the size of Bermuda.

One of her intimates, who works in a dental surgery, is regretting letting her good manners slip recently after being cut off by an inconsiderate motorist on her way to work.

As the driver veered in front of her the piqued gal made a single digit gesture which left nothing to the imagination.

So you can imagine her mortification when her first patient of the day turned out to be that very motorist.

And to make her embarrassment complete, he was also a man of the cloth.

It would appear Government has to do a little bit better in reassuring all these poor little rich bosses about new rules and regulations on work permits and race reporting in the workplace.

Hot on the heels of the shock announcement from BELCO boss Garry Madeiros that he thinks Government is doing a little less than a stellar job in keeping Bermuda afloat in a sea of overseas greenbacks, one expat CEO -- no, not that expat CEO -- has made his own position clear.

He told Hester at a recent gathering of the glitterati: "If Bermuda was the Titanic , I'd be thinking about heading for the boat deck about now.'' Anyone would think we'd elected a bunch of communists. Luckily, the average member of the House of Assembly probably thinks Marx had brothers and worked in the movies and Engels might be....ah, people from Engeland.

Former US Consul General to Bermuda Bob Farmer -- who got the plum post after raising pots of money for Democratic presidential candidates Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton -- appears to be a poacher turned gamekeeper.

In the prestigious (not as prestigious as The Royal Gazette , of course) New York Times, the one-time king of cash called for campaign finance reform in the wake of revelations on how money is raised for presidential elections.

Mr. Farmer -- dubbed one of the "fathers of soft money'' -- raised cash from individuals for party funds which ends up backing the Democratic ticket and gets around direct contribution limits of $1,000 to presidential candidates.

He now runs a hi-tech firm in Miami and is out of the professional fund-raising game.

And he decried political leaders who now devote more time to wheedling money out of the well-heeled than taking care of the people's business.

Mr. Farmer declaimed piously: "It's outrageous. They are all spending all their time on the phone asking for money.'' But Hester remains sanguine at the prospect of politicians -- most of whom, in her opinion, couldn't be trusted in a proper job anyway -- chasing money.

At least, if they're doing that, they're not concentrating on dreaming up new and dafter laws, increasing taxes or toying with the idea of launching all-out nuclear wars... ...But luckily, the art lovers of Bermuda apparently lack the new-found piety of Mr. Farmer -- and have no intention of starving to death in garrets.

In a speech yesterday to Hamilton Lions, National Gallery director Laura Gorham spoke of the problems -- and cost -- of expanding the country's collection of fine art.

There is, however, always a solution. Ms Gorham said: "Where there's a will -- we want to be in it.'' Hester's English friends -- and strange as it may seem she does have some -- fondly remember 1980s documentaries about the disaffected youth or "yoof'' as they often described themselves.

Various incoherent teens would complain about how angry they were, how things were very bad and how something needed to be done.

So cringe-making were these films that many viewers could only watch them while cowering behind a sofa, while satirists found a rich vein of material.

But if it is a dead art in England, it seems that ZBM is single-handedly trying to revive the format over here.

On Friday night's bulletin the "yoof'' were angry and promising to get even angrier.

By Monday they were positively livid -- indeed one chap was capable only of talking in biblical quotes.

Hester says something must be done -- otherwise by next week she'll have to invest in a new and bigger sofa.