Open Thread – Wed 27 Dec 2023


The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, 1512

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Dot
Dot
December 28, 2023 9:01 am

hzhousewife
Dec 28, 2023 8:44 AM
“Would wild sheep be parasite ridden?”
Just think about it…….why do farmers drench sheep?

Yes and I’ve heard about how nasty the old dips were.

It makes me question the safety of any game meat I’ve eaten alongside how foolhardy our ancestors may have been.

What did we do before dips? If an American hunts Doll Sheep, are they not harvested for meat? Surely a good QA process in a commercial game slaughterhouse can look after these issues?

I was looking forward to trying camel steak one day. The NT has a menagerie of delicious, exotic pests. It would be a shame if they were verboten.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 28, 2023 9:02 am

LOL.

Gaza’s fraught future needs a UN-led Marshall Plan (Paywallian)
RON FINKEL AND JAMAL RIFI

In the aftermath of the war, the key to success lies in the nexus between direct administration and a well-structured plan for an economically and socially viable Gaza.

Um, guys, one of the key requirements for the Marshall Plan was for the Nazi Party to be banned. So unless you can ban Islam on the Gaza strip you are just setting the place up to be bombed back to rubble again when the Islamists inevitably do their usual schtick.

Indolent
Indolent
December 28, 2023 9:04 am

Andrew Lawrence

Disgrace to the nation.

Dot
Dot
December 28, 2023 9:04 am

Households are set to be slugged more than $2500 “upfront” and businesses almost $31,000 to connect to the gas network from 2025, as a push to wean Victoria off the popular resource accelerates.

It’s amazing this ALP mob are so popular. It has killed many jobs in the resources and energy sector. Bass Strait should be booming, BHP etc were willing to invest hundreds of millions if not billions in the past couple of years and into the future in new drilling and wells for gas and oil.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 9:10 am

There are no faceless men. Only Wong.

The Wong chap would agree with some of that statement.

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
December 28, 2023 9:11 am

Tintarella 27/12 @ 3:36
Not old fashioned but classical.
Every boy likes a hat on a girl – it’s elegant.
Stiletto heels are in – I am catching up on the last season of suits and Katherine Heigel is wearing stilettos ? with a roller suit case in a car going cross country.
All the girls in that show are classical looking , it’s what they say is the issue.

Louis Litt
Louis Litt
December 28, 2023 9:14 am

Wolfie
What is happening at Wolves 2 big wins in a row.
They are moving right up there. Makes the season really unpredictable.
BTW – in your opinion – are the Saudi and Chinese leagues dragging foreign players away with more English players comming through the EFL?

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 28, 2023 9:14 am

Gaza’s fraught future needs a UN-led Marshall Plan

Keep UNWRA out of Gaza.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 28, 2023 9:15 am

The Wong chap would agree with some of that statement.

Soon to have a wife.

Joy as Penny Wong set to wed long-term partner (Tele, paywalled)

The Labor veteran is set to tie the knot at long last after becoming a champion of Australia’s same sex marriage movement.

I would put “wed” and “marriage” in quotes since neither is true in God’s sight.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 9:17 am

So I am back after spending Christmas with my sister and BiL. And their kids. And their mutt.

It has taken years but I have finally been able to get my BiL to understand that it is best to avoid politics. There are usually a few abortive openings from him when I visit but by keeping my mouth shut they dissipate in the wind like a fart.

I wouldn’t say that he is an omnivorous consumer of news, more herbivorous – listening and watching the ABC, only going to NYT and WaPo and the BBC when the ABC bids him do so.

So he steadily grazes on ABC fodder, ruminating long on its low nutrition cud, content, mentally fatted, and with not the least glimmer of an apprehension that one day those who keep him on the farm will choose to let him and his kind be slaughtered to feed the latest progressive cause.

So to this Christmas. He opened, fretting the terrible predicament the world finds itself in: two Presidential candidates near 80 years of age. I pointed out that it was not the age, but that one of them was seemingly mentally compromised – I felt I could venture that much as it is a point that has been raised on the left as well. To this he responded that Trump was hopelessly corrupt. That caught me off guard for a moment. The left have repeatedly tried that but after almost a decade they have not been able to prove a single case. The current thing is accusations of fraud in NY where the judge declared guilt immediately the trial opened and before evidence submitted. But here I was interpreting via the wrong strategy.

It was in fact projection. Accusing Trump of what Biden is doing, and may well soon be found guilty. So this will provide a subsequent defence that it was an absurd thing to hold against Biden when Trump is also corrupt. It suggests that the left feels Biden is sufficiently vulnerable to the accusations as to warrant a new gaslighting campaign.

FWIW, I merely airily responded that I read things differently. My BiL took the hint. Unlike progressives I do not believe everything is political and only political. (Is there anything a leftist won’t reduce to politics? Humour, food, hobbies, even who you love!) I can get along with progressives okay because I see them as more than their politics. It is a faintly heretical leftist who can do the same.

My BiL is actually a nice guy, he makes my sister happy, he has raised a couple of good kids, and he is a gracious host. And we get along overall.

And, ultimately, I will again have a chance to quietly gloat, as I did when Mueller turned out to be a nothing burger (my BiL had been so excited at the prospect of Trump in an orange jumpsuit, even when I suggested reigning his enthusiasm in a little as nothing that had been leaked had been accompanied by actual proof – just a wishlist of things for Trump to be found guilty.) I smiled inwardly every time he stayed silent where he would earlier have been effusive.

In similar vein I noted that they (He and my sister) are finding the idea of identity politics a joke, and also now thinking that the neighbour’s son suddenly identifying as a girl as being a psychological response to the crumbling of his parents marriage and the strain on all relationships (husband, wife, and children) of divorce, rather than liberating and brave.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 9:18 am

Essential checklist for Christmas EV road trippers

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 9:19 am

Victoria – why would you bother?

Households are set to be slugged almost $2400 “upfront” and businesses almost $31,000 to connect to the gas network from 2025, as a push to wean Victoria off the popular resource accelerates.

The plan by the state’s energy regulator would replace current rules that allow for network connections to be paid back over time through network charges on bills.

It comes alongside a looming ban on connections in new housing estates if they require a planning permit after January 1 next year.

Herald-Sun

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 9:19 am

yes, I have land. Good land it is too. Rich red Basalt soil that will grow anything. The main problem stopping me from having a horse is, no yards of any kind. Even if I agisted or adopted an old horse that just needs love and care, I need somewhere to be able to secure a beastie if I want to feed, ride, treat and simply check up on. My days of chasing horses and ponies around paddocks are long over.

Pogria! We are one of a kind. Yep – I was horse mad as a kid & teenager. I fretted so much when my family moved to Sydney that they allowed me to get a horse. In those days the outer suburbs where we lived still had old poetry farms & vacant land, so I had “Blaze” for years until I began university. He was then retired to where the Badgerys Airport is being built & spent his last days there. I hadn’t seen him for years after I married & bought my then 3 year old to see him. The owners couldn’t believe it when I walked straight up to him, bridled him & bought him back to the house where I saddled him & put my daughter on his back. They had never been able to get near him.

Everyone asks why I don’t have a horse at our farm. It is not that easy. They must be shod regularly & ridden to keep them used to being ridden – few horses are like my old horse. Besides, although I am fit, there is just too much work in grooming, & tacking. And I have enough work to keep me busy, as well as my daily long walk. And quite frankly, cattle have replaced my affection for horses. They are far more intelligent and interesting than most people imagine.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 9:24 am

And in more news about the Wong chap:

Foreign Minister Penny Wong is set to wed her long-term partner Sophie Allouache after years of hard-fought reforms to legalise gay marriage.

The high profile and intensely private Labor frontbencher shares two daughters with Ms Allouache, who she met nearly 18 years ago in 2006.

The celebration of their partnership has thrilled long-term friends and supporters, with the wedding expected to be attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Health Minister Mark Butler and former SA Premier Jay Weatherill.

Herald-Sun

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 9:25 am

bons
Dec 28, 2023 8:42 AM

I saw the phrase “Labor’s faceless men” again yesterday.

There are no faceless men. Only Wong.

Ah! Then that would be Labor’s dickless men.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 9:25 am

Snap Bruce! How’s your cruise going?

