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 
STOP PRESS>>> Excitng news:
A tip: How to get two posts up on the Dwumb….wait for it ..
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Are you waiting??
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Hurry up VL, have to work to work soon
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Submit 10.
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Ha ha, glad to see your working here too
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363 comments on Annabel’s story. Submitted 6, only one got up.
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I’m gonna post this 4 times, if’n it doesn’t get up. I’ll save it here.
.They occupy wall st.
Many years ago there was an English radio show, called, ‘Beyond our Ken’. One of the catch phrases, which was constantly uttered, with a country accent, was , “the answer lies in the soil”. it elicited copious mirth, even after the 100drth hearing. It is, in truth, the answer here… The answer lies in the genes. Wealth has been garnered; found in tombs, ancient kingdoms & countryside barrows, throughout the world. In modern days we have not changed. And will not. The best that we can do is have regulation for ‘Corporate Giants’. And to be honest to we want to change such fundamental inherent thrusts. they are responsible for myriad explorations; into medicine, travel and science, technology & art. We are stuck with being us. it’s glorious in some ways, however, exploitation should be punished. That’s all we can do.
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I know this is probably irrelevant, VL, but a while ago I had quite bad stomach pains and the dopey doctors made me have an -oscopy and some other tests until I saw a sensible -ologist who suggested reflected back pain and referred me to a physio who did miracles.
Oh well, you only have to mention an -oscopy to hear everyone’s medical stories. My mother keeps telling me her friends’ medical stories too.
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Oh dear, that comment wasn’t exactly in the right place, was it?
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Well! There are TWO places!
I had mouth insertion. Nothing but hiatus hernia, which I’ve had for years. So back to the drawing board.
While I sat in my cubicle, a woman, whose husband was waiting downstairs, was led past me in a white gown, undone at the back and displaying her ample buttocks and torso. I didn’t care–and she, apparently, was unaware–but I wondered if I should have told her husband, on the way out 😉
Then apologised of course; and blamed it on ╒unston 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Blasted hospital nightgowns. They are a real trap, particularly if you’re distracted by your medical condition. Perhaps they could warn people more. A sign in the change room? I dunno.
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Well, I might go back today. just to do a survey–to make people aware of the trap 😉
And then I might go back Monday & Tuesday 😉
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Oh OH, I can’t. Brother from Gay Paree, arrives Monday morning; pick up Brisbane Airport.
So, gown inspections will be ruled out, until he departs, on 20th.
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I’m sure you’re really a model of dubiety.
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GOD, those bloody Dwumb moderators are bastards.
I crafted a good post, which I didn’t save about Branson, and they ignore it. Posting vacuous trollope instead.
Shizen! Steam!
OK, get on with something else. 50mg valium ?
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Back to work…ForgetABC,… if’n I want to stay sane aujourd’hui..
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Ah Funston! I too am at wit’s end!! Damn their their malevolent,evil-minded,black-hearted, pestilent and noxious mushy minds!!
I am unable to register much more than a sideline whimper – all of the lengthy, meaty, posts are culled and included are only the 2 line quips!!
This is not good.
Not good at all.
I made a note of how many comments I’ve posted and how many were published over the course of the week.
It was most telling.
And so the desire to comment fades daily.
And yet…. I find it unbearable that the Conservative Lumpen are afforded such latitude.
Is there somewhere else to go……..and comment freely……..
Anywhere?
A porn site, a gun lovers magazine, Plonkers of the World Unite, a model railway enthusiasts site, a place to grow vegetables, how to construct timber coffee-tables……..anywhere……..at all?
I despair.
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Yes Mr Cole, I have missed your comments on the Drum; only few one-liners …your posts are almost shorter than Hung’s or mine. What I suspected, you have not stopped commenting, the Mods have turned into blog Nazis.
I have noticed that you and DQ and other good posters have complained, I joined in the chorus and lamented the fact that some of Drum’s brightest (all Labor) are not getting their posts through, that one came up…but sadly nothing has changed…
African Violet Society anyone?
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Thank you Helvi for your kind words – my head hangs heavy; forlorn and in a funk of confusion and bitterness as to the goings-on at that wretched place.
I saw your post regarding posters not being published – the irony was quite delicious.
I fear that if this present rate continues i shall remove myself completely.
I have little time for the Mods caprice.
Helvi, what happened to Hudson Godfrey? We argued at every turn, we exchanged lengthy posts, often 7 or 8 at a time – and we were able to have a …..wait for it….a “conversation”!
He has been gone some 2 months by my memory. Last sighting I believe was on your friend Jennifer Wilson’s article where we argued morality/ideology.
Any ideas?
And should we follow his lead and leave the Drum to the dull Conservatives?
Who knows – after a month or so without us Lefty’s I doubt they’ll be able to go above 2 syllables!
PS – and why do you keep referring to me as “Mr”?,
…………and how long ago was that picture of you taken?
Curious.
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I think Hudson left for more friendlier forums. I certainly felt bad about the harassment he copped, even here at Pigs…
I always liked Hudson…he ,Tomokatu, Arch Bishop, Cricket , Maddie and the Piglets were there more or less from the start, a bit like part of the furniture…
I have ‘left’ the Drum a couple of times, gone back but not enjoying it much anymore…
As for calling you MR…I can’t remember your initials, and you write like a bloke (but not always). 🙂
Dr Wilson is not my friend, but I thought she was attacked unnecessarily harshly at times, and I don’t like that…
PS. I might put up another picture, another day…
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PS 2. Maybe I’ll just put up a nice picture of Milo, he is terribly handsome…
Now, I can be curious too, what about a photo of JG Cole?
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I have just arrived, to see a conversation. Apologies for interloping, but I noticed that you queried Helvi’s honorific (for you)–and you did write : “A porn site, a gun lovers magazine, Plonkers of the World Unite, a model railway enthusiasts site, a place to grow vegetables, how to construct timber coffee-tables……..anywhere……..at all?”
Hardly feminine pursuits. Although I do remember Hattie Jaques in a deer stalker and tweed jacket, in one of her films 😉
Yes the moderators are simply, spotty faced bullies. They probably torture animals too.
Of course you could argue in here with Warrigal, now that he is feeling a bit better. He has been off colour, but is getting back his sharpness.
╒unston’s no good. He’s just an uncouth slob. Not worth the time of day in my view; a deluded megalomaniac, with a born to rule mentality
Probably co-habits below stairs too.
