Nutters I have Met. Part 1.

OK so I'm cheating a little bit. I posted the following tale on a discussion group that I'm a member of and have decided to copy and paste it here. It's just one of those weird things that happens to you from time to time when you are a journalist.

It dates back to the time (late 1999) when the then Chch City Council manager Mike Richardson had created a bit of a media firestorm over a few comments he'd made about the Second Coming, the millennium, and how all the sports facilities the Council had developed would make perfect landing spots for the Heavenly Host as well as great places for mass Baptisms

I'm sitting in the office one afternoon, busy trying to get my head around all this, when an elderly gent in rather impeccable 1970's formal attire wanders into the office and starts bending my ear about Mr Richardson and his relationship with God. Yours truly, thinking he was speaking to a member of the same religious group, asks the man if he was an acquaintance of Mr Richardson.
"Oh no, no, no" said the old fellow rather genially. "I just know Mr Richardson is wrong in his belief that God will come to Christchurch with the dawning of the millennium".
I couldn't help myself and asked him how he could be so sure of this.
He gave me a gentle smile and said;
"My son, I've been here since 1974"


It turned out he'd written his own Bible and everything. Definitely one of my more memorable moments in journalism.