The Dump is:
For posting comments that don’t get up at the Drum, and for having a pleasant, mirthful or enlightening off-topic discussion.
It’s not for personal abuse of other commenters.
Please do that somewhere else if you must.
Play nicely or piss off.
However, why doesn’t a poster add a link for us to read and comment on here, much quicker. Maybe we can do a bit more bagging here, not that I speak for the moderators, yet.
NB: Being tiresome and boring, racist, sexist or just plain creepy is not playing nicely.
———-
The Pig’s Arms exists because a dozen or so years ago our other favourite playpen – the ABC’s Unleashed blogsphere started to go off. Like a sack of prawn heads in the sun. Something had to be done.
Moderation was taking forever. Comments seemed to be rejected randomly – outrageous ones appeared and reasoned ones were pinged. When they released the Drum / Unleashed ….. things actually got worse !
So many pieces from professional writers appear with no obvious merit. And the moderation has become, to put it frankly, appalling.
As a former contributor and a commenter, I was deeply disappointed at the plummeting quality from our pre-eminent media empire. And I resented so many challenging or dare I say, witty or funny posts in which we’ve invested seconds of our precious time – getting the chop.
So here, for all our benefit – is an open slather blog. Copy and paste your best rejected comments here for posterity. Does not matter whether you’re posting on the Guardian, First Dog on the Moon or wherever else.
And sprinkle pointers to the Pig’s Arms amongst your comments. Let’s try to rescue some of the old faithful.
Cheers,
Emm.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Comments for this story are closed. No new comments can be added.
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It’s a pub with no beer, laddie!
A very sad place but not as sad as a pub with warm beer!
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After the tenth Murdoch story, they can close the bloody Drum, well close the ABC alltogether, they just want to be like the horrid commercial channels.
They can keep their Annabells, Uhlmanns,and the giggling Palmers…
All I watch now is Saffron, Lilley,Lawrene Leung, and I hope they’ll buy something good from BBC like Luther. Who wants to watch repeats of Midsomer or Old/New Tricks on Friday night…
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Sorry ,the above is by H, not Gez. I sometimes forget to click as a guest to Mr Oosterman
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You’re right about A/belle,U/n and the Palmers, H but the Murdoch scandal is only on its very early stages yet. There’s a whole heaps of crap to come out and I reckon, it will be leading us to No 10 as well as the London Stock Exchange, Wall St, Ryad, the Interpol, a whole host of other top political and legal figures around the world and Gorrrrd knows who else. We haven’t seen nothing yet! The pot of this pot boiler is very large… methinks!
I find Saffron a bit irritating, though, I must admit, I like to know what he’s up to. The rest are OK.
I saw a repeat of Foyle’s War the other day and I think that’s an accomplished enough series. That theme music is so hauntingly beautiful and Michael Kitchen is a master at under-acting. Subtle and softly devastating. Phenomenal script. I could go another round with that series but I’d much prefer it if they made a new lot.
There’s bugger all else on Telly, so far as crime or any drama is concerned really. I didn’t much like the new ABC “Crownies” but I hope it gets better as the thing progresses. If only they left the lovey-dovey BS out and concentrated on cases and their twists and turns I’d be much happier.
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Now there’s an idea that makes sense. Close off this page for comment and keep it as a memorial. Although now it serves more as a lament for its deformed offshoot. Open another to comment on The Drum Opinion if anyone can be bothered.
Unleashed was gone except in name, and now that’s gone too, except for some faint echos on the web.
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In Michael Koziol’s pathetic paean for Murdoch, I posted, “What I wanna know is if Bob Ellis thinks that this old man was also screwed by a feminist.”
I felt good posting it but I doubt it will see the light of day. Never mind, I still felt good and even gooder that I can see it here!
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Just read it ato, looks like a job application
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You are amusing ato.
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More cacophony on 24!
Poor bastards!
There’s only one possible employer and they’ll be unemployed if they don’t lick boot -or butt!
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The biggest shame is that they shut down Unleashed with no proper close. No farewell, no analysis, no discussion. Just death by 1000 cuts. It deserved better. Vale Unleashed.
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I think there is a resident typist at the ABC, who plays a game of posting….”this is closed for comments”, before anyone can reply.
One can just imagine all the little whinging bloggers, studying the screen, like racing form, to check out new blogs and get a few carps off.
Pavlovs’ poodles, the lot of em.
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There in fine fettle over at the drum. Posting blogs then closing them about three hours later. Maybe theres no mods available over the weekend. All of three to choose from now.
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Yeah, I’m wondering if they will start closing down for the weekend. It is becoming like the banks, never open when the customers are available
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Even weirder is that they close the posts with no comments to be added then add some.
I note Hung that you were commenting to the imposter Algernon and Atomou as well. I’d never say any of the bullshit that that clowm comes up with. Nowadays I omly post there with the circled r.
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They closed down on weekends some months ago and now take Friday afternoon off. I think they owe us an explanation.