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VL, I like varied company, and the more the merrier, lords and lowlies in a happy mix.
I do not give rats tails about people objecting to my humble views, it’s at ad hominem where I draw the line….
Politicians can cop the lot, they are not humans
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Helvi, I am, apart from using the keyboard, a computer novice – I am still quite partial to pen and paper – so asking me to put up a photo is a task beyond my capabilities.
Not beyond yours though,
I await.
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Hello Funston, You are quite right – trainspotting, anorak Plonker is what I keep hearing. He dresses like a Big Girl’s Blouse and imagines himself as Withnail – crumpled, beer stained, whiskey stink coat, breath like an elephants ass and a wit devoid of both charm and irony.
Ahhh Funston…..stage 14 of my mid-life crisis is drawing to a close.
I give it no more than a week.
After that?
I shall resume the painterly composition of very large abstracts.
Pssst, just a quick one to any of you older than myself – how long can I stretch this mid-life nonsense out…… I mean before your partner starts putting you on the lounge?
I mean, can I squeeze another 8 or 9 stages out of this?
I shall receive all advice…….warmly.
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Each man in his time plays many parts JG !
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Regression is also likely/normal, excepting for Rupert Murdoch. He takes monkey glands. I guess.
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OMG, my Cavaliers are snoring, here in the office. I think I’ll take a constitutional.
I have a date with an Indian Doctor, for a gastrowotisname scopy later. Perhaps the anaesthetist might oblige with a touch more Valium or whatever.
I’ll check my lettuces on the way past.
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Had a call from the surgeon. I’m to turn up an hour later than was booked–so came back.
Withnail? You’ve stirred a memory there; but I confess to looking it up. The memory was dim. It was(virtually) not existent actually.
I haven’t looked at the ABC today.I suppose I should….
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Unusually decent of the surgeon to want you to not waste more time than necessary. Usually indicates problems for one or more of the predecessor patients. If it goes a lot late, Jules, rebook. Nobody wants an accident from an overly tired colon surgeon who’s already had a shit of a day (forgive me, I couldn’t help myself).
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VL, I saw the movie ‘Whitnail and I’, I did enjoy it then…
How are the lettuces, mine are doing well, and so are the Kipfler potatoes, tomatoes and herbs..
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Well, you’ve got a good memory Helvi. I can’t remember the film.
I picked some dwarf beans, green and yellow. It’s time to plant some more stuff. My lettuces are nearly ready,but as the weather is getting warmer, I’ll probably have to change plant-styles. I don’t grow potatoes.
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VL, they happened to have Kipfler seed potatoes in Aldi, and as Aldi would, they were selling at half of the nursery prices….couldn’t resist….
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It’s not a colonoscopy, but a gastro mouthy stomachy one.I had the other one when I gave up the booze.Only to find… nothing wrong.
This is all about tummy. To much ice-cream maybe 😉
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Postscript: Surely not drinking or eating since last evening, must be good for something. Just a cup o’ Irish breakfast tea and 2 ginger biscuits at 6am!!
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Best wishes for your ailing gut Funston.
Speed the recovery………
I have a bottle of the finest peach moonshine, distilled twice!, ready for drinking.
I shall bring the cheese, chilli and tea chaser.
You bring the backyard, some chairs and a sunny morn.
Oh, and Helvi and atomou.
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Or,
They dined on mince, and slices of quince
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
I had to be picked up; slightly groggy. Nothing much; more cosultaions. No wonder he (the surgeon; and the anaesthetist )drive sparkling blue Mercedes.
You sound a bit like Donald Brook BTW?
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Sir, sir, Mr… what about Voice and me? I’ll make the vinaigrette.
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To Funston – 🙂 ahh you serenading me. I shall play hard to get!
Donald Brook, you say? I argue too much with him. Our views on Art differ and he is a stubborn old man too used to getting his way – the vocational hazard of being a teacher for too long, i imagine. He has forgotten that not all remain in awe of his every utterance.
A formidable polemicist .
Not formidable enough……though!! 😉
To Gerard – by all means! A chaperone for your wife is the custom. Bring the salad and some stories. Funny ones to deepen our creases!
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I’ll bring a salad of baby Kipflers, and the best Italian mineral water for VL…
JG has summed up Brook pretty well;a nice bloke but too pedantic, too complicated, and he made me almost dislike art. To me art is something that moves you, takes you to a different level, it’s not just for eyes but for the soul as well…
Where’s Atomou, and the kourabiethes?
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According to Jacques, there is only 7 stages 🙂
I really must do some work now.
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Aldi, 7 stages?!?!? No, no, no, no…….Jacques is, as we say, erroneous. He has succumbed to a clerical error of vast consequence.
I myself passed stage 7 quite some time ago….quite some time ago…….in the front seat of a stolen ( I think it was) BMW, listening to the strange sound that is the amalgam of police sirens and the squeal of tyres on an Amsterdam tram line……….I was in a hurry, there were friends waiting at the ConcertGebouw…….
They can vouch that I passed stage 7 on that evening.
But that’s a story for another time……….
Now about those kourabiethes.
I’ll take 2.
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Excuse Aldi Chocolate, he’s not quite the full http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobroma_cacao 75%
I think (that) he was referring to Jaques, in “As you like it”.
Probably a bit too obtuse. However Vectis lad had alluded; above.
Never mind! Back to my work. And then water the lettuces & strawberries. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼
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Vivie, to your comment about Richo being on fire and you not crossing the road to piss on him, I added, “Olives, I’d do it if he wasn’t on fire!”
One of the most repulsive creeps that have climbed ladders of crap to get to the top of a chocolate mountain. I used to hate hearing about him and from him ever since he poked his head above the gutter. Remember the Queensland sex scandals? Sent shivers up my spine that era did.
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Ato, where is Viv saying this? I can’t stand the man, silly pompous has been…
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Under Stuffed olives, H.
Use the Find function.
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I see what your problem is, H!
You’re looking at the drum!
Nope it’s one of the news items, Item 2: Rudd pins down cause of Richo syndrome
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Ato, I thought you were commenting on Viv’s comment, and I wanted to know where this commenting was happening 🙂 so that I could add my my comment…
I was not thinking about The Drum, more like where at Pigs…Anyhow I despise that man!
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It hadn’t appeared by the time I turned off computer. Thought I’d been censored. Must see it for myself.
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Off the page now, Vivie but you can find it here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-07/rudd-attacks-richardson-over-leadership-talk/3343638
My comment didn’t make it though!
