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The concept of time
Happy Sunday {{first_name}},
2026 has dished up many surprises, but our bingo cards didn’t include a raging debate on social media about the margin of safety a plane needs above the roof of a stadium.
Did Airlink take an unacceptable risk with tens of thousands of lives for the sake of brand clout, or will this be chalked up to a milestone moment for our country?
That debate is nowhere near settled yet, but thankfully we have a different angle to focus on this morning: the time of arrival of those planes. You see, they knew exactly when to get there. Without the invention of time, that wouldn’t be possible.
It’s very unlikely that any flat earthers are Ghost Mail readers, so we will take it as a given that you know about the shape of the earth. This created interesting challenges in explaining what the “time” is in different towns. When the railways were invented, this was a problem that suddenly needed to be solved.
With the industrialisation of the economy came the advent of time, as brilliantly explained by Dominique Olivier in her latest column.
Moving on, Airlink isn’t the only brand that knows how to cause a stir. As Dominique explains below, AngloGold made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange with the help of a cat. A particularly large cat.
Finally, the Fast Facts are themed around doing anything for attention. From elephants on a bridge to a KFC logo visible from space, there’s plenty to entertain you.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)
Who decided it was time?
The time you see on your watch or your phone wasn't handed down by the heavens.
It was set by people who wanted trains to run on schedule, and it has been running your life ever since.
Dominique Olivier tells the story of the invention of time itself.
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A roaring debut
TL;DR: Most companies ring the NYSE bell with a handshake and a photo. In 1998, AngloGold had an alternative idea.
On the 5th of August 1998, AngloGold made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange - the first South African company in history to do so. It was a big moment for both the company and our country.
Most companies mark this milestone with a handshake, a photo by the bell, and a press release.
AngloGold arrived accompanied by a live African lion named Arthur.
Arthur, who was a nod to the lion on AngloGold’s branding, was roughly 230 kilograms of mane, teeth and claws. He stretched out on the balcony above the trading floor while NYSE chairman Richard Grasso and CEO Bobby Godsell rang the opening bell. By all accounts he took it in stride, gazing down at the traders below him like a monarch mildly bored by his subjects.
His handlers hovered nearby, just in case, although one does wonder what exactly they would have done if Arthur decided to jump off the balcony and help himself to a snack. We know about bulls and bears in the markets, but lions are something else.
The 90s really were a different time. You can see a video of the big moment here.
No-one got eaten by a lion at the NYSE on the 5th of August 1998, and AngloGold was so proud of their stunt that they put a photo of Arthur in their 1998 annual report.
To mark their five-year anniversary on the NYSE in 2003, someone on the marketing team had a bright idea. The plan allegedly involved six promising young AngloGold employees who would join the CEO on the floor. One of them would ring the bell, while the other five would each hold a lion cub.
Five cubs for five years, to symbolise growth and the company’s commitment to nurturing young talent.
On paper, it’s a neat little metaphor. But then the trail of that story goes cold. The plan is documented, but the execution is not.
There is no photo and no record that five cubs ever crossed the trading floor. Maybe five years is all it took for people to decide that live predators (even tiny ones) don’t belong on the trading floor. Or perhaps the company didn’t want to distract the market from the pending merger with Ashanti.
We will never know.
Dominique’s Fast Facts - “Anything for attention”
When the Brooklyn Bridge opened in New York in 1883, British circus magnate P.T. Barnum marched his troupe of elephants across it, allegedly to prove that it was sturdy and safe for the public to use. Of course, he generated lots of press for his circus in the process.
To launch his appearance at the Dubai Desert Classic in 2004, organisers had Tiger Woods hit practice shots from the helipad of the world's tallest freestanding hotel, the Burj Al Arab (that’s the one that looks like a sail). Woods was perched 321 meters high on a suspended disk, with no safety nets or barriers, and was (reportedly) paid between $1 million and $2.5 million for this stunt and its accompanying promotional work.
As part of their rebrand in 2006, KFC built an 8,129sqm Colonel Sanders logo in the Nevada desert and billed it as the first brand advertisement visible from Earth's orbit. One wonders what the point is of making astronauts crave KFC. Spacewise 2, anyone?
In 2005, Snapple tried to market their new line of frozen treats by erecting the world’s largest popsicle in Times Square. It was almost 8 metres tall and weighed over 15 tonnes. Unfortunately for Snapple, the summer heat was more intense than they anticipated and their popsicle started to melt before it was even really put in place. The result was that parts of lower Manhattan were flooded with sticky strawberry-kiwi flavoured juice. The stunt was called off when the fire department was forced to cordon off the area.
In 2025, Taiwanese phone-case maker RhinoShield decided the best way to prove its product could survive a fall was to give it the longest fall physically available. Together with a UK aerospace firm, they strapped a phone into one of their cases, sent it up by balloon to more than 30 kilometres above northern Sweden, and dropped it. The phone survived, earning a Guinness World Record, and was recovered intact - though only after the team spent five hours combing the Arctic tundra near Kiruna to find it.