DINNER PARTY INTEL: Gauteng aims high for its crime wardens

1. Aiming high

The Gauteng department of community safety is willing to pay over the top to get its “crime wardens” (premier Panyaza Lesufi’s amaPanyaza) packing heat. The DA came across a tender to buy the wardens 124 pistols for R9.7m (about R78,000 each). Even at your upmarket arms bazaar, that number of nine-mills would come to just over R2m, whereas a Glock can be bought for about R17,000.

2. Right word, right time

The FM’s cryptic crossword-solvers can measure themselves against Mark Goodliffe, 59, who took just under five minutes to win one of the world’s most challenging puzzles, The Times crossword. The 116 contestants were whittled down to five with Goodliffe beating Chloe Hutton, 27, by seconds. For Goodliffe, who runs Cracking the Cryptic, a crossword channel on YouTube, it was his 13th victory.

3. Hits and misses

Judging by baseball caps there are a lot of New York Yankees fans about. But how many are aware the team is in the World Series this week? The Yankees are up against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who began life in the Yankees’ city as the Brooklyn Dodgers, a name that was shortened from the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers because pedestrians on their way to the ball game had to avoid being hit by the then newfangled electrified trams.