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One post had six replies and then closed up only to re-open after 8pm. I think it is perhaps nostalgia for the 6 o’clock swill. I remember when the six o’clock swill had a trial period in the fifties when pubs closed at 6 and would re-open after 8pm till 10pm. It would take years again for pubs to stay open till mid-night.
Of course on Sunday ,much to the chagrin of Europeans, no grog at all, unless one could prove some addres away from somewhere in the country, signed by a JP, again totally incomprehensible to those same Euros.
No wonder we have turned into binge drinking nation.
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Yes I noticed that Gerard, Shut down with 6 and then next time I looked it had 90. Really whats the point, everybody puts down their point of view then onto the next one.
The Sunday trading thing with the pubs was an interesting thing. They could serve “bonefide travellers” on a Sunday. I think you had live more than or have travelled more than 30 miles from the pub in the metropolitan area and 10 miles from a pub in the country. I used to bush walk in the blue mountains regularly in when this rule was in force. We’d end up for a counter lunch at a pub in Blackheath.
One Sunday I went to the pub and was asked where I’d spent last night, to which I said “Blue Gum Forest” they came back and said “no you didn’t you came from Sydney” puzzled I thought no Blue gum forest until it twigged that the licencing police where on their way. Ah yes your right it was Sydney. Anyhow we sit down and have our liunch in come the licencing boys asking where did you spend last night. Sydney we replied with full backpacks beside us. Are you sure yes of course we did. They’d then move onto the next table. A quaint little practice indeed.
Nowadays pubs are open to whatever time they seem to like and the violence that come with that with some deperately needing a drink at 3:00am! I must be getting old!
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Some bastard has posted as Stuffed Olive on Unleashed (on Erin’s article). I wonder why ihateliberals.
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I think its the same clown who thinks its ok to write Liberal manure under the name of Algernon.
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Beaten The ABC, at last.
I haven’t posted a comment prior to their new pet subtitle: ” Comments for this story are closed. No new comments can be added.”
Ha HA, That’l teach em!
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They’re worse than the Chinese.
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Talking about getting angry….
Hope has two beautiful daughters: Courage and Anger, anger at how the things are and courage to make them the way they ought to be.
Augustus of Hippo
So dear Piglets, let’s cultivate courage, anger is the easy bit… 🙂
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Very important question, Emms! If only we knew the answer!
We can speculate:
1. That’s how they were brought up. Arseholeness is handed down from disposition to disposition, forefathers to progeny like myths are handed down from mouth to mouth, and religious bullshit from shaman to peasant, all the way back to the first homo erectus.
2. They belong to a club outside of which they feel worthless, so they must protect that club no matter what. Even if the moral adhesive of that club is dung. They live like dung beetles who live off and rejoice in dung. Anything that their warped senses do not recognise as dung, they fight off. Disparage, spread their own dung on it so as to own it, like dogs piss on anything that is upright.
3. Plato has a delightful explanation of this in his Republic (Book VII ff) Education is a bloody difficult thing. The light of enlightenment blinds people who have spent all their lives in the dark much like darkness blinds people who have spent all their lives under the light of the sun. It’s a brilliant simile or allegory as it’s also called. “The Simile of the Cave.”
I don’t think the world has improved much from the days of the first hominids, if we measure improvement by the number of arseholes per capita, then to now. Nor, alas, do I think there will ever be an improvement, primarily because there will always be a power struggle for nothing more than petty reasons, like money and pride. The powerful will make sure the powerless are kept in the dark, even if it means that they too, will stay with them, in ignorance of, what Socrates called “the good.”
Very depressing stuff when one thinks about it, more so as one gets older and comes across more and more of these mental and moral dung beetles.
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I might be paranoid but it’s happened too many times now: Whenever I respond to Sea Mendez’ dung, no matter how gently or politely I word it, it never gets posted; or if it does and the beetle responds then my response to him/her/it will definitely not get posted. It’s crap but his/her/its bullshit is always left hanging there as if s/he/it has won the point and I had no response. Happens all the time. It stinks to high heaven.
I reckon s/he/it has a guardian dung heap master in the Drum because the same thing happens to other posters as well. You can see that the fool is wrong but you never get to see the answer from the person s/he/it has offended and who most definitely seems far the superior mind.
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What are you and SM disagreeing about this time, ato? I wish you’d give each other more benefit of the doubt. Stubborn bastards.
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I used to get similarly frustrated with Cricket, ato… Nowadays its Sea Mendez or Gigaboomer… Makes one wonder just who exactly are the moderators anyway!
😉
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Asty, it looks like there are no moderators, that’s why they close the shop early…
I remember Cricket, he was very persistent and he got an apology out of me, after that he was very friendly to me…he must a male poster 🙂
You boys should try my trick with SM, it might work…
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Bonjour Mlle Voix!
Sont vous bien ce matin parfait ?
SM will see a cricket ball in front of him and insist that it is a giraffe. When you point out to him that what’s in front of him is an inanimate object, which is often called a cricket ball and that giraffes are tall animals, he’ll accuse you of not including minerals in your answer! When you point out to him that the discussion wasn’t about forms of matter, he’ll argue that gasses are not “matter!”