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 28, 2023 9:26 am

Valid questions to ask. Hun:

A Jewish former international cricketer says he supports Usman Khawaja’s push to wear a dove symbol on his bat but has questioned whether the Australian opener has only been moved by the plight of one group of victims in the Middle East conflict.

Mandy Yachad, an opener who played in South Africa’s first one-day international series after readmission in 1991, is also one of only a handful of known Jewish cricketers to have reached international level.

An observant Orthodox Jew, Yachad – who also represented his nation in hockey – told this masthead that he was an advocate for Khawaja’s desire to state his position publicly, however queried whether Khawaja had felt as strongly about the Israelis killed by Hamas terrorists as the Palestinians killed by Israeli reprisals.

“I totally respect and support Usman Khawaja’s right to express his views and particularly as the symbol he has chosen is the universal symbol of peace (for which we Jews pray many times a day in our prayers) and having regard to his statement that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,’” Yachad said.

“I trust and hope, based on Khawaja’s stand for human rights and equality of lives and his statement about his daughters (namely that ‘when I’m looking at my Instagram and seeing innocent kids, videos of them dying, passing away, that’s what hit me the hardest…I just imagine my young daughter in my arms …’), that he felt the same way, in his personal bereavement, about the tens of innocent children (and hundreds of others) who were slaughtered, burnt, mutilated and taken hostage in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.

“Or is it only now, when as a consequence of the conflict which arose as a result of that barbaric attack that, unfortunately, Palestinian children are being killed, that he is expressing such views?”

Khawaja has stressed that his request to don messages on his apparel during the Test series against Pakistan has been based on humanitarian grounds rather than a partisan approach to the Israel-Hamas war, in which more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry, after more than 1000 Israelis were killed in the initial October 7 massacres.

The first Muslim to play Test cricket for Australia, Khawaja posted an Instagram video on the eve of the Perth Test after his initial request to wear shoes with humanitarian slogans written on them in Palestinian colours was knocked back by the ICC.

“What I’ve written on my shoes isn’t political, I’m not taking sides, human life to me is equal. One Jewish life is equal to one Muslim life, is equal to one Hindu life, and so on. I’m just speaking up for those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja said in an emotional message.

He also tweeted during October that there were “innocents on both sides suffering unfortunately. Particularly those being starved of food and water. There has to be compassion. #humanity.”

However Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley hinted that the fact Khawaja’s initial application had been related to the Middle East situation, and in particular the fact Khawaja had been outwardly pro-Palestinian in his position, contributed to the ICC’s subsequent rejection of his attempt to wear stickers of a dove with an olive branch during the Boxing Day Test.

Khawaja posted another video on Monday night in which he sought to call out the ICC’s perceived double standards in allowing the likes of Marnus Labuschagne to display religious symbols and references on their apparel while denying his request.

But the fact that Khawaja chose the music of musician Ye (formerly Kanye West) – who had aired anti-Semitic remarks in 2022 – as the backing track to his social media video, raised eyebrows within the Jewish community.

Ye coincidentally apologised on Wednesday for his past antisemitic remarks.

Hockley told SEN on Wednesday that he felt the dove was inoffensive.

“The ICC has rules I think they are there for good reason and we have to respect that,” Hockley said.

“For me. It was the process it was understanding what Uzzie wants to say and I think what was clear is that it was nonpartisan, apolitical, non-religious, that he is a real passionate believer in human rights and he will continue to advocate over his own channels and we will continue to support that.”

Wonder what Labuschagne thinks over having his name dropped into the conversation?

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 9:28 am

“Australian” killed in Lebanon was Hezbollah fighter.

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 28, 2023 9:29 am

https://www.firerescue1.com/lithium-ion-battery-fires/ala-ffs-use-36-000-gallons-of-water-on-tesla-fire

Given that this vehicle fire was out in the open, and the recognised propensity of EVs to reignite repeatedly until all the remaining energy in the battery is discharged, why did they put it out at all?

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 9:33 am

The AFP news agency ­reported that Hezbollah had ­declared Ali Bazzi was one of its ­fighters.

Yet his family said he was such a nice, quiet boy.

Perhaps ASIO could divert some funding from their neo-Nazi program to keep an eye on this extended family, who have already demonstrated they are willing to lie for their cause.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 9:33 am
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 9:33 am

Israel warns Hezbollah chief: you’re next
Staff writers
Staff writers

Israel has warned the head of Hezbollah that he will be their next target.

After an Israeli airstrike killed Razi Moussavi, a senior general with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard earlier this week, Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen told Israel media that Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanon terror group “must understand that he is next”.

Mr Cohen said Hezbollah had to respect a 2006 UN ceasefire and withdraw from Lebanon’s border with Israel, the Times of Israel reports.

He said Israel would “make the most of diplomatic options,” but warned: “If that doesn’t work, all options are on the table.”

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 28, 2023 9:38 am

Just think about it…….why do farmers drench sheep?
Because it has a health outcome which justifies the expense and effort.
I have a very deliberate grazing regime, smallish mobs, highish density, long layoffs between footfall. If you’re running a feedlot, then you’re sitting on top of your load, and yep you’ll need to think about a wider and hotter prophylactic regime.
Like I say again and again to Organic wankers, pesticides, herbicides, vermicides do not come for free, and I do not twiddle my thumbs wondering what to do with all my spare time.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 9:39 am

A problem aired is a problem shared; that’s my motto

A problem shared is now a problem two people have

Quite so. Those in the know will recognise it’s a proverb.
When a hairdo blocks your view, sharing the problem might entail its solution. Alternatively, you may wish to look before you leap – another proverb.

The thing about proverbs is there is often one to support the exact opposite verity too. In this regard, my faves are ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ and its opposite truth ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Born of human experience, proverbs are pieces of wisdom you can select as you see fit, knowing someone’s been there before you.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 9:42 am

I was going to suggest the Sydney Anglican diocese reunite with the Catholic Church but I think it’s best to wait for a new Pope.

Many of their key doctrines are antithetical.

The Sydney Anglicans are decidedly Protestant.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 9:45 am

Proverbs can also used just a leetle bit tongue-in-cheek.
Because they’re proverbial. 🙂

Cassie of Sydney
December 28, 2023 9:46 am

“What I’ve written on my shoes isn’t political, I’m not taking sides, human life to me is equal. One Jewish life is equal to one Muslim life, is equal to one Hindu life, and so on. I’m just speaking up for those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja said in an emotional message.

He lies.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 9:46 am

ICC’s perceived double standards in allowing the likes of Marnus Labuschagne to display religious symbols and references on their apparel while denying his request.

What was Labuschagne doing? Never heard of it.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 9:47 am

Just think about it…….why do farmers drench sheep?

To pre-shrink the wool so people don’t get angry when they wash their jumpers and discover they no longer fit.

Same sort of thinking that has created species of boneless chickens – on the farms they are scattered on the ground or draped limply over fences going ‘buk-buk-buk’ all day.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 28, 2023 9:47 am

shares two daughters
It’s the satanism which bugs me. This human being is not a meal, or a doll.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 9:49 am

I’m just speaking up for those who don’t have a voice,” Khawaja said in an emotional message.

They have plenty of voices in support, Usman.

Stop virtue signaling to your co-religionists and stick to cricket.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 28, 2023 9:50 am

Households are set to be slugged more than $2500 “upfront” and businesses almost $31,000 to connect to the gas network from 2025, as a push to wean Victoria off the popular resource accelerates.

The plumbers and gasfitters will NOT be happy about this.

I wonder what the union bruvvas have to say about this.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 9:51 am

What was Labuschagne doing? Never heard of it.

He apparently has a small eagle on the toe of his bat, a Biblical symbol.

ICC rules forbid any political, religious or racial symbolism to be displayed by players.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 10:02 am

They are far more intelligent and interesting than most people imagine.

I used to milk our home cow, Old Lady, every morning before school when I was thirteen. She was a lovely old Jersey cow, very obedient, affectionate and passive. Putting my head into her belly while I milked her soothed away a lot of emotional upsets in my home life. My dad had a herd of eight Ayrshire cows for his hobby dairy on rented land, representing his life’s savings while we were left broke, without proper care. They were extremely ‘highly strung’ prolific milkers, intemperate beasts, one of whom used to go seriously moonstruck on full moon nights. I didn’t like them at all.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 10:03 am

Unwra head hunches know all their on the ground staff in Gaza are Hamas.
Obvious to blind Freddie.
As for banning islam in Gaza?
That’s like saying islam has to be banned worldwide.
Sure it would be nice if islam disappeared of its own accord but that’s not going to happen.
It is possible to bring peace to Gaza, but first hamas has to cease to exist.
In any case as the latest Aussie citizen deaths attest, even given all the opportunities provided in Australia some people still prefer to die for their death cult.