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God that Judith Sloan woman drive me mad with her negativity and self induced superiority so I couldn’t help myself as usual and posted this
Looking at your photo Judith it would appear that you have been indulging in a good deal of cake for quite some time.
Can’t see it getting up
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Hung, and that is a good photo of her….. She takes turns in being a professor/Hon professor, mother of grown-up daughters (who cares), lobbying for tax cuts for mining companies (???)….go away, i feel like telling her…
I saw her at that tax conference, she was much larger with unbecoming long grey curls.
I find her dishonest.
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Sounds like she knows how to get elected, though, Helvi… But who is she anyway; I’ve never heard of her… I used to be impressed with titles like ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ and ‘Professor’… but that was BEFORE I went to uni…
😉
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Well, they wouldn’t print my comment about women fighting..I mean mud-wrestling.
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No, however one of your alter-egos, Blob, got up on the ‘Soapbox’ !
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VL, did you see my reply to Funston, the good lord was rattling on something about Bolt and monkeys… 🙂
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Yeah, just back from lunch. I had to cut it short though to run off to an unexpected business meeting. I did spot it, after you prompted me. However it’s you (the Left), that Bolt has on a string . You’re always writing about him. You’re obsessed 😉
The guillotine comes down spoon, anyways!
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Oh, the good old ABC has done some renovations to its website. Really they should replace their IT project manager with someone who has a clue, or at least hire someone to introduce some kind of acceptance testing procedure before going live.
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Thry clicking anything over at the ABC ans see what you get
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Not working is it.
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Was getting these errot 404 or 504 messages. Seems ok now.
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No stuffed again. I
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Using ok in the sense of “total crap”, algy. They are hopeless. They stuffed up their last last big website change rollout too.
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Back again…
She’s like a Jack in the box!
Or playing “boo!” with us!
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Well it looked OK for a moment, came back here and the same error messages came up voice. You’d think they’d test it before going live. Then again lateral thinking isn’t the ABC’s strong point.
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Or, like Ebenezer (the panto version). Look out she’s behind you.
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Or like Punch ‘n Judy… Bonnie and Clyde… Abbott, Costello and Howard…
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Or….Sarah Hanson-Young…as…Widow Twankie.
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News Flash – The Drum open for business and it’s Saturday
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yep, I noticed. Ffunston got a guernsey at Malcolm Mothball’s piece & Shylock got his point across.
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However, there are no October comments.
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Blast Shylock spelt ‘don’t’ incorrectly. Bloody one fingered typist. Although ‘I’ should have checked, I s’pose.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-29/ec-president-calls-for-banks-tax/3034774
Let’s see if they allow Ffunston’s post, with the dreaded ‘C’ word*.
communist.
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There is only ever one person who pays tax: the consumer. It all comes down to that in the end. If a bank has a 20% profit target, it will gouge that anyway.
Of course Barrosso is an erstwhile communist, so it doesn’t take much reasoning to determine that any money would be sponged up in Quangos and red tape.
This blog is slow now??
HUNG, have you been secretly desecrating it??
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Just popped back to copy the post and have another go at pasting it 😉
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Well, if anyone (in here) can translate the Einstein blog, I’m Einstein.
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Ok, lad. It’s like this:
Einstein, in a moment of brilliance, said that nothing can travel faster than light. Boom! But nothing, right?
Now this phenomenally huge pipe built between Geneva and the Gran Sasso lab, in Italy became the pipe that blew Einstein’s theory to pieces. You see, our post Einstein scientists, sent a nutrino down that pipe and the thing used all its legs and ran faster than light. Not much faster but faster nevertheless.
Sooooo, if my predecessor was wrong about this, what else was wrong about?
Ey?
The only way to prove if he was wrong is to repeat the experiment and see if it happens again. But that’s a hard ask: that is to determine how fast a nutrino runs because, well because they don’t relate to matter very well…
But there’s more because Eisnstein based his theory on the view that, in terms of physics, the understanding that we have of vacuum (four-dimensional space-time) is wrong and that there’s something else around, something beyond our view of this vacuum, called Greek tax Dept, where everything spins out much faster than the human eye could ever catch. Incidentally, the Greek Tax Dept has siblings all around the world, most of whom reside in Wall St and Fleet St…
Get it, lad?
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EZ, if a nutrino travelling faster than the speed of a Greek tax collector took a quark out of its pocket and hurled it forwards, would not that quark for a time travel faster than the nutella which itself is travelling faster than the speed of light – thus allowing it to arrive before it left.
Just asking.
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The only problem is. That plonker at The Drum, couldn’t explain it. I had to get Little Hadron and a Bubble & Squeek, to do ‘that’.
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Emms, would that Greek tax collector be playing for Collingwood?
Just asking because there are lots of quarks (don’t tell Mrs Ato I said this) playing in that team. Anyhow, all the nutrinos in a cabbage couldn’t get a euro out of Merkel’s pocket, let alone Julia’s hairdresser.
I’m afraid we’re all stuck with a quark that won’t bark in the dark nor quack like a throttled parakeet… in space… flying faster than the speed of… Astro Boy! (atomou in Japanese)
Give me a place to alliterate and I shall move the planets!
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Lovely to have company on my side of the bar, ‘Mou. Another ?
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Another what? If it’s not ouzo don’t bother!
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In response to the Cessation of Bullfighting in Barcelona, and the question of whether bullfighting is art or torture, Emmjay wrote:
Nobody forces men with small p*nises and elaborate costumes to fight bulls. The bulls have no choice.
When the men get injured, all sorts of rescue and life saving cuts in. When the bulls get injured, the Torturodors injure them some more and eventually the Murderodors put them to the sword. The crowdeodors all go to the cantina and the Waiterodors ply them with sangria (metaphoreodor for blood) until they get blotto in the name of art.
Seems fair enough.
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Quite so, Emms! This bull torturing bullshit was a malodorous blightodoros on the face of humanity! Why it took them this long to ban the gruesome thing, is anybody’s guess. Obviously the preceding politicians didn’t have the kahunes.
It’s one reason why I hate such mass social constructs as religions and traditions. Anything to give the excuse not to think for yourself and to mindlessly go on committing outrageous deeds.
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The word, Tauromaquia is interesting. The very same word in Greek “tauromahia,” meaning “battle with bulls.” What battle? A bit like Bush’s shock and awe crap. Unmitigated slaughter.