And then you won’t get your response posted; which, of course, by then, would be proper since it’s obvious that this idiot will bore the crap out of everyone and whatever the issue that started off the argument would never be touched again.
He distorts what you say, simply so as to make you look the fool, the one who is wrong, even if he knows that everyone will know it is he who is on the wrong.
At times he talks of ancient Greek Democracy and it’s obvious to anyone who’s had the slightest interest in the topic, that he gets his facts from some serial packet card or some chinese fortune cookie. So, again, you try and correct the bird brain and again you end up arguing about animals and vegetables!
I try to avoid him as much as I can but occasionally he says stuff that is just too outrageous to let it go unquestioned, so I take the bait again and again I end up being left dangling over the abyss of ignorance and bullshit.
I mean, on the one hand, I tell myself that it doesn’t all matter what gets published on the Drum. Let the foolish wankers wank all they like. On the other hand, however, I feel that the Drum -being part of the national broadcaster- should be kept as rigorously as possible within the boundaries of intellectual dignity – integrity, so I make my objections.
So it is most disconcerting, to me, at least, that mean retards like SM get the upper hand.
The forces of evil have made SBS totally irrelevant and they’re advancing pretty bloody fast with their attacks on the ABC. They are winning. The forces of evil, that is!
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“On se voit d’un autre oeil qu’on ne voit son prochain” Jean La Fontaine, La Besace.
(Book 1, fable 7 )
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No, it goes way beyond opinion, Voice. It goes to the need to destroy.
It’s not a matter of whether the cricket ball is a more useful or attractive object to the giraffe, so far as SM’s contributions go. It’s about destroying the credibility of what s/he/it conceives as an opponent.
Not helpful to anyone at all.
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Jean de La Fontaine fables, Book 1
http://oaks.nvg.org/fonta1.html#wallet
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What the hell. I like the way it’s been written, so let’s copy it. We are all elephants here. 🙂
—————————————————————-
From heaven, one day, did Jupiter proclaim,
“Let all that live before my throne appear,
And there if any one has anything to blame,
In matter, form, or texture of his frame,
He may bring forth his grievance without fear.
Redress shall instantly be given to each.
Come, monkey, now, first let us have your speech.
You see these quadrupeds, your brothers;
Comparing, then, yourself with others,
Are you well satisfied?” “And why not?”
Says Jock. “Haven’t I four trotters with the rest?
Is not my visage comely as the best?
But this my brother Bruin, is a blot
On your creation fair;
And sooner than be painted I had be shot,
Were I, great sire, a bear.”
The bear approaching, does he make complaint?
Not he;—himself he lauds without restraint.
The elephant he needs must criticize;
To crop his ears and stretch his tail were wise;
A creature he of huge, misshapen size.
The elephant, though famed as beast judicious,
While on his own account he had no wishes,
Pronounced dame whale too big to suit his taste;
Of flesh and fat she was a perfect waste.
The little ant, again, pronounced the gnat too wee;
To such a speck, a vast colossus she.
Each censured by the rest, himself content,
Back to their homes all living things were sent.
Such folly lives yet with human fools.
For others lynxes, for ourselves but moles.
Great blemishes in other men we spy,
Which in ourselves we pass most kindly by.
As in this world we’re but way-farers,
Kind Heaven has made us wallet-bearers.
The pouch behind our own defects must store,
The faults of others lodge in that before.
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Oooooh!
Well, I reckon this is even better!
🙂
Ruins
Middle twenties have transformed you into
A middle-aged dung beetle
Fluttering over revered
Cadavers
And
Deadbone-colored marble.
“Ruins,” you wrote
“Are just ruins” and quickly tightened your
Tourist money belt and bounced off
To land on an orchid implanted between a pair of
Spanish thighs.
From Plato’s sun to
Plato’s cave.
You thought that old Aegeas who worked
Poseidon’s wrath against the ancient mariner,
Would spruce himself up
For you; smooth out all his wrinkles, pinch a new
Blueness on his cheeks and clean up the mountains of
Dung that a million dung beetles like you
Drop into his soul every year.
Every year.
And you thought that Pericles of the golden mouth
Would shake Pheidias of the sublime fingers
Out of his sleep, to get up and
Meticulously toothbrush and dentalfloss the
Marble columns
For you.
That all the wise would gather ’round you
And make you feel like the young Christ
In the temple of God.
Would you have stayed then?
Would you have stayed there among them –
Among the temple stones and the holy inventions-
Eager to learn, eager to spread the learning,
To become what you once were: a pollinising breeze?
Go back young coz and learn to
Feel the flaming chill that
I once had felt when my
Fingers read the chiselled words upon
The Pheidian rocks,
Carved with spiritual beauty.
Go back and learn to feel.
Go back and learn.
🙂
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Bravery award for competing judgemental-wise with:
“But this my brother Bruin, is a blot
On your creation fair;
And sooner than be painted I had be shot,
Were I, great sire, a bear.”