Cassie of Sydney
December 28, 2023 10:04 am

At least we Jews can laugh at the “Jesus was Palestinian”.

Please watch and laugh, very clever, from an Israeli comedy programme, uploaded in the last few days…

The Gospel According to Berkeley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcLCe5iBvVc

Ayatollah Khomeini once said….”there is no humour in Islam”. In contrast, there’s lots of humour in Judaism!

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 10:05 am

Oh he does indeed lie, timing is everything.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 10:06 am

You mentioned newly appointed Archbishop of Brisbane Jeremy Greaves, Cassie.

He is a heretic and a hypocrite who at his consecration mouthed vows to uphold Christian doctrines he has already publicly stated he does not believe.

He is of the same mould as the “progressive” bishops of the CofE and the (Anglican) Episcopalian Church in the US who have driven their dioceses onto the rocks of schism and an interminable decline into irrelevance.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 10:09 am
Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 10:09 am

It’s the satanism which bugs me.

Gay marriage = Death spiral. When certain taboos get abolished…….you know the rest.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 28, 2023 10:11 am

rosie

Dec 28, 2023 10:05 AM

Oh he does indeed lie, timing is everything.

Khawaja claims his little protest was an all encompassing plea for peace.
Coincidentally chose the colours of the Pally flag for his little slogan.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 10:18 am

Thanks for that little tale above, Mother Lode. I’m sure it is something that plenty here can find sympathies with, some having experienced similar things this Christmas during festivities. Hairy brother in England has similar TDS. Trump lies every day, he tells Hairy. Ok, name one of his ‘lies’ then, challenges Hairy. Challenge is not taken up.

WolfmanOz
WolfmanOz
December 28, 2023 10:19 am

Cassie of Sydney
Dec 28, 2023 10:04 AM
At least we Jews can laugh at the “Jesus was Palestinian”.

Please watch and laugh, very clever, from an Israeli comedy programme, uploaded in the last few days…

The Gospel According to Berkeley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcLCe5iBvVc

Ayatollah Khomeini once said….”there is no humour in Islam”. In contrast, there’s lots of humour in Judaism!

British and Jewish humour are the 2 best IMO. Both infinitely varied and very funny.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
December 28, 2023 10:19 am

Gaza’s fraught future needs a UN-led Marshall Plan

Those tunnels won’t just rebuild themselves.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 10:21 am

In contrast, there’s lots of humour in Judaism!

Shit ton. List is endless, but in my time Seinfeld is the best. Probably many Jews involved with Simpsons. Mad magazine had that New York Jewish vibe. Never missed an edition for around five years.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 10:24 am

Interesting the hamasasses narrative has shifted from there aren’t any tunnels but if there are Israel built them to Gaza has the right to build tunnels and it’s none of your white supremacist business!

Frank
Frank
December 28, 2023 10:25 am

As far as fashion goes, pin stripe trousers pair well with a shapely female undercarriage IMHO.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 10:25 am

Hairy’s brother, apostrophe ‘s’, that is.

Speaking of whom, we had our usual Christmas face-time with them and very jolly it was. The adult kids have taken over responsibility for cooking the turkey, which hasn’t happened at ours yet, we moan. They meet our three overnighting grandchildren, and my sister-in-law, in her cut-glass tones, asks them if Father Christmas came last night. The kids stare blankly back at her. Santa Claus, I say to them, tell Aunty Toff (not her real name) what Santa brought you.

The old Yule Father (you know who) still rides his Nordic reindeer sleigh across Britain on Christmas Eve for the toffs, superseded even there though by Santa for the masses.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 10:25 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcLCe5iBvVc

That’s early morning tea and a new keyboard you owe me..

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 10:35 am

We also had an excellent call from up-state New York for Christmas day, on their Christmas Eve. My nearly fourteen year old visitng grandson had gone to bed, but his American mother and her father were there to say hello. She is an ardent anti-Trumper and we eschew all political discussion (by mutual agreement thrashed out long ago), but her father, a tenured professor and in the 60’s a leading student Marxist rebel, is now an ardent Trumpist Republican. We’ve meet and he knows we are similar. He immediately gave us his views on the horrors of Biden and the debacle on the Southern Border as well as on the economy and Israel.

Looks like she’s got the same agreement with her dad, says Hairy later, because that guy was clearly sick of holding his tongue with her.

Winston Smith
December 28, 2023 10:43 am

Cohenite:

Tulsi’s hatred of the demorats is visceral and given her military background potentially lethal. She’s also a nuts and bolts sort of gal and while Trump is creating world peace and prosperity she can be busy slitting throats.

She’s a Trojan Horse and will do to Trump the very same thing that Pence did.

will
will
December 28, 2023 10:43 am

Yesterday, along with a very loud “crack” I became the proud owner of a tiny, but effective, water pistol (needless to say I immediately filled it and started annoying my family). It will come in useful later in the week when the grandies arrive. I know, for all their expensive Christmas gadgetry, they will want “turns” on my Christmas cracker pistol. Stay tuned for developments. ?

an ideal Xmas present on Xmas day is water pistols for all. Hilarity ensues.

will
will
December 28, 2023 10:45 am

That especially includes all adults

Indolent
Indolent
December 28, 2023 10:49 am

This Is Terrorism, Not Protesting’: Pro-Hamas Mobs Block Roads Near JFK, LAX Airports

For some reason, federal law enforcement never seems interested in following that trail to see who’s behind organizing (and funding) this kind of thing.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 10:50 am

One for Wolfman & other film buffs:

The artistic case for historical accuracy

Indolent
Indolent
December 28, 2023 10:52 am
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 28, 2023 11:01 am

I’ve already thought of three jokes which aren’t SFW so I’ll say nothing more.

‘Ecosexual’ woman embarks on ‘erotic’ relationship with oak tree (27 Dec)

Sonja Semyonova, 45, said that the feelings she experiences with the oak tree are what she has always sought in a human.

“I had been craving that rush of erotic energy that comes when you meet a new partner and that is not sustainable,” she explained, according to the Daily Mail.

The increasingly weird nature worship lately is quite something. Maybe someone should build a ring of stones and have nature dances in it at the height of summer.

areff
areff
December 28, 2023 11:03 am

Rog, for a piece about historical accuracy in films, that essay doesn’t set a very good example. It says, for example, the film’s ice battle was at Moscow; in the flick it wasn’t.

The point it gets right is that Scott’s four-hour director’s cut will have even more time to pile in even more inaccuracies, misrepresentations and flat-out inventions.

Don’t waste your money on Napoleon, the movie that asks us to believe, amongst other absurdities that smooth bore Brown Bess muskets could be fitted with telescopes and used for long-range sniping.

Good Lord it’s a crock of a film.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 28, 2023 11:12 am

areff

In that era, rifled muskets were used by specialists, such as the British 95th Rifles, later the Rifle Brigade and the 60th Rifles, later the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 11:14 am

It was always Father Christmas here in Australia for us hoi polloi, I don’t know when St Nick took over but I suppose he has.
Funny when Father Christmas is much more secular.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 11:15 am

Don’t waste your money on Napoleon…

I haven’t wasted money on a fillum in years, areff.

I suppose it’s a sign of the general decline of historical & cultural knowledge that filmmakers imagine they can easily get away with such absurdities as Scott offers up in Napoleon.

local oaf
December 28, 2023 11:15 am

Mad magazine had that New York Jewish vibe. Never missed an edition for around five years.

I grew up without TV, but read MAD diligently from the late 50s onwards.

I innocently thought that words like putz, schlemiel and furshlugginer were just how Americans talked. 🙂

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 11:17 am

It was always Father Christmas here in Australia for us hoi polloi…

There may have been some regional variation in nomenclature, rosie.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 11:21 am

All power to the girls in tanks and the many others that fought and died on 7 October but they aren’t being put on the front line in Gaza, and rightly so.
Israel have bowed to US requests and aren’t softening up the south as much as the north, as a consequence Israeli lives are being sacrificed for Gazan ones.
Of course it’s still a genocide.
this

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 11:23 am

I agree Roger you northern have some funnie expressions.
Long live the potato cake!