In ancient Crete, of course, youth prided itself on playing with the bulls. Jumping over them, dancing with them, placing garlands around their neck. Lots of vases with such pictures drawn on them.
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What a thing to call “a cultural asset!”
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Now THAT’S bazarre!
What’s happened to my youthful nic?
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Checkering, checkering, checkeriiiiiiiing!
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Gotsa, you precocious little tit sucker!
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Meant to be “teat sucker,” of course!
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Continuing the subject of ‘cultural transmission’ which we were exploring in Gerard’s ‘getting of wisdom’ thread, ato, I must say I’ve also often wondered if the Spanish bullfight isn’t a ‘cultural refraction’ of the Cretan bulldancers, perhaps via Carthage, as the Carthaginians occupied much of southern Spain after the Romans sacked Dido’s city. Just a thought… though it would also explain the similarity between the words ‘Tauromaquia’ and ‘Tauromahia’… One cannot also help wondering if there’s any connection at all between either or both of these phenomena (‘bull-dancing’ and ‘bullfighting’) and the cult of the Paphos bull…
🙂
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When in Portugal we wanted to see a bull fight – where they don’t kill them. None were ever on at the right time. Wound up going to a bull fight in southern Spain. Saw seven fights, blood and horror. It was awful.
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Have to give you points for persistence, Viv – how come you stayed after the first one – wasn’t it more of the same sort of barbarism ?
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Sorry for late reply – it wasn’t just up to me; we paid good money to get it; got sucked in probably; was hoping one bull would win.
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Conflatious, had the last say, I see.
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Well, rejoice in Pig’s Arms, including Leashed and Dot, because nothing will save us from looming economic and impending doom..
The Dow,the Dax, the Cac,the Ftse100 all downwards spiralling. Yes please, a wedge, a pink, a snag, a shag, even a short respite in house of pain.
The world in a twirl, the Chinese it’s turn and will own all, will sweep aside US and Euro, use a wider, bettter, much bigger broom.
Don’t despair my friends, just grit, stay put, keep up the wit and words a plenty, and nothing will have been in vain.
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Got that damn awful Stevens again. Fair in the chops: bloody bankster. If’n he reads that Dwumb story he’ll be mopping his pate 😉 Bloody fraudster.
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I recall some bright spark on the Dumb suggesting we look to Italy to see how to handle boat people, since they get so many more. Where do people get the moronic idea that Europe is coping well with the influx of refugees?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-22/lampedusa-migrant-clashes/2910756
The UN is shocked by the goings on in Europe, as are we here in Australia. The migrants that are being forcibly repatriated from Lampedusa are rioting because they want to be sent to the European mainland instead. Funnily enough, Europe doesn’t seem that keen.
Love the voiceover where the commentator says “also harmed, the image of Lampedusa as a safe refuge for those fleeing turmoil in other countries.” You’ve got to be kidding!
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To see where it all leads, take a drive through Leeds, or Birmingham….or Lewisham.
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Look, I am sure most of us would accept that two apples and other two apples makes four apples’.
The big difference, BIG difference, BIG BIG difference between the boat people arrivals here compared with Europe is in numbers. They, especially Italy Greece, are being overwhelmed, overburdened,invaded, armada like, by tens of thousands on a weekly basis.
We, in Australia are barely getting a trickle, a couple of drops, just a hint every now and then, just a vapour, a slight mist, just a dew drop of desperate boat people. They come to an almost empty continent. The least populated in the whole wide world and we can’t cope, get a total breakdown, take to drink, lay awake at night tossing and turning, getting images of the Priapus ejaculating all over us with millions of Afghans taking our wives and homes. Tearing down our beloved zincalume edifices, trampling over petunias and pebblecrete.
That’s the difference. (2+2=4)
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You appear to have had a change of heart, gerard. Wasn’t it you who was recently lamenting the soulless regard for numbers? And on this very issue to.
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Nicely said Gerard.
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Now THAT’S weird – even for the DUMB!
On the side panel I see the stuffed one’s fragment
“I’ve not brought up the matter of disrespect – some have, most haven’t. But I do say it is not funny, not satire and not …
STUFFED OLIVE”
But, when you go to the blog, our poor girl ain’t there!
Vivie, whatsadone?
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It’s quite common at the Dumb , if unprofessional and slack, for their different areas where comments are displayed to be out of sync for a while.
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JG, I must make my own confession, here, because I, too have called Funston, (aka, inter alia multi, Vee-ell, aka, Vectis Lad) a simpleton. Don’t know why I would have done that but I think he might have become overcharged with indignation when called the same by yet someone else.
It is indeed a splendid day here, in North Box Hill, Vic and I’ve been working up a wee sweat tickling my vegies.
IMHO= acronym for In My Humble Opinion. Depending on who says it, it may be an attempt at sarcasm, irony, euphemism, dysphemism, or even honest self deprecation, though the latter is rarely the case.
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Yes, it was intended for you: the simpleton pseud. However I knew that J. Cole had used it. So it was doubly sweet.
My remark about the echo, was really just to say that we’re all different and it is better than just hearing one’s own views/voice all the time.
I provide a counter point here. Which I may say, is sorely needed. You are all commies, excepting for Voice & Hung 😉
It is hard work though writing the parts for the various actors.
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I reckon that atomou would be the only candidate for possible communist.
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Well, I dunno. I agree with Funston. MJ, is conservative hater. Viv is an orthodox, fully paid up member & Big M, is a convener, at heart.
gerad is a radical & Helvi is his moll 😉
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Finally got around to watching that DVD, after the 3rd hiring. Half one night, and half the next; which cost me a late fee again. (The owner has a good laugh, he reckons that he makes a good profit out of me on the cheap night, cos I never watch them–so he gets me that next week, or a late fee..)it’s amazing how good acting can turn rubbish into something semi-watchable.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/synopsis
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A Conservative baiter maybe. And only with a capital C.
I don’t dare correct the other descriptions.
How come I don’t get a mention?! I am a political dilettante.
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Well, you are fairly entrepreneurial, imaginative, intelligent, literate and jocular…….sooooo I assume that you are………a swinging voter, with the attributes of a conservative, but the heart of a mother 🙂
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I had signed off, at The Comma. Which seems to have gone completely dotty now.
So I’ll wish thee goodnight from here. Desini. Salamat Malam.
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I noticed another omission too Voice, but I dread to ask…
😉
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Let’s see now. A non-member of the gentry from a coal mining town in northern England. That’s a tough one.
