..smile and a good word for everybody does not qualify, I’m sorry. I’m talking about real charisma, the sort that makes a room fall silent and the hairs rise at the back of your neck. Politics is a fertile ground for charismatics – and, of course, now that I’ve used that particular derivation of the…
..writ large on it, followed by the Australian Government logo and the various logos of the sponsoring medical-type partners along the bottom – or maybe the sponsoring is on the other foot, it being a government project. I guess I’m inclined to do the poo test. My sister Ann was on my case last time…
..simple, but in any case I’m generally pleased with the result. It seems that a lot of second-guessing has been replaced with an instinctive but apparently reliable certainty about what is required and how to get it. I don’t know if it’s a style exactly, but it’s a good starting point. No thought yet as…
.. footnote as it’s not at the bottom of the page ) there are some interesting parallels with another of my favourite movies ‘Ikuru”, the far more understated yet more touching work, by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. If I have any regular readers they may, hopefully, have realised that I am not a…
.. a nice fellow but he spent too much time playing football without a helmet.” Not that being on the wrong side of clever means all that much as it is apparent that most people can be convinced to believe anything no matter how ridiculous. You may be with me in thinking that anybody who…
..whip like appendages slaying the peaceful denizens as they listen to the passing traffic in the early morn. They only thing that I am sure of is that they will be flowers. In fact there are a lot of surprises at the moment as one forgets where one has planted bulbs and tubers and, at…
..in place. The fact that the country was a democracy, beholden to the separation of powers, was regarded as an inconvenience to be circumvented by any means. The law and the legislature were routinely ignored by hiding activities behind a wall of secrecy justified by legal opinions that were never revealed to those who asked….
..the family when I was a little boy. I think camping’s the present-day manifestation of men’s need to talk to Nature – and perhaps for Nature to talk back. It’s safer in this case to have Nature represent God and I think that most blokes would be comfortable with the communing with Nature metaphor. ‘Going…
.. sound of rain relentlessly thundering down on my roof – and filtering down through the loungeroom ceiling into my now inadequate symphony of pots and pans and thudding damply onto the attractive pooh-brown carpet. I realised that I was far too annoyed to go back to sleep, and concluded that the light was only…
.. Paris and Spain, to which end Dick purchased the latest in trendy back packs, which he proudly showed me on the night I visited them recently in Warrandyte. (See Dick’s Toolbox). I said it looked very fine, but one should be careful when wielding such an item in polite society, and told him this…
Mike’s Pith & Wind cont. Fortunately, the musty halls of every single-sex (male) secondary educational institution that ever was, haunted as they inevitably are by variously amusing and resentful, but universally misogynist masters, taught us impressionable acne-faced boys that we could exact a subtle, but satisfying revenge on womankind, employing the very weapon our mothers…
..even a craze. Remember crazes? I was gardening in my garden that could pass for a jungle the other day and The Ballad of Davy Crockett infiltrated my brain and I started to sing the story of Davy Crockett so well known to every American and Australasian child of the era; Born on a mountain…
But not for me, however, given that the few tools I had possessed unique migratory habits, flying with the Terns and Godwits to Siberia and beyond; this would leave Bunning’s unique selling proposition looming very large and very empty. Which leads me to Christmas and the inevitable “Wadja wunt” (which is etymologically related to “Emma…
.. tastes embrace the elegant and refined, she still prides herself on being able to spot a bargain. Understandably she’s been hassling me for quite a while about the medieval trackie pants and a few weeks ago she spotted some bargain trackies coming up in Aldi. Aldi. Aldi was unknown to me before she and…
..socio-economic status of the students. Private schools send all their problems to State schools where teachers cope with extraordinary generosity of spirit. Most of the time. But this, perhaps not too tangentially, brings to my attention the absurd amounts that CEOs of large corporations are paid, which is both disproportionate and absurd in relation to…
.. is a Canadian citizen and Matt Canavan is an Italian citizen, claim that they did not know that had dual citizenship. Waters was born in Canada and moved to Australia as an infant. After Scott Ludlum, also another Green Senator discovered that he not actually given up his ability to carry both and Australian…
..dollars a year to launch ships, entertain foreign dignitaries, tour the colonies and open fetes. The Royals worth as an English tourist attraction is greater than Stonehenge – which has endured a lot longer – or Big Ben – which has the benefit of being somewhat more timely than the House of Windsor. Perhaps there…
Bearing in mind this is taken out of context, here’s what Michael Marissen had to say on the subject in his discussion with John Kleinig and Robin Leaver – I think you’ll get the gist: I mean there are two kinds of texts that people are uncomfortable with these days, no matter what their background….
..where you might be going. A period, or even a singularity, when one realises that this is as good as it gets. When you have achieved the right balance between youthful folly and the wisdom of age – a brief moment in time – such as when Goldilocks found the best porridge, chair and bed…
..rampant sodomy and a political career. If there is a difference. As a consequence of a life in a chilled climate body surfing in Victoria seems almost like dipping in thermal springs. As a society we have transitioned from sports players to sports voyeurs. With the rise and rise of sport as entertainment more and…