Winston Smith
December 28, 2023 11:26 am

Dot:

It’s amazing this ALP mob are so popular. It has killed many jobs in the resources and energy sector. Bass Strait should be booming, BHP etc were willing to invest hundreds of millions if not billions in the past couple of years and into the future in new drilling and wells for gas and oil.

It’s because there are way too many people who are divorced mentally and emotionally from how our society works, and how cooked food gets to their plates.
They will only learn when it goes to shit.
Which will, of course, be far too late.
That will be a case of ‘tough titties’.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 11:26 am

Roger
Dec 28, 2023 11:15 AM
Don’t waste your money on Napoleon…

I haven’t wasted money on a fillum in years, areff.

I suppose it’s a sign of the general decline of historical & cultural knowledge that filmmakers imagine they can easily get away with such absurdities as Scott offers up in Napoleon.

Just watch Waterloo, the 1970 film – Top Notch –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DcWJrzK0wU

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 11:28 am

there’s lots of humour in Judaism!

Yeah local oaf, Putz and Schmuck were part of our teenage vocabulary.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 11:37 am

Santa Tracker being a bit late as there are now over 8 billion people to deliver to –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3KmA-WecUc

local oaf
December 28, 2023 11:45 am

Love the Simpsons episode in which Bart visits MAD head office and is told by a receptionist, “this is just a place of business, there’s no craziness here”.

Disappointed and about to leave, he’s reassured to see Alfred E Neuman, surrounded by crazy antics, appear in a doorway and yell to the receptionist “get me Fonebone and Kaputnik, and where’s my furshlugginer pastrami sandwich?”

Winston Smith
December 28, 2023 11:45 am
alwaysright
alwaysright
December 28, 2023 11:45 am

Households are set to be slugged more than $2500 “upfront” and businesses almost $31,000 to connect to the gas network from 2025, as a push to wean Victoria off the popular resource accelerates.

AND just to make the war on gas even more insane, the area I live in is having its gas mains replaced. This has been going on for a year or so and is still ongoing. Lots of digging up up of roads, roadsides and footpaths.
The reason* for the replacement is to provide higher pressure gas mains to service the increased demand for gas.

The anti-gas people are insane, deliberately destructive, or both.

*according to the guys I spoke to

Winston Smith
December 28, 2023 11:52 am

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/donald-trump-jr-says-hed-go-to-great-lengths-to-stop-haley-as-vp-pick-5553797

Taking note of Ms. Haley’s rise in the polls, Mr. Trump Jr. predicted that, if chosen as vice president, Ms. Haley would attempt to “destroy Donald Trump from within.”

She’s a smooth talking plant of the establishment in Washington.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 11:53 am

WolfmanOz
Dec 28, 2023 10:19 AM

Very well said Wolfman and the Wolves are on a roll in the EPL. Good for them.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 28, 2023 12:04 pm

Ecoworship news.

‘Rights of nature’ are being recognized overseas. In Australia, local leadership gives cause for optimism (27 Dec)

As each day passes, the need to protect Australia’s environment grows more urgent. As noted in the most recent State of Environment Report in 2021, we are increasingly turning to “measures of last resort” to prevent species extinctions and the collapse of ecosystems.

In legal theory, the “rights of nature” acknowledges all Earth’s natural elements as having an inherent right to exist and flourish.

Conferring ecosystems with rights is one strategy we can use to prevent species extinctions and ensure a “voice” for nature.

I can’t wait for the Voice for nature to collide with the Voice for the rainbow serpent and the Voice for land rights. I wonder if anyone else is allowed to have a Voice?

Here’re who these academics are:

Alexandra McEwan
Lecturer: Law, CQUniversity Australia

Michael Hewson
Senior Lecturer Geography

Rolf Schlagloth
Koala Ecologist, CQUniversity Australia

The koala Voice is ascendant Cats, be afraid. On the other hand shutting down UCQ seems like a nice way to save some money.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 12:04 pm

We watched Maestro on Netflix last night, and we enjoyed it. Against the Cat grain there, I am afraid, but we clued into its very New York vibe, its Jewishness, and its theatrical culture as something we recognised as New York’s golden era of music and style, spanning the 40’s 50’s and 60’s, which swept Bernstein to destructive excess in the dissolute 1970’s. For Jewish Leonard Bernstein was a man of those times, a closet bi-sexual as many ‘theatricals’ were, in experimental times for music and sexual expression, where the New Theatre and Martha Graham’s high culture of dance melded with the low culture of the streets, taking Bernstein’s operatic West Side Story as its apotheosis. The use of Bernstein’s own highly varied compositions throughout was well done, the cinematography was superb and the evocation of each period spot on with costuming and sets.

The love story between Bernstein and Felicia, his actress wife and mother of his three children, was the link holding the progression of the period imagery together, as Felicia gave way to Bernstein’s creative moods and homosexual adventuring. Some might feel that Bernstein, the man and his motivations as played by Bradley Cooper, was rather superficially presented, but I felt the vivid social context of his life that permitted his search for freedom from various demons in his nature was far more important in explaining his work than his philosophising about it.

That context was best done for me in the evocation of the 1940’s, that formative period of generous naivety and post-war liberation, and no-one could fault Cary Mulligan’s portray of Felicia as she and Bernstein fell into love, as men and women do. No gayness there. Shades of Amor Towel’s fine novel of New York’s immediate pre-war and wartime period, The Rules of Civility, came to mind for both me and Hairy in that. For the later part, as Bernstein’s famed conducting and some of his own compositions set the musician into his frame, especially in the grand cathedral cacophony of full-blast Mahler, we move on from this to see his descent into substance abuse and the loss of Felicia and his marriage.

Hairy thought the gay scenes too much, adding nothing of value, but I disagree. What they showed was par for the course. The end scenes, reminiscent of the similarly bi-sexual Cole Porter as portrayed in the movie De-lightful, showed a husband grieving his adored wife and, for Bernstein, a father comforting their children for her loss. Nothing wrong with that. In summary, it was a movie presenting the now-recessing cultural essence of New York to New Yorkers. The vibe that was. It didn’t show Radio City and the Rockettes, the Flat Iron building or the Brooklyn Bridge but you knew they were part of it anyway.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:06 pm

I agree Roger you northern have some funnie expressions.
Long live the potato cake!

You mean the potato scallop.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 12:10 pm

local oaf
Dec 28, 2023 11:45 AM

Love the Simpsons episode in which Bart visits MAD head office and is told by a receptionist, “this is just a place of business, there’s no craziness here”.

Disappointed and about to leave, he’s reassured to see Alfred E Neuman, surrounded by crazy antics, appear in a doorway and yell to the receptionist “get me Fonebone and Kaputnik, and where’s my furshlugginer pastrami sandwich?”

LOL. Yes. Probably the funniest stuff ever, the old MAD. Harry North Esq. was my favourite.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:11 pm

We watched Maestro on Netflix last night, and we enjoyed it. Against the Cat grain there, I am afraid…

You know, Lizzie, I wouldn’t mind watching that.

I saw the film version of West Side Story as a kid (just about the only musical I’ve ever liked if you discount Dennis Potter’s forays into the genre) & I’ve appreciated Bernstein’s talent ever since.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 12:12 pm

You mean the potato scallop.

Weirdo.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
December 28, 2023 12:14 pm

the potato scallop

As in ‘escalope’
A cake is dough & other stuff all mixed in a bowl, then baked in an oven.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:21 pm

Weirdo.

See Sal’s reference.

If you persist thereafter with “potato cake” I shall have to dub thee a recalcitrant yobbo.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 12:24 pm

Roger
Dec 28, 2023 12:11 PM
We watched Maestro on Netflix last night, and we enjoyed it. Against the Cat grain there, I am afraid…

You know, Lizzie, I wouldn’t mind watching that.

I saw the film version of West Side Story as a kid (just about the only musical I’ve ever liked if you discount Dennis Potter’s forays into the genre) & I’ve appreciated Bernstein’s talent ever since.

