THE World Bank's new office is drawing some interesting attention. A German couple

showed up at the office recently and was wondering if they could get a cash advance.

 

Remember that tall skinny American gal named Robin McDowell. She is now a mom.

Her son Ty was born six weeks ago in New York City. No word yet on who the lucky

father is.

If you are thinking of buying the "Bacon Strips" at Lucky Market, don't

expect to get some hickory-smoked, kind of Jimmy Dean whatever. What you will get

are the thinnest, boneless porkchops available on the market today. They are not

bad if you are into Lean Cuisine-but bacon, not quite.

The Water Festival witnessed another kind of competition besides that which took

place among the boat crews. Missionaries were out in force distributing Khmer-language

copies of the Word to anyone who would take it. One group was the Ahmadiyya Muslim

Association extolling the teachings of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, purported to be

the Imam Mahdi as prophesied by Mohammad. Their brochure was titled "The Mahdi

and the promised Messiah has already come". Another group from the New Hope

Baptist Church was passing out a leaflet entitled "From the True God".

Both groups had clear warnings for sinners: "Anyone who is not afraid of sin

will die and not live," say the Muslims; "If a human denies [to accept]

God, he will be punished," say the Baptists. There is no clear estimate on the

numbers of converts achieved during the Festival push, but if the tonnage of discarded

pamphlets littering the Quai Sisowath was any indication, much work remains to be

done by the missionaries, which hopefully next time includes lending a hand to clean

up the paper.

The DC&A Law firm next to the Tex-Mex restaurant near Independence Monument

has a new take on the concept of judicial reform. The Scales of Justice in their

logo are not balanced.

One more Water Festival footnote. One boat, sponsored by an expat - including

the provision of entry fees, transport, accomodation, t-shirts, food, and gifts to

the rowers' home villages - was doing so well after the second day's heats that an

interloper intervened and said the boys had to change kit and row for him. The initial

sponsor was left ticked off, the lads in the boat confused and the result was a dismal

final run. Some of the rowers trundled back home vowing never to return.