"For the last time, George, if you don`t do as you`re told, we`ll have to invade you."

A MERRY MINUET..

It`s reported today that the last of America`s most powerful nuclear bombs has finally been dismantled after 50 years `service.`   The B53 was capable of releasing nine megatons of energy - 600 times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.   It was so powerful that it was capable of inflicting lethal burns on anyone within 18 miles, destroying all buildings within nine miles and could even penetrate to 230 metres underground.

So, good riddance.   But it did remind me of living through all those years ago when the threat of nuclear devastation was very real and the tensions and futility of MAD (mutually assured destruction) were only relieved by resorting to a kind of gallows humour.   One of the best examples was the Merry Minuet, composed by Sheldon Harnick and popularised by the Kingston Trio.   It went like this:-

They're rioting in Africa,they're starving in Spain.

There's hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls,
The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles;
Italians hate Yugoslavs, the Yugoslavs hate the Dutch,
And I don't like anybody very much!

But we can be tranquil and "thankfill" and proud,
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off,
And we will all be blown away!

They're rioting in Africa,
There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man!

Whilst the prospect of nuclear annihilation may have diminished, there are threats of a different kind confronting the world today and I can`t escape the feeling that, as mankind continually fails to learn the lessons of history, an updated version of the Merry Minuet might be timely.