But really, a point well illustrated. Although, it’s possible be be too precious even about ruins. They might be the alpha of a large part of Western culture but they’re not the omega.
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P.S. Bravo!
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Voice, one of these days you’ll force me to make a cyber declaration of love!
Stop it!
But the poem isn’t really about ruins but about polinising breezes becoming dung beetles…
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We just watched a wonderful Woody Allen movie ‘Manhattan’, Woody’s whimsical humour always works for me, now I’m going to read my book and forget about people like Ackerman and other monsters…
Lekker slapen all you Piglets!
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The ABC Drum/Opinion is desperate to compete with so many other Internet outlets and forums. They are in a race to the bottom by dumbing down as much as possible. I don’t understand why they are putting up so many pieces at the same time nor why they seem to have developed such slowness in responses. I don’t read them anymore. It’s too tedious and boring. None the less I’ll try and get articles published because I enjoy writing down words. Apart from all that I am actually employed on a part time basis by the ABC which has so far not been terminated.
Many of my responses have also not seen the daylight and I have almost given up doing it. It is a different beast now.
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They’re publishing all these pieces, Gez, because they (the forces of evil) are trying to make it irrelevant and, judging by your reaction -and mine- that is, by not reading them, they are succeeding. I used to read almost everything when it first started. Everything, including every comment. Now, I hardly look at the page, let alone an article and if I do read one or two, I seldom read many comments.
The place has become a mountain of dung… advancing my metaphorical theory from my response to Emms. One needs to dig into too much of it to find anything of value. So, the place has become irrelevant.
That’s why they’re racing to the bottom. It’s not driven by idiocy but by a sinister, surreptitious agenda.
Murdoch and his coalition of bastards have won. Australia has lost. Back to the days before Gough and Germaine Greer:
Let there be sport! Plenty of sport!
Let there be cake! Plenty of cake!
Let there be war! Plenty of war!
May I ask in what capacity you are employed by the ABC? If it’s not too personal, of course, or too difficult to explain.
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I am employed as a ‘free-lance’, whatever that means. I get paid for the articles a modest (leaning to the mean) amount of money. This also includes having an employee number and a contribution to super. My last super statement showed that the costs from the super actually superseded the contributions. In fact, my super, as a result of ABC employment is shrinking. Very odd!.
One does one’s best.
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Ah, the writing bit! I thought you were also employed to do other things, Gez. Don’t know what. Proofing or whatever.
But the ABC’s remuneration philosophy has obviously not improved. For six years I laboured for them by presenting (on radio) translating, dramatising novels, writing scripts, you name, for no more than what is tossed at monkeys in a zoo. I still loved it though. Always honing your skills, always on your mettle. Strong experiences every minute. But the financial reward? Forget it!
Good luck with it, Gez!
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What an interesting response ! On reflection, it explains far more than the persistence of arseholes. Unable to resist the urge to personalise the comment, “Mou, I was reflecting on how, despite Labor being so unutterably bad these days, I just cannot ever contemplate voting g for a conservative. My lucid cave upbringing just does not allow me to do so. This of course forces me to vote for whatever else is available (least worst option – excluding the conservatives).
Quite a lot to discuss here – but it’s a lovely day here – if a bit windy – and FM is champing at the bit for a beach walk from Kyeemah down to Brighton-le-Sands. Reward : good exercise, fresh sea air and an excellent cup of java as a reward.
May I get back to you on this one ? I was thinking about a piece called “The Dung Beetle Denialists” – just to stir the shit (after a long break) at Unleashed / Drum / whatever 🙂
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On the other hand, there arguably already exists an excess of excrement agitation in those environs. Whereas a piece on Brighton Beach might lighten/brighten things up a bit.
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Something odd at The Drum, All the posts up to yesterday have been closed. Why is this so.
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Alge, they put up too many articles every day, and because they don’t have enough moderators to deal with the comments, they just close the articles.
It would make more sense to have fewer stories, keep them up longer to get the conversations going, have faster moderation…a bit like it used to be before in them good olden days 🙂
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I agree Helvi I don’t even bother to even read some of them. I just thought it odd that all of Thursdays and before blogs were simply shut down. And faster moderation. you can almost guarantee that any postins over the weekend wont see the light of day till Monday when we’ve all moved onto other things. Oh and it would good if they got rid of all the trolls, half the time you don’t know who you’re having a conversation with. I’m still having trouble with someone using my name. The mods appear to try. However if I post somewhere where the troll does that seems to alert the moderator. I just don’t know why they don’t post as someone else.
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I just can’t help myself but when James Patterson writes about what a good bunch of guys the IPA are I just had to act. Now as usual this is unlikely to be published
James, what a joke you are. As you are a joke here’s one back.
Chris Berg, Ted Lapkin and James all turn up for work. Ted says “Hey Chris what are you doing today?” Chris replies “I’m thinking Ted what about you?” “I’m tanking” Chris and Ted turn to James “What about you James?” “Me, I’m just being a knob head” So business as usual.