Just Romeo and Juliet USA’n style. Copy Cats.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 28, 2023 12:27 pm

LOL. Yes. Probably the funniest stuff ever, the old MAD. Harry North Esq. was my favourite.

And Spy v Spy.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 12:28 pm

I shall have to dub thee a recalcitrant yobbo.

That was Paul Bleating, boyo. And he was and still is a yobbo. An ALP yobbo as well.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
December 28, 2023 12:28 pm

Nothing a kid likes better than a packet of deep fried escallopes.

Tom
Tom
December 28, 2023 12:29 pm

If you persist thereafter with “potato cake” I shall have to dub thee a recalcitrant yobbo.

Me, too, please, Roger.

Never let anyone tell you there is no difference in the culture of the Australian state tribes.

On the southwest Victorian coast as kids, we woofed down potato cakes, flake and chips after a swim in the surf at Lorne.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:31 pm

Just Romeo and Juliet USA’n style.

Most things in culture are adapted or borrowed.

Shakespeare himself borrowed the plot from an Italian tale.

The notion of the “genius” producing art sui generis is a myth of the Romantic period.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:32 pm

Nothing a kid likes better than a packet of deep fried escallopes.

For 20 cents!

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 12:32 pm

Really appreciate your links re Israel/Gaza, Rosie. Many thanks.

That poor sad mother re her son, such a fine sensitive-looking young man.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 12:33 pm

Started re-watching West Side Story again last night.

It’s still excellent in music and dance. The script is very much 1950s, Daddy-O, but that’s when it’s set. Lighting and sets still look good.

Funny the things you notice watching for the 10th time or whatever it is. There’s no band in the dance at the gym scene, but no record player either, although it would have needed much more volume than possible. A PA would have done it, but who had them for teenage dances then? Whoever the band was for that scene, they played their hearts out with excellence. Lovely brass section.

Have not watched the 2021 remake as didn’t want to get annoyed. Like a new version of the Mona Lisa. Same with Brideshead Revisited.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
December 28, 2023 12:33 pm

Hamas out for a duck 2nd ball.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 12:35 pm

Potato scallops, battered savs, fish cocktails. And…just to be fancy, a prawn cutlet.

All wrapped in newspaper.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 28, 2023 12:42 pm

Khawaja gorn, two pills into the Strayan second innings. Zero runs.

Tell your ‘humanitarian’ story from waaaay back in the sheds, champ.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 28, 2023 12:42 pm

Tom @ 12:29 pm

Wearing Togs, or bathers, or costumes?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 28, 2023 12:42 pm

Snap BT.

Zafiro
Zafiro
December 28, 2023 12:43 pm

Roger Avatar
Roger
Dec 28, 2023 12:21 PM

Weirdo.

See Sal’s reference.

If you persist thereafter with “potato cake” I shall have to dub thee a recalcitrant yobbo.

I didn’t see Sal’s comment.

Anyway I used to work at the roadhuose in old home town. Western Vic. Maori shearears. Men and Women.

“Hey Bru, cook us some of them potato bakes. hey?”

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 12:44 pm

Cozzies.

Anything else is not a genuine garment for swimming.

Tom
Tom
December 28, 2023 12:45 pm

Wearing Togs, or bathers, or costumes?

Togs.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 12:46 pm

Eeeeeeew! Tom wears TOGS!

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:46 pm

Cozzies.

Anything else is not a genuine garment for swimming.

When you went on holidays, did you pack them in your suitcase or your port?

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 28, 2023 12:47 pm

Gorn

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 12:48 pm

Port.

Only the very posh would say “portmanteau”. 😀

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 28, 2023 12:48 pm

Port Shirley only in Queensland

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:50 pm

Port.

Interesting!

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 12:53 pm

Not so, Peter. I had a Globite port for school, the sort with the timber bead that you could attach elastic to for holding the raincoat (remember them?).

Even now, I tell the Beloved to fetch the ports from the carousel while I mind the other stuff and he looks at me as if I’ve spoken Swahili. It may be because of my tradie family rather than state.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 12:56 pm

I saw the film version of West Side Story as a kid (just about the only musical I’ve ever liked if you discount Dennis Potter’s forays into the genre) & I’ve appreciated Bernstein’s talent ever since.

There’s not a lot of West Side Story in Maestro, although my musical Hairy did pick out faint elements of its ‘Tonight’ theme as Bernstein is shown composing his Mass.

Movement of ethnic groups in and through the NY city slum areas was part of the story of those times. Reflected in West Side Story. Bernstein was a do-gooder of course, Democrat, but also a strong supporter of Israel, played in Tel Aviv etc.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:56 pm
Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 12:58 pm

There’s not a lot of West Side Story in Maestro…

No matter.

WolfmanOz
December 28, 2023 1:02 pm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Dec 28, 2023 12:04 PM

Fine review Lizzie – might be worth watching then.

flyingduk
flyingduk
December 28, 2023 1:02 pm

Khawaja gorn, two pills into the Strayan second innings. Zero runs.

Tell your ‘humanitarian’ story from waaaay back in the sheds, champ.

Ive not been following closely, but didnt Uzzie want to display ‘all lives matter’, and isnt opposition to this a BLM position?

Tom
Tom
December 28, 2023 1:04 pm

SBS’s “Viceland” channel is regularly replaying a three-hour version of the Indian Pacific’s journey from west to east.

It’s the cheapest documentary footage ever filmed with no script or dialogue apart from occasional radio chatter from the driver/s or intercom messages from conductors.

SBS is using the footage as filler, but it’s among the least annoying uses of this expensive government money pit.

As the train moves through the outback from the Nullabor Plain to the Blue Mountains, the lack of dialogue leaves a hole filled only by the human imagination.

It’s utterly mesmerising. On as we speak on channel 31 (Foxtel channel 170).

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 1:05 pm

Interesting, Roger.

I can confirm that, where I grew up, I was one of the “cool” kids!

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 28, 2023 1:05 pm

Calli @ 12:53 pm

Thank you for the correction.
I am now better informed.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 1:07 pm

Wow. That took exactly zero minutes to give me a downtick.

I own you, you low level halfwit.

Now go have your grandpa nap. You’ve earned it.

WolfmanOz
December 28, 2023 1:07 pm

Johnny Rotten
Dec 28, 2023 11:53 AM
WolfmanOz
Dec 28, 2023 10:19 AM

Very well said Wolfman and the Wolves are on a roll in the EPL. Good for them.

Today’s result was their best away win in the top flight for 43 years !

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 1:09 pm

The point it gets right is that Scott’s four-hour director’s cut will have even more time to pile in even more inaccuracies, misrepresentations and flat-out inventions.

I can’t drag Hairy to see it either, areff. I argue that Napoleon is of another genre to anything seriously historical, it’s a grand historical make-over, a fantasy of sorts. It from the same mould as Gladiator, which has little to do with Marcus Aurelius/Commodus, and in an earlier generation, similar to Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra. Not serious.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 1:09 pm

calli
Dec 28, 2023 12:44 PM
Cozzies.

Speedos for my hot body at 71 years young. Still got that wash board tummy.

All the fat bastards can wear board shorts and T shirts to cover their fat arses and fat bellies. LOL.

Junior Cretin included – Fat short arse/Big Nose that she/it/whatever/trannie/lady boy is that is……LOL.

Martin Armstrong agrees as well. Ha, ha, ha, ha,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 1:12 pm

I am now better informed.

Maybe not. Children no longer have school “ports”, exchanged for backpacks long ago. They’ve gone the way of the satchel. And the dodo.

And, being me, I tend to hold on to old words like old friends. So, while I call suitcases ports, just about everyone around me, apart from my parents, do not. My own children would look puzzled and think technology rather than luggage.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 1:15 pm

Tom
Dec 28, 2023 1:04 PM
SBS’s “Viceland” channel is regularly replaying a three-hour version of the Indian Pacific’s journey from west to east.

You can still watch it on SBS on Demand and it is brilliant TV. And the fog and mist around Lithgow and Mt Victoria on the way into Sydney.

I loved it when one of the American ladies said that she thought that it would be all desert – And was surprised that there were so many trees.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 1:20 pm

Ive not been following closely, but didnt Uzzie want to display ‘all lives matter’, and isnt opposition to this a BLM position?

If “all lives matter” why the Palestinian colours?

Be that as it may, as far as the ICC is concerned it’s an unapproved political protest statement and that is forbidden.

