Yesterday a friend of mine mentioned that she had gone into a store that was playing the song “Those Were The Days” by Mary Hopkin, and that the song had become lodged in her head. Because this is what one does, I looked up the song on Wikipedia. Of all the factoids the article has, by far the most bizarre was this:

On Christmas 1975, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macías Nguema, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed in the national stadium while a band played Those Were the Days.

Errrr…….

The Wiki article on Nguema has a little more info:

During Christmas of 1975 he ordered about 150 of his opponents killed. Soldiers dressed up in Santa Claus costumes executed them by shooting at the football stadium in Malabo, while amplifiers were playing Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days”.

Errrr…..

Africa seems to be the place to be if you are a weirdo-bizarre nut with delusions of divinity. In the US, the best you can do is sic the IRS on your political opponents.

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