Pyramids

4

A reference to the concept of twin cities.

Following the horrors of the Second World War, and in the spirit of egalitarianism and common feeling for our fellow men which prevailed at that time, it was decided that the best way to cement bonds between the people of the world so that they would never ever even consider dropping big noisy things on each other again, was to have every town, village and (apparently) cowshed in Europe ‘twinned’ with an equivalent one which had previously been on the other side.

With these new-found unities, the merry laughing people of Europe would engage in fraternal and sporting activities, school-children would go on two-week exchange visits to discover that they couldn’t stand sauerkraut, and the respective mayors of the towns would be able to present each other with touching and expensive symbols of international friendship and get in the local paper all on other peoples’ money.

The most visible effect of this accord is the presumptuous little legend under the sign at the entrance to towns and villages saying “Little Puddlebury — twinned with Obermacht am Rhein”. Some towns (Croydon springs to mind) got a little over-enthusiastic about twinning, with the result that they are coupled to several towns, which makes the sign saying “Croydon welcomes careful drivers” look reminiscent of a seventeen-year-old’s jacket at a Guns n’ Roses concert.

You may — or may not — care to know that the UK town of Cowes has a twin relation with the New Zealand township of Bulls.