Presumably there’d be a clause in Khawaja’s Australian contract to the effect of abiding by ICC rules.

John Brumble
John Brumble
December 28, 2023 1:20 pm

I see the Aus quicks went back to bowling pies on the legs interspersed with ego-boosting (and Pak average boosting) mis-directed bouncers this morning.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 1:21 pm

Knuckle Dragger
Dec 28, 2023 12:42 PM
Khawaja gorn, two pills into the Strayan second innings. Zero runs.

Tell your ‘humanitarian’ story from waaaay back in the sheds, champ.

All those ‘Sandpaper Gate’ cheats should have been banned for life from Test Cricket. They could always go to India to make money and cheat and gamble.

Boambee John
Boambee John
December 28, 2023 1:25 pm

Via Bruce of N

“As each day passes, the need to protect Australia’s environment grows more urgent.”

Indeed. The damage being caused by the spread of wind and solar factories and the associated transmission lines is massive.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 1:30 pm

Indeed. The damage being caused by the spread of wind and solar factories and the associated transmission lines is massive.

Not to mention the environmental impact of mass immigration.

pete of perth
pete of perth
December 28, 2023 1:40 pm

Our family of 7 caught the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney in Dec 1979. The flatness of the Nullarbor was amazing. Went first class with compliments of the RAN. Dad was posted to the Vampire.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
December 28, 2023 1:46 pm

All I know about Albo is that Australia was never 4/16 against the `Ghans when Abbot was PM.
Somehow I blame Albo.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 1:46 pm

Fine review Lizzie – might be worth watching then.

Thanks, Wolfman. It’s clearly not top of the pops here though. 🙂

Watch it if you like New York and its musical traditions woven into a tale of love that goes wrong. Limited as a biopic, but still highly watchable for the ambience of its times.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
December 28, 2023 1:47 pm

/sub / Ghans / Pakis

Apologies to Pakistan

The Beer whisperer
The Beer whisperer
December 28, 2023 1:51 pm

I wonder what the union bruvvas have to say about this.

Their place is to vote for Labor and STFU.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 28, 2023 1:53 pm

Dunno what’s going on here at the MCG?

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 1:53 pm

pete of perth
Dec 28, 2023 1:40 PM
Our family of 7 caught the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney in Dec 1979. The flatness of the Nullarbor was amazing. Went first class with compliments of the RAN. Dad was posted to the Vampire.

I first did the journey in November 1983 on my way back from my 7 months of travelling parts of the World. I had my birthday on the train over the Nullarbor on the way back to Sydney. Then these three old ducks bought me a bottle of champers to celebrate my birthday and one of them was trying to set me up with a younger relative. A female I might add. LOL. I respectively declined.

Happy days.

Roger
Roger
December 28, 2023 1:58 pm

Their place is to vote for Labor and STFU.

Ask Bill Shorten how that worked in 2019.

Even rusted-on unionists get a bit antsy when you suggest you’ll take their jobs away.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 2:00 pm

Only the very posh would say “portmanteau”. ?

Portmanteau?

That is a made up word, surely.

local oaf
December 28, 2023 2:12 pm

I can confirm that, where I grew up, I was one of the “cool” kids!

‘My school was so tough, you could have a reign of terror with a balloon on a stick’

Ronnie Corbett iirc

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 2:12 pm

We wore cozzies.

Mother was ever resolute in her pronouncement that togs were indelibly plebeian.

Pshaw!

I shall now sup on cucumber sandwiches and drink cups of tea with raised pinky.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 28, 2023 2:14 pm

Straya 4/27. Excellent.

Midget cheat got a bottom edge onto the stumps trying to pull a ball from outside off stump, which is a sure sign he’s misjudging the rising ball.

Travis Head got an absolute seed. The Paki dudes are hooping it.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 2:19 pm

Maybe not. Children no longer have school “ports”, exchanged for backpacks long ago. They’ve gone the way of the satchel. And the dodo.

In all fairness have you ever tried pushing a 4-ring binder down the neck of a dodo, then tried to get it walking with you to school.

Every morning was the same. “Lode? You finished washing dishes? Time to drag the lifeless neck-snapped flightless bird to school?” My mother would say.

Surprised they did not go extinct.

C.L.
C.L.
December 28, 2023 2:33 pm

Me and my mates carried Shanghais and togs in our ports.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 2:34 pm

Since it may have been missed, portmanteau is a portmanteau, where the French word for ‘to carry’ (porter) was rammed with unceremonious violence against the French word for ‘cloak or mantle’ (manteau).

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 2:36 pm

Impressive, CL.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 28, 2023 2:38 pm

Schools in Qld in the 1980s all had “port racks” for the kids’ bags outside the classrooms.

They also had “little lunch” for recess, and the high schools had a “senior mistress” as one of the vice-principals.

Dunno if they still do.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
December 28, 2023 2:40 pm

The full interview is up. This should be interesting.

—-

Avi:

The interview they WARNED Neil Mitchell against in 2023

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 2:52 pm

I shall now sup on cucumber sandwiches and drink cups of tea with raised pinky.

I used to do that but now my raised pinky is with several G and T’s. Tea is so boring these daze.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 28, 2023 2:54 pm

Knuckle Dragger

Dec 28, 2023 12:42 PM

Khawaja gorn, two pills into the Strayan second innings. Zero runs.

Tell your ‘humanitarian’ story from waaaay back in the sheds, champ.

Oh, my wordy, Lordy yes.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 2:57 pm

When I started school I inherited my mother’s brown leather school satchel which was possibly a hand down to her, my brother had a boy’s one from my uncle that you wore like a backpack.
I used to chew the strap end on what felt like a very long walk to school when you were five, probably about 600 metres.
Secondary school at age eleven it was a two handled bag I think you were supposed to carry elegantly by your side, while holding up your always slipping too big pantyhose (winter and summer when I started along with gloves and blazer, no matter how warm it was in summer)and on to your schoolhat,
but everyone slung them over their
shoulder especially when carrying the ‘Web of life’ in form six. The uniform standards had slipped a little by then.
No wonder I ditched all those accoutrements as soon as I was able.

Crossie
Crossie
December 28, 2023 2:57 pm

Tulsi’s hatred of the demorats is visceral and given her military background potentially lethal. She’s also a nuts and bolts sort of gal and while Trump is creating world peace and prosperity she can be busy slitting throats.

She’s a Trojan Horse and will do to Trump the very same thing that Pence did.

It’s the same sort of speculation that was indulged in during John McCain’s candidacy where there was a strong rumour that he would pick Joe Lieberman as his VP. Lieberman had left the Dems due to an internal and not that he suddenly discovered conservatism let alone an affinity with the Republican Party.

Tulsi Gabbard would be best as a regular commentator on Fox where she can’t do any damage

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 28, 2023 3:00 pm

Steve trickler

Dec 28, 2023 2:40 PM

The full interview is up. This should be interesting.

Or not.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
December 28, 2023 3:06 pm

Sancho Panzer

Porn star name.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 3:06 pm

From the Hun. Good luck serving your time in a military gaolhouse..

YOUNG ISRAELI MAN JAILED FOR REFUSING MANDATORY SERVICE

A young Israeli man has been jailed for refusing to join the army.

Tal Mitnick, 18, has been sentenced to 30 days in military prison for refusing to enlist in the army in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The teenager becomes the first conscientious objector imprisoned in this war and he could serve even more prison time if he continues to refuse to enlist.

“Violence cannot solve the situation, neither by Hamas nor by Israel. There is no military solution to a political problem,” he wrote in a statement explaining his decision.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 28, 2023 3:08 pm

Steve trickler

Dec 28, 2023 3:06 PM

Sancho Panzer

Porn star name.

Why, thank you, Tickler.
My nickname on set was “Camel” (bigger than a horse).

Katzenjammer
Katzenjammer
December 28, 2023 3:10 pm

UN appoints Sigrid Kaag as new aid coordinator for Gaza. Her CV includes senior official with UNRWA. She is married to Anis al-Qaq, who was deputy prime minister in the PLO with Arafat.

Ynet – https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bj2szc00wt

CNN – https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/27/middleeast/dutch-diplomat-humanitarian-aid-gaza-sigrid-kaag-intl/index.html

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 3:12 pm

Sancho Panzer
Dec 28, 2023 3:08 PM

More like Camel Toe Nail………………………..