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But I’m really from Singapore, Voice…
😉
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“To atomou – breakfast can wait for just one moment.”
What greater compliment can a man receive than to have a breakfast adjourned for him?
Thank you JG! And I too, have responded with equal sacrifice. My Greek coffee and shot of ouzo have been put beyond the reach of my hand.
Apropos White, I can’t see how we can escape using the old cliche -the one that religious and political morons love to use- that “we must agree to disagree.” For a couple of reasons. One is that I can barely remember Voss as anything other than a tome of frustration and severe exasperation, another, that the reason you like him so much is this one line, his last one as it happens, the one that comforts you personally because it conjures up the image of a self satisfied man and that, is most probably the end goal of us all. I’m being ridiculously amateurish, of course but, personally, I’d need more than one line -be it the first or the last- to give a work of art my imprimatur; as I’m sure you also do.
In simple terms, I found the guy overbearing. Could well have been the times -my times; or my unrequited expectations, from such a lofty figure, or even Melbourne’s bad public transport. I do not ken but, to this day I feel I’d rather try and clean my ear with my tongue than spend any more time between the covers of any of his books. In the spirit of mutual intellectual respect, therefore, on this issue, we must… agree to disagree!
Gez, may I suggest that the reason that White doesn’t have a street named after him is precisely because… well, he wasn’t that much of a writer… really… when it comes down to it.
OK, I’m joking but it would be an interesting exercise to try and find out how many authors have been honoured in such a way -world wide, I mean, compared to emperors, politicians, backroom bureaucrats and cockroaches – all being of the same biological genus, of course.
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Yes, but Bradman was none of those.
Oscar Wilde’s grave in Paris (Catch line 2) has a never ending stream of visitors.His grave is covered in kisses, Wilde embodies the original rebel. Some say it is because he was jailed for love, and the romance of this notion is the reason for the kisses.
Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam, again a never ending stream of visitors.
I am not suggesting a mausoleum (a la Lenin) for Patrick White but a modest sign, let’s say on par with those VC stop-overs along highways or perhaps a park named after him. Even a bench seat with a modest copper engraved plague in Moss Vale. Why the exclusion?
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Hello atomou, Yes, I couldn’t leave the White thing alone 🙂
I take your point about White……I can quite easily see how the prose can seem……turgid or buttoned down like the face of a miserly grandmother.
But for me it is quite different.
And the inclusion of my line was simply to highlight the Emerson connection as I see it.
And yes of course, agreeing to disagree is fine with me. I attempt no advocacy where White is concerned.
Others maybe 😉
I found myself in our University Great Hall book fair recently.
I emerged 2 days later with 32 books. All for the princely sum of…….wait for it…..$54!!!!!!
hahahhaha
ahaahahaha
ahaahahahahaa
And, if you care to step into the absurd with me, 4 of those books I already have!!!
But how is one to pass up Jonathan Culler’s “On Deconstruction” for $1.20?
Or the selected poems of Verlaine for 60 cents?
Or Goldberg’s “The Classical Temper” hardcover for $1.00?
Or Joyce’s “Dubliners” for 80cents?
Most of the others with literary theory and art theory books. Also some general histories. But the wonderful surprise was an excellent condition biography of Lord Salisbury “Victorian Titan” by Andrew Roberts. It came in at the outrageous sum of $2.50!
As you see my reading list is set for at least the next 2 years.
Anyway, enjoy the coffee and the sun and the ouzo – perhaps in that order!
We shall speak again,
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You must have spent some time in the UK? The word turgid?
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Vectis – yes I have. The beer was horrible, the weather nasty, the language difficult, the people turgid……but the Yardie Girls on All Saints Road were deadly gorgeous.
All in all, quite an eventful time.
Where are you from Vectis?
Any road?
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Trouble with my broadband this morning: very intermittent.
All the coloured girls go doo doo do do doo.
I’ll see if this goes. A test .
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Aah ha.
Well roads?
Carisbrooke rd, the one that leads to the castle, where Charlie was kept, before being despatched; Djalan Daksa II Kebayoran Baru (D)Jakarta; Duck Lane, Soho, briefly. And The King’s Rd: the one that Charlie’s son cleared out for Nell Gwyn.
Drove past em all 2 months ago.
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Correction: Not Daksa II dua.
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But then you knew that Jaygee. Didn’t you?
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Not all
But some……..
yes.
I am still waiting for you to offer me your congratulations. If Cynicure had not confirmed my suspicion how long would have continued with the deception?
I came in “from the wilderness, a creature void of form”…….and you hid behind Vee-ell and Vectis.
You must have smiled broadly at seeing my name, wondering….”well, well, well…what do we have here?”
Who knows how the greeting may have gone had I met Funston at the door?
But again, this is your shared space.
I am but a visitor, a stranger, passing through……
Oh, if I had a suspicious or conspiratorial turn of mind I’d say that the PigsArms has been infiltrated by the Drum moderation team!
That or……or…….or there’s a stoolie amongst your lot!
Since I posted my lament on these very pages not one, not one, of my posts on the Drum has been published! Not a sausage! Not a sentence or a syllable across 4 forums!
And yet those young and dangerous fools chipinga, marcus and custard et al continue to have every dull mantra printed.
Coincidence? I think not.
Someone prepare a room – bring a chair, some rope and desklamp.
We got us some interrogatin’ to do!
That is, of course, if i was …disposed to such doubts.
You tell me.
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We are all strangers passing through. Of course some are stranger than others. In fact, don’t tell the others I said so, but I fear you and I might be the only normal people here. And I’m not sure about me.
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JG Cole, I been saying bad things about the Drum and the ABC folk on Pigs Arms, and most of my posts still see the daylight there. They are NOT reading our complaints…
Marcus and Chipinga must get all theirs up.
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If you need to tell people that you are normal, it’s a sure sign that you are not 🙂
Still , I would hate to be seen as normal.
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I reckon if the jury consisted of a Martian and an Earthling, the Martian would think every one of the earthlings as normal and the Earthing, weird.
Or so, I reckon!
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It was in jest Helvi – I am sure they are not reading my vexation and discontent. I was simply wondering who i had left of my christmas card list.
to atomou – a lovely quote I see you have posted on Farnsworth’s article. I took the liberty of adding to it (I hope you don’t mind).
I chose something fitting from MacLeish………. and in a fit of cheek……. something from Dr Strangelove! I hope you like it.
Again i hope you don’t mind the append.
I also picked up the gauntlet that Hermit had tossed with his eschatological nonsense.
