During the week, Bantu women work in the studio, the wives of farmhands, who are free to come and work when they want to. In their bright blue-and-pink kopdoeks (head scarves), they lend a colourful note to an already colourful scene.

The skeletons in this sport’s hitherto unsuspicious closet belong to upward of a dozen top-notch show jumpers, all insured for $50,000 to $250,000, all killed by a hitman-for-hire in an insurance-fraud scheme perpetrated by some of the most sterling names in the business.

One offshoot of this new narcissism is “egosurfing,” in which one searches the Internet for information about oneself. A company—egoSurf—was created especially to do this.

There are who say the sonnet's meted maze Is all too fettered for the poet's powers, Compelled to crowd his flush and airy flowers Like pots of tall imperials, ill at ease.