“Ah wasn’t going and come noway,” he said, waving his hand above his head and waving it in that curly Indian dancer way, “buh ah glad ah change mih mind. The boys make mih happy.” There was a tassa band heating up the place at the corner of Taylor Street …
Read More »Can Government weather the coming storm? Best fires one at the PNM
Time was when, if yuh neighbour house on fire, yuh used to throw water on your own. Not anymore, not in politics anyway. Nowadays, if yuh political neighbour house on fire, yuh does throw pitchoil. I thought that was the hidden message in an unpublished letter sent to Wired868 by …
Read More »Pen in school, Minister Garcia? Best honours brother who fathered the writer in him
I couldn’t believe my ears. Had the radio just said that the Minister of Education was planning to start instruction in panmanship in the nation’s schools? Had someone finally seen the light after all these years, just as the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies was launching a week-long …
Read More »Usain cyar Bolt in fetters! Best on mas, media and more mistakes
Some people will stop at nothing to bring a good man down; many of them are in the media. Ask soon-to-be former NCC chairman Kenny De Silva who decided to resign after reading an editorial in the Express. Or current Pan Trinbago president Keith Diaz who has decided NOT to …
Read More »Is Greatest Show on Earth not far from finished? Best’s 2017 Carnival post-mortem
A litany of whoa! But we jamming still! Bacchanal, synonym of and the default rhyme for Carnival, has been part and parcel of the national festival for donkey’s years and controversy and comess have been its consistent companions. But this year was ‘diss’ year; everywhere you looked in 2017, it was disaffection, …
Read More »Algebra, not arithmetic; Best returns to Chalkdust’s ninth win to get his sums right
My friend AJ is not a trained calypso judge, the only ones able, according to now nine-time Calypso Monarch Chalkdust, to judge the annual calypso competition fairly. So I really don’t know if AJ’s view that “Chalkdust should be somewhere in the middle of the field”—shared with us on our …
Read More »Darren and the IPL: Best examines links between Bravo, Pooran, Lara… and the media
It brought Garry Sobers to the verge of public tears in Sri Lanka in 2015. Wherever Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh and Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards are in the world, it is almost certain to bring them to private tears. And it will make cricketing knights Frank Worrell and …
Read More »Dimanche not so gras! Best casts critical eye; says why he preferred Karene to Chalkie
Not to take anything away from the 2017 winner, Dr Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, the now record nine-time champion, the results of last night’s Calypso Monarch competition simply do not add up. And as the dissatisfaction with the organisers and complaints about the quality of the show multiply—as they are almost …
Read More »Sing, Valentino, sing: Earl Best’s send off to departing Trinidad Guardian sport editor
I can see it still in my mind’s eye. “Life is a stage / and we are the actors; / Everybody have a part to play. / Like a never-ending movie / with all different characters, / each of us have a role to portray.” It is the mid-to-late 1970’s. …
Read More »If Pelé could play, who is Pappy? Best ‘oohs’ about Shiva Boys wonder goal in South final
In last week’s South Zone Intercol final, an SSFL midfield general scored a last-gasp “jaw-dropping” goal so audacious that for me it invited a comparison with the peerless Pelé. And this from a commentator who, in his most recent Wired868 offering, lamented the absence of genuine quality in the SSFL …
Read More »Shooting blanks: Best bemoans lacklustre SSFL, recounts past glories
Wired868 editor-in-chief and CEO Lasana Liburd is a conman and, if he’s not careful, he may end up in jail. Or, if Dame Fortune smiles on him, in the UNC. I say that because I have been reading the stories that appear here about the Secondary Schools’ Football League (SSFL). …
Read More »Bard women; fickle goddesses: Best considers dynamics of Calypso and her women
It is 2016. Do you know where Jean and Dinah are? And why? It says a lot for the Mighty Sparrow that sexagenarians and teenagers alike—and all the age-groups in between—often answer that question in the affirmative. Round de corner posing; bet yuh life is something dey selling… In Calypso …
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