I couldn’t resist.
They shall be victorious because they have no shame.
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I’d be delight it to read your post, JG. Hasn’t appeared yet and I hope they won’t shut the blog down before they post yours up. I, too have responded to Hermit’s apocalyptic rubbish but that, too, hasn’t appeared yet.
The victory of the shameless is always short-lived! Old Zac obviously didn’t know what had happened to Darius and his son Xerxes. Shameless bastards the two of them!
🙂
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To atomou – Alas, my post never made it through and served only as an excuse for some fool moderator to vex me and hit the delete key. Damn their child-like whimsy!
I see your address of Hermits’s buffoonery made it though. Well done.
To Helvi – now, let me revisit those conspiracy theories of mine 😉
To astyages – noticed your dissertation. So far it is an excellent read. Forgive the presumption, but why have you not sought to address the….more casual….posters on the Drum when a related topic rears? I mean, the insight you have would be an wonderful addition to any discussion. You would bring not only clarity to the novice but also point to further questions for the more initiated……..
…………pedagogy astyages, pedagogy.
anyway, I shall think more on it as I read.
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JG Cole, I’m been sweetly listening to Warrigal’s Cole Porter songs and I popped in here to read:
“To Helvi – now, let me revisit those conspiracy theories of mine ”
I’m a little non-plussed, I wrote two replies here, one for you about deletions on UL, and one for Voice about being normal or not…nothing about conspiracy…please explain 🙂
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Quite right, JG! Child-like (the Greek word is “moronic,” though that does abject injustice to all the innocent little Greek morons) whimsy!
Totally unpredictable, absolutely illogical and thoroughly fascist.
Can’t remember what I said to the fool. Must check it out. Hardly ever even bother to check such things any more. I send my fleeting words and leave it at that. Much like an uncouth one who farts in the lift and leaves… At least that’s how I see the Rum these days. A clunking old lift.
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What?
No welcome for J.J. Cole ── from Emmjay?
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Clinton, we ALL welcomed you back to Pigs Arms with open arms after your absence; even for a dinnerparty to work your need a mix, a selection of all kinds… 🙂
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7pm central time and the 4th major article over at the Dumb by Greg Jericho – CLOSED
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Hello Hung – i recognise you too……as a sporadic poster.
Thank you for your welcome yesterday.
i enjoy Jericho immensely and it is pigawful that he is cut short.
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Cheers JG, It doesn’t matter if we don’t always agree, we call it as we see it but in the end we is mates
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Certainmont. A literary luminary, such as yourself, would be a most edifying and welcome addition to our “extremely” laxly moderated, humbuged-ness.
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…Or humbuggery 😉
The above post was supposed to be a reply to J J Cole. I had an urge to write Cale.
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Why thank you Vectis – my preference is for John Cale though.
A literary luminary?
No. Simply one who is far too old to bother with the nonsense om the Drum forums.
Edifying?
No to that also I’m afraid. Simply one who is seeking some refuge from the absurdity on the Drum forums.
ta for your welcome though.
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Can I begin a rant here?
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What are you doing here, this is our Real Estate section, you want to rent something Mr Cole?
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hahahhaha
Why yes Helvi, something with a leafy outlook and quiet.
You have something you can show me?
I would also like to rent a troupe of naked Caribbean dancing girls, a large straw hat, an old pair of sandals and an opium pipe. If you have an old copies of White’s “Voss” toss that in as well.
Can you get those things ready by this afternoon?
Money is not a consideration.
I await.
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Plenty of leafy abodes on our books, I’ll toss Gez’ Voss in with compliments of the Management.
If the head (the brain)is not too over-sized, the hat can be organised as well…
The dancing girls will arrive after dark….patience, Mr Cole!
(PS. White’s Voss is worse for wear, G has read it six times, and as I can’t get into that old Grump, no need to return it)
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Ta Helvi…Who is G. and why has he/she ONLY read it 6 times?!?!?!
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Go for your life. You can’t do it wrong, as I said on the About page.
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Thank you Vectis.
I shall be terse.
I am here because I remember Helvi and Country Boy (is he here?) once mentioned the Pig’s Arms as the City of Refuge for Drum/Unleashed casualties – like Sassoon, Owen and Graves at Craiglockhart, it will indeed serve as respite from the Godawful thunderings from those Coalition dunderheads and the capricious lunacy of the Moderation team at the Drum
Looking at your list I only seem to recognise but 3 of you; Algernon, atomou and, of course,Helvi. It is primarily to these that I address this brief bitch.
Perhaps they will recognise my name and already have a context for my profound disappointment and bitterness.
And it begins like this: I have been posting regularly for almost 2 years now and have grown accustomed, reluctantly and with a growing sense of frustration and bitterness, to the brutal culling, the inexplicable postings, the whimsical amendments, the careful
arrangement of posts and posters etc.
I persevered believing, in my idealism, that the patent absurdity of the overwhelming bulk of the Coalition apologists needed to be countered with some common sense, facts, logic and ethics – 4 qualities in short supply.
So onward I forged. Arguing here, quipping there……always seeking to curb and rebut an act of Dull buffoonery.
But then last week, out of nowhere, something……….unusual occurred!
I read a chunk of preposterous bombast from one, Boganville, and quickly, seeking to bring short shrift to his garbage, penned a vigourous response detailing the flaws in logic, the comprehension errors, the blatant propaganda and the sheer lightheadedness of his post.
It was, by anyone’s measure, a most sensible and justified response.
When I returned to the computer at the end of the day I noticed, with the surprise of one unaccustomed to receiving unwarranted disrespect, that not only was my post not printed BUT Boganville’s original post had gone as well!!!!
I nearly fell off my chair at this act of explicit editorialising. It was clear that the moderation team were culling posts that sought redress of other posters, other ideas, other perspectives, other voices.
Now you more experienced hands may chuckle at my naivety.
By all means, unburden yourselves.
I however was stunned.
My entire project was compromised beyond all recall and beyond all measure.
And I consoled myself with the rationalisation that it could get no worse; that I had glimpsed the very heart of media evil, that I had looked it in the eye and heard the low deep breath, “the horror…..the horror”.
But my Night Journey was incomplete….my Marlow still in the Congo…..
Just 3 days ago however I found myself pushed through the portal…..not into Conrad’s heart of darkness but into the blinding world of Koestler’s Darkness at Noon…
I was guiding 2 Coalition propagandists through those often turbulent waters we call “Fact”. And in one post gave a factual estimation (any reputable source would have confirmed my post) of Murdoch’s NOTW value.