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He gave the same piss weak answer on the TV Drum the other night. Pathetic.
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Viv & Hung,the IPA boys are contaminating everything on ABC, they are on TVDrum, on the Drum Opinion, on QandA, and I saw Ted Lapkin on the Insight, rather scary…
What about Piers Ackerman on QandA, can’t they find someone a bit better 🙂
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If this is a sample of the right I’m glad to be a leftie
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Piers is at the very bottom of the barrel. Glued to it. Head down, arse up. Doesn’t talk, just farts obscenely. But he is one of many. Pretty much the whole IPA membership, the News Ltd horde of fascists, the whole of the Howard cabal -past and present- the whole of the kleptocracy of miners, bankers, insurers, etc, etc, etc.
Hanrahan predicted accurately when, one frosty Sunday morn, outside the church, ere Mass began, he declared, in accents most forlorn, “we’ll all be rooned!”
We are indeed rooned most forlornly!
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I wonder why it is that there is a type who never contribute anything positive, who are always hot under the collar about stuff that they seem to have no appreciation or understanding of. Unremittingly negative people. Not true conservatives, just black arseholes (like black holes – so dense that light disappears when it goes too close) plus the shit, of course. I pity them. More so for their acolytes.
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The only reason that I can see for having Piers on Insiders and Q&A is for the light entertainment he provides. Talks rubbish, is a Liberal party brown nose, Offers nothing whatsoever to anything approaching intellegent debate.
How he gets a gig as “journalist” is beyond me. He didn’t even finish high school because he was expelled from so many of them.
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I’m not holding my breath until “Opinion” publishes this post of mine, in response to Steven Kates’ article: (http://abc.com.au/unleashed/2776746.html#comments)
And they’re worried about little ol’ Lord Moncton giving a speech at a Uni!
This guy is SENIOR LECTURER in one!
Bloody hell!
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Just making a comment to the HR Nicholls group on IR laws, can’t see it getting up to the author Ian Hanke.
Ian, just out of curiosity I am interested in your surname. So is it Hanke that rhymes with hanky or is the e silent meaning that it’s Hank that rhymes with Wank? Just asking.
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I reckon you’ve clearly spent a lot of time at first slip, Hung. Gold-plated sledge.
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Sorry boss, just can’t help myself sometimes 🙂
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Whoever put the comments up on Unleashed seems to have gone to sleep again. It is not the weekend when we have no activity, nor it is Friday afternoon when he/she seems to have gone to play golf etc. It is Wednesday and comments are not showing for ages, dribs and drabs perhaps but pretty bloody hopeless again. But for some insane reason, articles are appearing, disappearing and then reappearing – and they are relatively new ones. They’ve gone mad.
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Viv, I wrote something on Mungo’s one last night but this morning i could not find his blog anywhere, now it’s back, but i have lost interest.
Too many stories and not enough moderators. Some articles stay longer than others, Helen Razer and Ellis always get on the Hot Topics. I always thought that stories that get the most replies are the ‘hottest’…
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Yeah H, what is it with Helen Razor. I can’t even understand what she is saying sometimes.
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You’re a brave man, Hung. It get a little bit crook in the moosh just thinking about her articles – let alone actually reading any more. I suppose it’s just the ABC doing its bit for re-habbing “journos” what is past their use-by date (if they ever had a date).
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Never been a fan of Ms Razer, she tries too hard to be interesting and original, I can’t read her posts, I tried few times, given up for good…
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Yes, too true Viv. Now that I am on permanent nights I blog in the afternoon so if I comment Friday it won’t appear till at least Monday arvo, hard to get a thread going.
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What is happening on Unleashed, is that they are trying to regiment us. They are posting a plethora of articles, that in some cases are only getting a modicum of comments.
It seems that what they want is comments on the article, and us curtailed from interacting with each other.
It is conditioning and controlling and I do not like it 😦
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Both Helvi and I have a computer. On my computer The Unleashed/Opinion has a totally different format where all posts are vertically arranged, including all the articles which is somewhat difficult to follow. Helvi’s one has the original format. No matter what I try I cannot revert to my previous or Helvi’s format.
Is it a form of ABC punishment for being a recalcitrant?
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Gerard, maybe you are using Firefox–and Helvi is using Microsoft??
Here in word-press there are changes too. Every time I go to an article to make a comment, the last comment is in the message panel. It’s a pain because I have to delete it.
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I felt embarrassed for ABC for publishing that corny Kinsella poem. I had to laugh at some of the replies though, someone complained that it did not even rhyme and BlzBob said: at least it should FLOW. It didn’t.
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Too much objectivity for me. I find that with Australian TV drama too.
I don’t mind a sunburnt land now & again, but long for the metaphorically obtuse abstract.
Sorry to be contentious. I will improve my objectivity. Give me time
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Kinsella et al, of course…. 🙂
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I just couldn’t resist this post on Kinsella’s piece: (I doubt it’ll get published though)
And here’s another of John’s poems. Anyone remember this one?
