed our call and look what happened.
This very real and factual photo - which first appeared on the Memewhile in Newcastle Facebook page - shows the Obelisk has vanished.
Oh well, guess we should start a conversation about what will replace it. We could opt for an exact replica of the Obelisk, but where's the fun in that?
Perhaps a statue of Andrew Johns?
Lady Luck
The concept of luck and COVID-19 came up on Saturday in a letter to the editor.
In commenting on the NSW government's major easing of COVID-19 restrictions last week, a Herald editorial from last Thursday noted that the easing of restrictions internationally had resulted in the virus returning strongly.
The editorial added that it hoped that our "luck - if that's the word - holds until December 25".
A letter writer responded on Saturday by writing: "It's not luck but good management by all the authorities that were involved in keeping us safe".
This brought to mind the research of Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2002. We mentioned Kahneman's work in Topics on Monday.
Kahneman has a favourite equation: Success = talent + luck. Great success = a little more talent + a lot of luck.
Kahneman's research has shown that the difference between moderate and great success is mostly luck, not skill. Chance plays a much greater role than we might think.
We can, of course, make decisions to minimise the influence of bad luck on our lives. But lady luck is real. She's a product of the random universe. Some people, though, think greater forces are at work. Which brings us to the subtext of our next piece on festive baby names.
Jesus and Mary
The most popular festive-themed baby names of 2020 are ... drum roll ... Mary and David.
Why not Mary and Jesus, you ask?
Well, Jesus was ranked fifth in a somewhat dubious list of the top 10 festive baby boy names. Michael was second, followed by Joseph and Emmanuel. [What about Santa or Ebenezer?]
In the top 10 festive baby girl names, Gloria came second, Angel fourth and Carol fifth. [No Mrs Claus? And why does she have no Christian name?]
Coming in at fourth was Karen. Karen initially sounded a bit secular to us, but we read that it does have biblical origins. We do know a Catholic family who named their kids David, Peter and Karen.
Of course, nowadays the name Karen carries on its shoulders the colossal weight of white entitlement in all its enormous entirety. That's quite a weight to carry.