My reply was printed and sat underneath the buffoons post as a direct and irrefutable counter to his blatant propagandist imbecility.
It sat there for exactly 15 minutes and was duly and quietly removed…….erased…..like a photo of Trotsky.
Gone.
Simple.
Clean.
Forgotten.
As if………….it had never occurred.
I felt……………….violated.
I shall leave the reasons and the thoughts, the suspicions and the bastardry, for another time.
I have spoken enough.
Ta,
J.G.Cole
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JG, Welcome to the Arms. I agree with you. Most of us at some stage have experienced the same thing. I feel that the moderation is somewhat fluid and I have now come to realise that everything is not quite what is seems over at the Drum. I have been blogging there for about 5 years and miss the opportunity to develop a thread of discussion among the posters. VL’s comment about scribbling down what you can before the curtain closes is most apt.
Cheers
Hung
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Apocolyptic, wasn’t it?
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Well, Mr Cole, you are not the only one. Someone was critical of the ABC, I added my bit,which was published, and then two are posters got enboldened and their responses appeared.
When I checked later on, all the three responses were wiped out, only one ,the original was left standing.
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H – and our other friends – I read in the SMH today that there is a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s content – and that they will be accepting submissions until some time in October. If you have the energy – chase it up and make a submission. We all pay for the ABC – and we should all therefore be able to say what we think of it – to people who should be able to help fix the mess that the ABC has gotten itself into.
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Gerard, your nudge, nudge, wink, wink indifference, or your droll attempt at yawning sarcasm reminds me of the Drum. Is that intentional?
To Helvi, I have no doubt I am not the only one. I can remember reading some of your comments that alluded to such practice. But until it happens to you it all feels so…abstract.
Anyway, simply getting off my chest has worked wonders!
I am simply thankful for the opportunity to purge in the company of those with precedence and analogue.
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The moderators have guidelines, but obviously do not adhere to them, since the most innocuous post can be censored, while other, quite outrageous, posts get through. I have been a recipient of both treatments.
It is only a media site. One just simply cannot fall in love 🙂
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PS. They do not allocate much space, or time to back & forth now.
When U.L 1st started, one could carry on a good argument for 3 days. Now it’s : what can one scribble, before the curtain comes down?
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Oh, such sweet innocence!
J.G. we’ve all been violated by the coalition dunderheads at the drum. But I beg of you, don’t be too harsh on the coalition dunderheads. Some of them are ranging even in this hallowed ground…
The memories you jerked out of the deeper recesses of my brain, mate! Koestler’s “Darkness…” Oh, my gord! Conrad! Trotsky’s photos! And, of course that thick-as-molasses, Joyce-wannabe, White and his impenetrable (among other impenetrables) Voss!
Maaaate!
I’m sitting on a tram, back in the early sixties. In Melbourne. On a stinking hot day. It’s a rattler of a vehicle, not only a rattler but an excruciatingly bone smashing one!
On my lap is Voss. Opened at some page to which I cannot remember how I got to it. Or what had preceded it. So I flip the pages back. The agony of my tortured bones increases as the agony of my synapses join the dance of befuddlement. What the fuck is this book about? The synapses ask. Again and again!
I was almost in tears, trying to understand the bastard as well as trying to endure the deboning of my earthly coil.
I’ve no idea how many times I picked that bloody book up and how many times I threw it down in frustration and anger. White wouldn’t let me in. Not in his Voss nor in any of his other overwritten, over thought, over burdened books.
And THAT’S the reason, methinks, why people read his books over and over again. It’s like playing a game which one constantly loses and hopes that the next time he’ll win.
Bastard of a thing to read!
Give me Dostoyevsky, Zola, Balzac, even, Tolstoy, Hugo, Kazantzakis and a million others -including Keneally- but you can all keep your White! Bloody hell! Voss! The Vivi-bloody-sector! The bloody Tree of Man!
Maaaaaate! These aren’t books, they are labyrinths, complete with a minotaur!
You’re most certainly welcome here, young fella so long as you never mention old Patrick again!
Promise, or I’ll send the boys over!
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No Mr Cole,
Sarcasm, droll or yawning is not my forte at all. I am more into spreading sweetness and goodness. I was trying a reference to an old movie whereby ‘The horror, the horror,’ which words you used in your reportage of DRUM experiences, was one of the more important lines. I failed miserably. The movie was Apocalypse Now.
Quote:
I’ve seen horrors… horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that… but you have no right to judge me. It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror… Horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared
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Gerard, I’m not sure if you know that this exclamation (and Coppola’s story) comes from Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” Vietnam, for Coppola, Congo for Conrad. Brando for Coppola, Marlowe for Conrad.
Sorry if you already knew that.
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Patrick White’s novels, while receiving rave reviews overseas, were often panned in Australia. I never had difficulties with them and contrary to what Helvi tell us, have mainly read them once. I do like to dip into them, relish his language.
His books are translated in over 25 languages. They must have something!
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Did I imagine that the something might have been a Nobel Prize for Literature ? Good company – Steinbeck and Hemingway…..
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Thank Gorrrd for Atomou, so I’m not the only one who can’t get into Patrick White 🙂
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Is there a line ? Did I push in by accident ? Sorry. Me three.
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Yes of course Gerard, my apologies. I should have picked it up…..but alas, have grown somewhat dulled myself to the finer tropes…….
Damn that Drum!!!
To Vee-ell, if it was love then it was of the sport; the parry and thrust, the turn and tumble.
And yes, I too remember the 4 day conversations. My highest count was 15 entries in 3 days – a glorious conversation. The only thing missing were the drinks, some nibbles and the warm glow of smiling faces. Fond memories indeed!
To atomou, hi. Thank you for your post and warning. It is not the adversaries I mind so much, in fact I am pleased for the challenge. It is the incessant nincompoopism of those that bleat without recourse to sense that tire and frustrate me.
Now about White and Voss. Come now old fella – our taste of European Modernism and you push the plate away?
Where else can you find Melville and Emerson rolled into one?
It is for me atomou, a prize…..one that I can turn in my mind again and again and again.
I shall take some, though not all, of your list.
And I shall toss in a few of my own.
And we shall argue over words and language and stories………..
But that’s all for another time.
cheers atomou,
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“Some of them are ranging even in this hallowed ground…”
Do not decry diversity. Beware of the echo. Beware of the sound of one hand clapping.