‘The only way I can justify
my usage of a computer to write
this and contribute to
the consumption of power
and
materials
(and all else I write and send out via the technology),
is
to say
that come October,
I will,
outside my university work
(and I will lobby that for change),
go entirely offline…’.
I
have placed ‘outside’
in italics to show an emphasis
(and a factor that I will attempt to overcome in time).
Or do readers
ignore the clauses they don’t want to see?
John, I don’t think you’re trying hard enough.
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“They will re-become archetypes…”
Shite, “re-become?”
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‘revert to’, perhaps ato?
😉
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Hi, asty.
I was referring to Kinsella’s idiotic poem. He used the word “re-become” which I think is a ridiculous bit of lexical engineering, too ridiculous for a poet. It’s typical of a mediocre word smith trying too hard to show off. Too much craft and not enough respect for the language or message; or the music that must be an integral part of any poem.
I find this “re-becoming” quite a blatant insult.
Howyagoin’ anyways?
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‘Mou, I’m also not wildly enthusiastic about Kinsella’s work. He reminds me a lot – for no good reason I can fathom – of William McGonnigal – “The Beautiful Bridge Over the Silvery Tey” (look it up – it’s famous for being unutterably bad and he should have been shot for crimes against the genre). The bridge, like his poem, fell down. Yeah, OK, it was mega stormy weather …..
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By Zeusy Zeus, I think you’ve got it, Emms!
And thanks for reminding of my English 101 year… another life time, on another planet in some other galaxy!
Kinsella must have watched lots of Spike Milligan and the rhyme and phrase malapropisms have insinuated themselves into his brain, as do bugs insinuate themselves between a cheap hotel’s bed sheets.
Hopeless stuff!
The dedication to CB really knocked me crapping! CB’s appearance on the ad must have struck him as momentus an event as the fall of the Tay Bridge struck Billy McGonagall, and must have caused the same effect upon his sensitivities.
So, with the same diminutive talent he insinuated that diminutive moment upon us… as do bugs insinuate themselves between a cheap hotel’s bed sheets.
Thanks for reminding me of the chuckles we had during the tute, Emms!
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My pleasure, ‘Mou. Sorry if I miss-spelled the Scottish chap’s name. No time for precision tehre. I should be working.
The Mc G bad poetry was an important part of a rounded education, IMHO. Good poetry is felt as much as read. Bad poetry just stands out like dogs’ balls – and it’s just as hairy 🙂
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“The Mc G bad poetry was an important part of a rounded education”
Yeap, that’s me! I’m getting more and more “rounded” by the day! All this cooking!
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Since when was putting a few line breaks in a sentence before it finishes called ‘craft’?
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Urgent urgent urgent.
The Drum: be first to comment. Quick.
Your comment will appear 24 hours later.
Very urgent message.
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I reckon; R Ambrose Raven, is Mulga…?
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Could be, they both like to crap on a lot, unlike me and you 🙂
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That’s funny I just tuned in to see if there’s an anagram somewhere…And there was you post.
Now R Ambrose Raven…Rambo … ravbrose..i’LL HAVE TO THINK
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A Barmen Rovers
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Area Verbs Norm
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Bear Saver Norm
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Bra Means Rover.
I’m getting these from a website…But I don’t see a derivation of Mulga there, sooo it must be just an invention..Maybe an anti-US something or other.
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Julian, it’s been so long since the last time you thought someone on Unleashed was Mulga, that we could have been excused for believing you were cured of that obsession.
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Can’t talk, got a mouth full of chicken with piri-piri. Talk later…….Whoooosh!
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Bon appétit. Although I’m 100% sure that’s the wrong language.
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Why does The Drum persist with its incessant cascade of articles, when it is having difficulty moderating the current crop and causing desultory and arbitrary comments, making it’s hard to keep a thread going, or even establish one?
It’s as if there are two or three editors competing to publish the most articles: some of them coming all at once, like the London double-decker buses. And often they are on the same subject ── just like the bus to Streatham, that keeps arriving at the St John’s Wood pick-up stop???
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I don’t think they know whether they are coming or going. Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Headless chooks. Too many irons in the fire. Too many cooks spoil the broth. They have forgotten their reason for being there. I think that answers it.
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I want the old UL back, too many political, global warming articles and not enough ‘human interest’ stories, they are coming and going too fast, but the moderating much too slow…
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Agree entirely. I’m sick of the climate debate and the politics just depends on which side of the tracks you are from
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Yes Helvi – a bit of humour is needed. The climate discussions are just the same thing over and over and over with the usual suspects.
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He probably has a high libido. Bill Clinton was a victim.
Perhaps the task of too much banking left him little time for the real thing. So after a heavy day at the oriffice,and too much vino, his teterosteronre got the better. And…Well being a banker with no-where to bank, he decided on realism to enhance his bank of a like…. puet etre
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He he!
You mean, peut-être, Laddie?
I’m an absolute bâtard when it comes to spelling nazism!
