'A tent, a tent, my kingdom for a tent!'

My favourite dictator continues to hog the headlines. Even as the noose tightens around the Gaddafi regime's remaining loyalists, the man himself seems to be as elusive as ever. So, with apologies to The Scarlet Pimpernel:

They seek him here, they seek him there.
The new leaders, they seek him everywhere.
Is he in Heaven, is he in Hell?
Where's that elusive Gaddafi, pray tell.

One regime loyalist, after escaping to Niger, suggested that Gaddafi was somewhere in the vastness of the Sahara desert, and added: "He could last in the desert for years. He likes the simple life, under a tent, sitting on the sand. He is guarded by a special unit made up of family members."

There is one well-circulated joke about what happened when the famous fictitious detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr Watson, pitched tent one starry night. Perhaps it happened in the Sahara, and Gadaffi was lurking about...

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson were on a camping trip. They pitched their tent under the stars and went to sleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes woke Watson up and said: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see." Watson replied: "I see millions and millions of stars."

Holmes said: "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replied: "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."

Then Holmes said: "Watson, you idiot! This is what I see and deduce: Somebody stole our tent."

Note: Holmes is supposdly legendary for his ability to not just see, but to observe and deduce.

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My fascination with Gaddafi goes back to the 1980s! Here's the link to an article I wrote, and which appeared on Page 14 of ST on 5 Sept 1985:

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19850905.2.34.aspx