Nothing's quite as certain as change

Would I be wrong if I assumed you had heard the Firesign Theater comedy record "Everything You Know Is Wrong"? That was the 70s album with the skit about everything we think we know being all wrong. You can hear side 'A' here and side 'B' here to learn facts such as "Dogs flew space ships! The Aztecs invented the vacation! Men and Women are the same sex! Our forefathers took drugs! and Your brain is not the boss!" 

And they claim the 70s were ten lost years!  Balderdash!

Now, if you keep your wits about you, you'll learn all sorts of interesting things.  Things change! They almost have to. For instance, also in the 70s, the Minnesota Vikings had a pretty good wide receiver named Bobby Moore, and then I didn't hear his name any more, and I wondered what happened to him, since he was apparently replaced by a guy named Ahmad Rashad. Finally, someone took me aside (remember, this was all before the "World Wide Webs") and told me that Moore had converted to Islam, taking the name Ahmad Rashad, which means "Admirable one led to truth" in Arabic.

I bring this up to warn all students of world geography that the country in Africa known until recently as Swaziland is now to be called the Kingdom of eSwatini.

The country is ruled by Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, who celebrated turning 50 the other day by changing the name of the country.

The flag did not change.

When you're the absolute monarch of a country, you can do these things.

His objection to calling the nation, which is smaller than New Jersey, "Swaziland" was that people all over confused it with Switzerland, in the amusing manner of American postal workers who believe New Mexico is a foreign country, like Alaska.

But outside of being landlocked and mountainous, the countries have very little in common, so now it's eSwatini in Africa.

Of course, if the Swiss had any sense of humor, they could quickly change their name to "eSwitzerland," but it ain't gonna happen.  And don't look for a change back anytime soon, either. King Mswati took over the throne 32 years ago from his dad, Sobhuza II, and he had reigned for 82 years.

Mswati has 15 wives and an equivalent number of mothers-in-law. There are prices to be paid.