Little faith in alcohol sales ban for a day

ON Friday last I entered a supermarket to purchase some groceries.

When I attempted to enter the off-licence section to purchase a bottle of wine I was prevented from doing so by a childlike barricade made of cardboard boxes held together with tape. A notice on the barricade proclaimed the purchase of alcohol was forbidden because, apparently, some god or other, with the full backing of the State, did not approve.

On enquiring from a staff member I was informed that the State only enforced laws for this particular god as all other deities were relative newcomers. The staff member was unable to say if or when the State might become a real republic.