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
December 28, 2023 3:12 pm

Sancho Panzer
Dec 28, 2023 3:08 PM
Steve trickler

Dec 28, 2023 3:06 PM

Sancho Panzer

Porn star name.

Why, thank you, Tickler.
My nickname on set was “Camel” (bigger than a hors
e).

LOL. All the best.

Dot
Dot
December 28, 2023 3:13 pm

Good luck serving your time in a military gaolhouse..

30 days and the soldiers are professionals.

Hard time but he’s also safe. It’s an interesting dynamic. Yes he’s not doing his bit but he’d also prefer if the conscripts weren’t there either. He might have a silly hot take about Palestine but I’m not sure he’d be bastardised. The soldiers would understand he is actually concerned for their welfare.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 3:14 pm

Sitting in the pub (always need a scotch and a pint before wading into the untameable maelstrom littered with human debris that is the Bridgepoint shopping centre – and listening, end on end, to the second movements of Beethoven piano concerti.

I think the best must be #3 and #5. Both brilliant in different ways. The #5 was used in the movie Immortal Beloved to astounding effect.

One of the possibilities for Beethoven’s ‘immortal beloved’ was Bach’s daughter Catherina Dorothea, who was widely known as a magnificent singer and less widely recognised as assisting her dad Johannes Sebastian. The kids who continued in music all seamlessly moved from Baroqure to Classical, but always retained the imprint of their father.

And despite the movie Amadeus, Mozart (and Beethoven) venerated JS. So the idea that Beethoven was besotted with a musically gifted woman like C.D. Bach rather than some stiffly brocaded daughter of a stiffly brocaded patron makes more sense.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 3:20 pm

My nickname on set was “Camel” (bigger than a horse).

I had assumed it was a reference to ‘having a hump’.

The things you learn on The Cat would have a university professor huddled under their desk wishing the universe would go away so they could focus on sexual chimera and pronouns.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 3:20 pm

The comment about being “cool” related to this:

Roger
Dec 28, 2023 12:56 PM
Here you go:

Mapping words around Australia.

Interesting variations even suburb to suburb.

As for being actually “cool”, no way! Big nerdy dag, always on the periphery of the galaxy, never the “Inner Ring”.

Nothing has changed, thank goodness.

rosie
rosie
December 28, 2023 3:22 pm

UN appoints Sigrid Kaag as new aid coordinator for Gaza

She won’t be getting a visa for Israel anytime soon.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 3:23 pm

The thread is rather quiet, n’est ce pas.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 3:26 pm

Now to the shops, and may God have mercy on their piteous flimsy little souls.

Or not.

I don’t care.

Tom
Tom
December 28, 2023 3:32 pm

The thread is rather quiet, n’est ce pas.

Sssshhh. Pakis in with a chance of an unlikely victory at the MCG. Go, Pakis!

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 3:34 pm

Ah, yes. Sports.

The Green Bay Pakis.

You go and…um …score lots of points, you player persons!!!

132andBush
132andBush
December 28, 2023 3:43 pm

School bags.

Travel bags/suitcases.

Potato cakes. (calling them scallops is like putting the accent thingy over the second “T” in Target and saying you’re shopping in an upmarket store)

Shanghais.

Togs.

Yonnies (throwing sized stones)

Daks.

Dunny.

Crossie
Crossie
December 28, 2023 4:08 pm

Secondary school at age eleven it was a two handled bag I think you were supposed to carry elegantly by your side,

I remember having a brown Samsonite case and then a two handled bag later in high school.

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 4:14 pm

Back from hour drive to local town for some groceries plus some “stays” & “star posts” for some fencing repairs. Treated ourselves with a “tasting plate” & a half bottle of wine in the magnificent gardens of a local vineyard. Surprised at how few cars on the road & how few tourists in town. Indeed, we need not have got up so early on Boxing Day to drive up, because there were very, very few cars on the road. Not sure if people are staying on the coast for the beach – or trying to save for the year ahead. Interesting.

Listening to the Boxing Day Test on radio in car. I can’t support our Aussie team anymore since they are all so disgustingly Woke & obsessed with themselves. On the other hand, can support the Pakkies, either. But I do think Shaheen Afridi has the makings of a very good “fast”.

Diogenes
Diogenes
December 28, 2023 4:14 pm

School bags.

Port !

Crossie
Crossie
December 28, 2023 4:15 pm

Katzenjammer
Dec 28, 2023 3:10 PM
UN appoints Sigrid Kaag as new aid coordinator for Gaza. Her CV includes senior official with UNRWA. She is married to Anis al-Qaq, who was deputy prime minister in the PLO with Arafat.

Funny how that always works in the Muslim world. What irks me is that our money is being handed over to these corruptocrats.

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 4:15 pm

That should have been “can’t” support the Pakkies.

eric hinton
eric hinton
December 28, 2023 4:16 pm

Yonnies (throwing sized stones)

– boondies

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 4:19 pm

Sitting in the pub (always need a scotch and a pint before wading into the untameable maelstrom littered with human debris that is the Bridgepoint shopping centre – and listening, end on end, to the second movements of Beethoven piano concerti.

Mother Lode – Bridgepoint in Mosman? Or near Rozelle?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 28, 2023 4:20 pm

Secondary school at age eleven it was a two handled bag I think you were supposed to carry elegantly by your side

I had a cut up wheat bag, sewed together with leftover wool.

Diogenes
Diogenes
December 28, 2023 4:23 pm

. Indeed, we need not have got up so early on Boxing Day to drive up, because there were very, very few cars on the road. Not sure if people are staying on the coast for the beach – or trying to save for the year ahead. Interesting.

The Bruce HighwayCarpark to and from the Sunshine Coast has been atrocious since the school holidays started. Normally it is ok to the north of the Sunshine Coast Motorway exit, but it has been s**t all the way to Gympie an hour or so to the north.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 4:27 pm

Sydney traffic is light.

Everyone’s outta town.

When they are not parked in our street for the harbour beach.

We are ‘holidaying at home’. I like it.

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 4:27 pm

Just signed Alex Antic’s protest against the Digital ID Bill, having also signed Rafe’s petition re energy legislation.

I suppose some bureaucrats in the government will compile a dossier on those who sign these petitions for future reference re “suspicious” ciitzens.

So be it.

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 4:31 pm

The Bruce HighwayCarpark to and from the Sunshine Coast has been atrocious since the school holidays started. Normally it is ok to the north of the Sunshine Coast Motorway exit, but it has been s**t all the way to Gympie an hour or so to the north.

Makes sense. Everyone is holidaying on the coast. However, feel for those who got caught in the awful storms on the Gold Coast & far North.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 4:33 pm

I had a cut up wheat bag, sewed together with leftover wool.

“Used to live in hole of middle of the road, we did…”

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 4:36 pm

In hopscotch, you threw a “tor” to mark your spot.

And in chasings, the Hills hoist was “bar”.

That’s in Lower North Shore 60’s argot. I should listen in on the grandchildren to work out what the new one might be. They span Sydney from the ES to the outer Hills to the UNS.

No Shire, sadly. I would have enjoyed listening to some little Hobbitses.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 4:40 pm

Some discussion, on a previous thread about the crash of an Air New Zealand DC 10 aircraft on the slopes of Mount Erebus, in Antarctica, with the loss of all on board.

I’ve taken delivery of the account, by the judge who headed the Royal Commission into the disaster.

The hearings of the Royal Commission were preceded by the publications of the findings of the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents – that report put the blame on the aircrew.

The report of the Royal Commission cleared the aircrew, and accused Air New Zealand of ” a pre determined plan of deception.”….

Interesting reading.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 4:45 pm

Everyone is holidaying on the coast.

I do wish they’d bring their tucker with them. All the supermarkets, from Colesworths to Aldi have been cleaned out here. Never seen anything like it in the ten years we’ve been here*.

Reminds me of the marabunta in The Naked Jungle.

* apart from the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, when busloads of @rseholes (nyuk, nyuk) from Sydney would arrive for plunder and profit

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 4:46 pm

Hurry up. I’m timing you old fella.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 4:50 pm

Bingo! Amazing what a little nap will do.

Meanwhile, I took out my chagrin for a couple of hours on the sewing machine. A nice little project finished, ready for raffling next year to fund some much needed equipment for a local charity.