One of these days I’ll post photos of the two letters I’ve received from the Oxford Dic. people. On two occasions I’ve found some spelling errors (one on a greek word) which I’ve pointed out to them and they’ve replied with thank you letters -which, Mrs Ato framed and stuck on the wall! The errors are in the latest (2nd) edition of the big (20 vols) OD, which came out in ’89. I’d bought it the next year. $4k!!!! Gorgeous bloody thing. Hug it at least once a day!
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Yes I noticed after I typed it. I go fast and I’m not very good at writing. Speaking is another matter. However in these sort of exchanges I often leave bad spelling, uncorrected as long as the message gets through………Otherwise we would be here al day and all of the night….All of The day..and All of The night…That wouldn’t ring a bell with you, but Warrigal may pick it up …if he floats through on his gossamer thread…Or Big Hound!
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The Kinks, VL “All Day and All of the Night”…
🙂
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An award T2.
You really got me.
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Buggered if I know why they didn’t post this missive but then again, buggered if I know why they didn’t post a whole lot of other ones I’ve sent them and why they’ve posted a whole lot of others that others have sent them!
BUT, on MTR’s piece, in answer to Hungsie’s
11 May 2011 4:46:28pm
Wait till they bring out a Father O’Way beanie Helvi, to die for hey!
I’ve sent them this:
“Hungsie, you’ve just reminded me of a stunning young lady in Christchurch (NZ). Endowed with breasts that a Phidias would love to sculpt. She wore a T-shirt that had the words “My face is up there!” emblazoned across them. Her partner, a male, had a shirt with the words “Know thyself” in Greek.
I nodded my acknowledgement and approbation of both.”
Beats me why it doesn’t hold pride of place on that blog!
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The vagaries of the Drum will never cease to amaze me. They posted that one but didn’t post some others, how they work it out has got me beat
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ato, breasts, no matter how glorious and dutifully covered in a tee-shirt have no place on MTR’s blog.
The word ‘sex’ is also an absolute no-no, I tried to read what was written on those naughty badges, but couldn’t see anything without my glasses…
The folk from NZ would be banned too, they have this sinful way of pronouncing ‘six’, it sounds more like ‘xxx’….
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H, we’ll just have to agree to disagree there, mate.
You know that I hate religion more than any other human construct. I care not about MTR’s agenda to inflict Christianity, puritanism and wowserism upon the whole planet.
I also love sex -well as much as any man my age can love it. I certainly do not frown upon those who love it.
However, I can do nothing to stop people from believing in whatever fairy they want to believe. I can do nothing to alter people’s view on sex, other than expressing my opinion upon it.
But I also hate people forcing their values upon others, particularly because they hold the upper hand in any way material way: Money, position, etc.
I hate power plays getting in the way of values.
What we are seeing now with this Straus-Khan guy (if the allegations are correct) is a power play. A play, in other words, where power itself is doing the manipulation, is controlling the humans. It corrupts. The more power they have the more they are susceptible to corruption.
Bosses have enormous power and they can enforce it in many ways: by the shock and awe method or by the stone mason’s method. The first is self evident. No questions are permitted. The military is a machine and the machine needs to be working. Mechanically and brutally.
The second is more subtle. it works incrementally: A little chisel first, to open a small cavity on the huge stone. A little wedge is placed in that cavity and then another chisel, this time a little bigger, until the huge block of marble is separated from the mountain. The Pharaoh’s pyramid then is not far off.
This little button, upon which the writing is barely discernible, is, to my mind, a precedent. Once it has been established, it will be far easier for the next boss to tell his young staff to wear a button that’s a little bigger and the writing upon it just a little more discernible. How far away is abject slavery from that? How far away is the total loss of dignity for all of us, not only of the staff but also of their parents, their mates, their own children – as well as the bosses themselves who, having surrendered all sense of empathy to the spoils of power, will have shed all traces of dignity.
No, I don’t care who thinks what about anything, so long as they don’t abuse their power to turn their thinking into the slavery of others.
Chaplaincy is not about Christianity nor about religion. It’s about much more.
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Sorry, H. I didn’t mean this to be an ato diatribe and certainly did not mean to offend anyone. Just opening up my box of thoughts on the matter for everyone to see. That’s all.
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Ato, I think you’re gonna love the piece I just wrote in answer to Joel Hodes’ latest article… if it ever gets published! (Not that I’m too worried about that; if they don’t publish it at the ABC, then I’ll publish it here and on my own blog…)
Just to whet your appetite, here’s the title: “What Christianity Can’t Teach Us About How to Live”
If only I knew where to email the bloody thing! (In the lack of an immediate response to my above question, I may just visit the ABC site and see if I can find an email addy…)
🙂
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Love it already, Asty and I’ve only read the title!
Enormous luck to you with it. Hodges is just too difficult for me to read. People like that take too much out of you. You need to dumb yourself down to such a low level that your intellectual lumbago becomes excruciating. Takes too much effort to lift yourself up again.
There are better things for one to amuse himself with, like trying to make anagrams out of your surname.
Wide berth for that chap.
Have you made any classical references in your piece? Can’t wait to see it up there!
