Gnat, camel. Camel, gnat.

From time to time Mr Gnome rolls his eyes in wonderment at the giddy antics of Human Beings.

Take this weekend's events in Moscow.

On Saturday, the city's police broke up a small-scale demonstration by a group of thirty, soberly dressed gay-rights activists. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkhov has reportedly described gay parades as 'satanic'.

Meanwhile, in an other part of the city, preparations were in full swing for the evening's live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest, that annual fandango, not especially noted for its restraint, moral seriousness and sequin-free costume design.

So the teeny-weeny demo gets walloped. And the zillion-rouble extravaganza of wigs, glitter and deleriously dodgy backing dancers (check the uber-kitsch Roman legionaries) gets the city's blessing and imprimatur.

As Puck murmured to, er, the King of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream: 'Lord, what fools these mortals be!'

Or as Someone else remarked: ' You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!'