Keep up the good work.

alwaysright
alwaysright
December 28, 2023 4:59 pm

If Viktorgrad peasants tolerate this anti-gas crap, then they are dumber than I thought.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 4:59 pm

* apart from the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, when busloads of @rseholes (nyuk, nyuk) from Sydney would arrive for plunder and profit

Bloke in a country supermarket was being as rude as possible, to the checkout chick who was reminding him he was restricted to six rolls.

Bloke behind him tapped him on the shoulder “Listen mate, you go on talking to my younger sister like that, I’ll take you out into the car park and give you a hiding you’ll remember all your days.”

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 5:02 pm

The good thing about holidaying at home is you’ve got all your books, including the new ones from Christmas. Even your Kindle if you wish, ‘tho I’ve gone off online reading. I’m in favour of the real thing, the book in hand, and turning paper pages.
Also, the usual holiday stuff is available – the December reading in Quadrant and the Speccie. Idly perusing that bulky Speccie now, I find that Catriona Olding, who married Speccie columnist Jeremy Clarke as he lay slowly dying at her home in France, has written a piece about caring for Jeremy’s library, musing too on how they shared with each other bits and pieces of what they were reading. Hairy and I do that too, and how lucky we are that we don’t mind bending an ear towards each other occasionally. Catriona reveals that Jeremy liked to read in bed, all day if he could, and so do I when Hairy is away; when he’s home he’s a neatness freak and itching-to-start bedmaker, which is not possible to execute if I am reclining reading in said bed.

I sometimes re-read favourite books, especially if I’ve just read something tediously literary or earnestly over-written. After one such of the former recently I pulled out of my already overladen new bookshelves a middle copy of a trilogy I purchased in Kotakinabalu, written about Borneo between 1935 and 1947 by Agnes Keith, American wife of a British agricultural bureaucrat, located in Sandakan. The Land Below the Wind, her first book, told of life exploring up a wild Borneo river. It won the Pulitzer Prize. She can write, and well. Her second told of her experiences as a prisoner of war of the Japs, held in a prison camp of unimaginable squalor, terror and difficulty, with her two year old child, her husband held elsewhere. The third was about returning to Sandakan with her husband for his work during the reconstruction period post-war.

Re-reading the story of her travails during imprisonment took me back to that other world we often speak of here, where people held to their values and did their best, keeping their spirits up and surmounting impossible odds to survive. I’d forgotten quite a lot of the details of her tale for I haven’t read or thought about it for years.

You’d probably enjoy it, especially at the end when the Yanks and Aussies arrive and dish it back to the Japs, I say to Hairy. You’ve forgotten that I’ve already read it? he asks. Yes. Yes, I had. Dear me. So I busy myself now finding room on the bookshelves for seven new books that arrived here on December 25th. Good for grazing on. This is like an ecology, and sometimes there is going to have to be a cull.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 5:03 pm

Bridgepoint in Mosman? Or near Rozelle?

Mosman. Near the Mosman Hotel aka The Duck. As in – I think I will duck in and get hammered before starting a fight in the meat section of the IGA.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 5:17 pm

calli
Dec 28, 2023 4:36 PM
In hopscotch, you threw a “tor” to mark your spot.

In Pomgolia, we could not afford a ‘tor’, wot’ ever that was anyway………………..

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 5:20 pm

* apart from the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, when busloads of @rseholes (nyuk, nyuk) from Sydney would arrive for plunder and profit

The owner of another country supermarket got that sick of his shelves being stripped, and his regulars going without, that, that he hung a large “CLOSED” sign at the front. The locals knocked at the back door, and were served there….

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
December 28, 2023 5:23 pm

Mosman. Near the Mosman Hotel aka The Duck. As in – I think I will duck in and get hammered before starting a fight in the meat section of the IGA.

That received a downtick?

IGA employee?

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 5:25 pm

Mosman. Near the Mosman Hotel aka The Duck. As in – I think I will duck in and get hammered before starting a fight in the meat section of the IGA.

We have dinner at The Duck (upstairs) most times when we arrive back from the bush in late afternoon. Lovely outlook upstairs towards the grand old manor house & gardens. Great out on the balcony, except for the pooches that everyone seems to think must come to dinner with them. Downstairs is all screens with sporting events & boys catching up with a beer – which is fine, but not for a quiet chat.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 28, 2023 5:26 pm

You know how errors come back to haunt you long after they’ve been made? Sitting here out of the blue it pops into my head that the movie about Cole Porter was called De-lovely, not De-lightful. So my call for that little piece of information, where I simply grabbed at what I thought the title might be, has been spinning around my brain somewhere searching for the right place to land and retrieve.

Human brain. An amazing organ.

Johnny Rotten
December 28, 2023 5:26 pm

The Part-Time President

This sounds a bit like Airbus/Tennis Elbow –

“Most Americans are using their saved vacation days to spend time with family during the holidays. Somehow, the man with arguably the most important job in the nation has been out of office for most of his recent career. Joe Biden has spent at least 40% of his presidency on vacation as he no longer has the stamina to be an effective leader.

Biden set the record for the least number of days on the job back in August when he missed his 367th day to take a vacation or one year completely out of office. The president works a maximum of 30 hours per week, which makes him a part-time employee. He has only held four events before 10 AM and around a dozen past 6 PM. His former Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, once said that he does nothing prior to 9 AM, but it is closer to 10 AM if you look at any of his public schedules.

I believe the issue is not Biden’s work ethic but his mental and physical health – he is not fit to hold office.

The mainstream media likes to point out that former President Ronald Reagan kept a firm 9 to 5 schedule and often took off for mid-week retreats. Former President Ronald Reagan similarly kept an abbreviated work schedule as president as he aged well into his 70s. “Show me an executive who works long, hard hours, and I’ll show you a bad executive,” Reagan proclaimed during the 1980 presidential campaign. The difference here is that Reagan could do his job on his own schedule effectively. The same could be said of President Trump who worked long hours but was constantly photographed at the golf course. There is a difference between having a flexible schedule and simply being absent.

Biden, on the other hand, has fled to his beach house in Delaware at every opportunity. If a major crisis occurs, we can count on our commander-in-chief to take off on vacation, leaving the public high and dry. Look at the Maui fire disaster in Hawaii. Biden was photographed lounging on the beach during the crisis, and told reporters he was not taking questions as he was off the clock.

Bernie Sanders, consistent as ever, believes Biden is a good example for ushering in the 30-hour workweek. Instead, federal employees were denied additional time off during the holidays.

There is no one at the helm. Biden is a part-time Carpe Diem president. If anyone in the establishment cared about the people, they would let that man retire and seek the care he clearly needs. There is no way that this man can last another four years in office.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/the-part-time-president/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 5:28 pm

Mother Lode – the downtick was probably to do with the location (Mosman) – not IGA.
Personally, I like IGA. But tend to buy my meat in Harris Farm. The fish shop in Bridgepoint is outstanding.

Cassie of Sydney
December 28, 2023 5:30 pm

I”* apart from the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, when busloads of @rseholes (nyuk, nyuk) from Sydney would arrive for plunder and profit”

I still prefer my description of such arseholes…..

“scum, peasants, trash”.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 28, 2023 5:31 pm

This is like an ecology, and sometimes there is going to have to be a cull.

I cull my library annually, these days.

Vicki
Vicki
December 28, 2023 5:32 pm

The owner of another country supermarket got that sick of his shelves being stripped, and his regulars going without, that, that he hung a large “CLOSED” sign at the front.

During Covid, the owners of a small supermarket near us in the Central Tablelands were more direct – their sign said “We do not serve anyone from Sydney” – or words to that effect.

calli
calli
December 28, 2023 5:34 pm

IGA employee?

No. Just someone wanting to cover their tracks.

Watched it in real time on another thread.

caveman
caveman
December 28, 2023 5:36 pm

Tell your ‘humanitarian’ story from waaaay back in the sheds, champ.

He won’t, unless there is product placement.

Cassie of Sydney
December 28, 2023 5:37 pm

It wasn’t just toilet paper, it was eggs, pasta, rice, flour and soap.

I remember being at Coles Bondi Junction in April 2020 trying to buy some eggs and being told that there had been a run on them. There were no eggs left. I remember feeling despair.

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