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Essentially, ato, it’s all about classical references: about what the classics can teach us that christianity just can’t… Don’t want to say too much yet… I’ll give the ABC ’til the end of this coming week to respond; if they don’t, then I’ll publish it here next weekend. (Hopefully people won’t have forgotten the thread of the debate by then…!)
🙂
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Hoorah! Post of the day. ‘Gold Olive Award’, awarded ── and a double shot of 15 yro sows’ special, to wash down a few thin slices of merv’s over-cured barmy ham: been known to make maidens tremble.
Tremble: a verb: usually a prelude to being overcome with lustiness.
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I meant atomou’s verbiage.
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Must say I enjoyed it too Vectis Lad… Merv, another bottle of ouzo for Atomou! Cheers, Ato!
🙂
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STORAGE for Hewson’s blog.
You’ve got a laugh at Glenn $$$$tevens–and his insulated gang of world inflation busters; Canuting imported inflation….It’s getting ridiculous now. First we have the lead up with every lugubrious bank manager paraded in front of the HD cameras, having just dyed their hair. They’re introduced as ‘economists’ (tipsters really), having a go at guessing the likly timing and amount of the next imbecilic rate rise. The sensible economists like Shane Oliver & Craig James, are conveniently sidelined, because they are far tooo sensible.
Then after the tipster’s parade; we get the countdown, to what is now promoted as an electrifying event…..And there it is 10 agree and 5 were wrong. But who cares Stevens, the million dollar show pony is in the news again. A guru for any gullible fool than can see that the price of bananas has only changed (or stood still) for reasons beyond these faux bankers’ mythical powers.
And if it’s another rise, there is that gloomy realisation that every business other than mineral pillaging and utility selling, is once more been well and truly sprayed with round-up. Killing all green shoots.
Well you would laugh, if it wasn’t so serious.
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Lovely word, VL. “Canuting” intransitive form of the verb “to canute”. Question: Does canuting demand a chair or can futility be achieved equally well standing ?
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I’ve just had a blast Emmjay. 7 posts that all got up. It keeps the juices going and the stuff just flows.
I daren’t check it for fear it’ll disappear before I hit submit 🙂 🙂
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I can feel them vaporising as I read this, VL ! Just kidding. Congrats – a fine effort.
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As you may have noticed in the past, my opinion of Stevens, is that he is an incompetent nincompoop… And a peacock to boot.
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Of course if we had a dictator instead of this irrevocably handicapped govt, he/she could just tell Stevens to sling his hook. Futile just about sums up his job.
He is a plonker of the highest order; like Mr Magoo going round a roundabout the wrong way….In complete and utter oblivion. A ‘petrol tanker’.
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How can you say, that, emmms?
But it’s a mere grammatical quibble that I’m demonstrating here:
“Canuting” cannot possibly be an intransitive verb, particularly when it’s used to denote that it is done upon something else (ie the waves).”To canut” therefore (ie the waves, the onions, or, indeed, the thoughts of an angel) can only be a transitive verb, ie, an active voice and not a middle voice or a passive or a neutral one, since:
a) the middle voice indicates that the verb is doing something to its self, (eg: self-rising flour, thinking, dreaming) and,
b) neutral voice indicates that the verb is doing nothing upon anything else, ie, it is simply “in a state” like the verb “to be” or like verbs such as “I’m resting,” I’m standing” “I’m sleeping,” “I’m walking” etc.
In all, there are four voices:
(i) Active, denoting the verb is doing something to something (or someone else), eg: I’m kicking Hewson ‘s nuts. (Transitive).
(ii) Middle, denoting the verb is doing something to itself (reflexive) eg: He’s running, he is walking, he is thinking, he is farting, burping and stuttering,
(iii) Passive, denoting that a verb is showing that something done to the subject, eg: Hewson’s nuts are being kicked, the spaghetti had been overcooked, Australia is being overpopulated by rednecks and,
(iv) Neutral, indicating that the verb shows a state of being, eg: “I am,” “I exist” “I sleep,” ” I rest” etc.
…Of which four voices, only the first is transitive and the rest are intransitive, or, as also called, “reflexive.”
Therefore, I submit to your honour the judge of grammatical propriety, that “canuting” in this context, apropos the waves, is an obvious paradigm of an active, that is a transitive verb.
Thank you your emmmship!
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Ooops ! We bow to your gentle tutelage, ‘Mou.
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Why, thank you, Laddie!
I accept the prize with prodigious gratitude and a profusion of lustful tremblings! The verbiage, is, I agree, prize-worthy, indeed, even if you say so your pommy self.
Once the grammatical gore gusheth out of me, it gusheth out with flourish and Herculean indecorousness and Hellenic exaggeration!
It was past 2am when I had posted the said verbiage and had just ended a tute with a small group of Oxfordian students of Greek drama. It was past 5pm (the previous day) for them and they had their little minds set on and distracted by warm pommie beer…
I was fatigued but needed to unwind…
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MM, has definitely gone over then edge now. He/she’s found another ABC niche.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2011/3212952.htm
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