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Patrick White, was the best Australian writer/author, atomou, imho.
Of course he was schooled in England, where he also went to theatres and pubs; listening to single mums and marine biologists 😉
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Don’t forget that Paddy White also went to our own region of the Southern Highlands school, ‘Tudor House’ in Moss Vale. A source of great annoyance for me, that Bradman’s cricket oval is signposted everywhere but not a single acknowledgement that Patrick White walked around here as well.
The ‘preperatory school for boyz’ advertises regularly in the local paper for paying students. Even a video at the local cinema pimps for Tudor House, boyz are seen knocking a tree house together with general rumblings in the grass but noone mentioning Patrick White. Is that because he was a homo-sexual.? Surely not!
We all know that words in right order always win over a ball and wooden sticks!
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Gerard, not to my lit taste. Being translated in many languages doesn’t mean very much to my way of thinking. All sorts of books have had that done to them. But it IS a matter of personal taste and if White does raise your spirits, then by all means. I’m certain that there are books that I absolutely love -books, paintings, sculptures, architecture, theatre, films, and every artistic expression ever made on the planet- that you or anyone else, for that matter, wouldn’t have a bar of. White has something. Something which others, not I, like. Fair enough.
JG. I can barely remember anything of Emerson and I agree with you about Melville. I’d also add -by way of mentioning that continent’s output- people like Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, Twain, Steinbeck, Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, Hemingway…
Anyhow, you’ve put your finger on White’s problem: He was, as you suggest, a compound of Melville and Emerson and whilst Melville was certainly great and, accepting your valuation about Emerson also being great, they were great on their own; and White, combining them, created a literary Frankenstein (figuratively speaking). The two giants were great as single entities. Together, though, between the same covers, I don’t think so! That is to repeat, I, personally, don’t think so.
I think the problem was quite common with the writers of that eon: novels were not simply stories, analysing characters and plots and society but a combination of all that, plus a hit em over the head didaxis. Too much essay writing and pamphleteering in their novels. Jumping outside the boundaries of that eon, the only writers that I can think of (without lifting my sleeves and reading what I’ve written there) who were successful at this were people like Dickens, french writers like Zola, Balzac, Hugo, russians, like Tolstoy, the Greeks, like Kazantzakis, Italians, like Boccacio and Lampedousa…
Shit, I’m exhausted now!
But if you think you’re going to make me go out and buy a copy of Voss, you’re most profoundly wrong. Wrong I say, wrong!
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Laddie, you’re scaring me. I shall try and take my pants off with only one hand, my left hand… the dirty one, as some fundamentalists would have it…
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Welcome to the Pig’s Arms, JG…
Merv! a Trotters’ Ale for my friend from the ‘other place’… and another bowl of granny’s wedgies please.
I seem to remember your nickname from a coupla years ago… Don’t be fooled by all the ‘new’ names… some of us use multiple IDs or like to invent ‘characters’: For myself, in a former incarnation I was known as ‘theseustoo’; occasionally abbreviated to ‘T2’; here I took on the pseud, ‘astyages’, I used to be a regular commenter on what was then ‘Unleashed’ until sufficient lampooning of this title in view of the ludicrous censorship-cum-moderation by several of the ‘piglets’ (I sincerely believe!), prompted a change of title to the ‘Drum’; which, in any case, is perhaps a more appropriate title…
You’ll find plenty of other refugees from the moderation/censorship of the Drum here at the Pigs’ and our ironically named ‘Leashed’ page exists specifically to address that issue (although it is often abused mercilessly for spontaneous chat, too! [Guilty, your honour!]) but we’re a pretty lax bunch’o’bastards round here and very easy-going about things like ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’…
You may know ‘Vee-ell’ or ‘Vectis Lad’ from his previous incarnation as ‘Julian London’ among MANY other pseuds, the most common of which presently is Lord Funston… (also ‘guilty’ your honour!) However if you know Helvi, you probably know Gerard her hubby… and of course, Voice used to be known as Voice of Reason… If there’s anyone I’ve left out who used to use a different pseud at the ‘Drum’ I’ll let them introduce themselves! And I see Hung One On has already introduced himself.
Occasionally we still venture over to the ‘other place’ ’cause I think that we occasionally feel that, well, SOMEONE ought to try to put up some kind of opposition to the invariably rightwing crap they let through… sometimes we are surprised by what actually gets through. But by and large we’re a bit bored with that other playpen; much to small and far too crowded…
So, as I’ve already said, ‘Welcome! Make yourself at home…’ You should fit right in…
🙂
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Oh… and if I comment on the ‘other place’, I usually use the pseud, ‘Cynicure’ these days…
😉
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I don’t think White is just for my taste Ato, there are millions of others, and while translations in many languages is not proof of great literature per se, it does mean foreign publishers, who are by and large hard-nosed business people, are happy to have P.White’s novels on board. What about his numerous awards, including the Nobel-prize for literature?
You are right though, it is personal taste. I can re-read his work and never feel it has dated, his English has a unique signature. But, as for Zola or some of those others you mentioned, even Dickens, they have , in my opinion, lost a lot of originality and feel faded, jaded. Not so Virginia Woolf, again a clear language print, unique and timeless. I would be happy to be marooned on an island with a deck chair (but well away from sand and glare) and have both of those writers’ output as company.
Patrick White is a giant of a writer. He is just about the best known Australian overseas. Certainly a lot better known that Bradman.
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I enjoyed ‘Riders in the Chariot’ Helvi… but I must admit that understanding Patrick White’s intentions can be hard work. I do like the way he uses words though… Very descriptive and quite allegorical… though his allegories are sometimes a bit obscure.
🙂
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To Simpleton – hello Funston, we meet again it appears.
I shall be brief.
A new site, a new terrain……but the argument remains the same with you….it differs not a jot.
“sound of an echo” – such puerile reductionism does little but point out your own embarrassing inability to see and acknowledge the absurdity of your confederates argument ( i use the term loosely, begrudgingly). Do you really, I mean really, care to align yourself and give moral and intellectual support to responses on Media ownership that see the “BER is a waste”, or questions of Abbott’s asylum hypocrisy transformed into “Julia lied about a Carbon Tax”?
The examples are endless and they are mind numbing and all who offer support or attempt to buttress these discursive practices deserve nothing more that contempt for reducing adult conversation to to that of bickering children.
Shame.
Your examples are instructive Funston. Look at them. Closely. Examine the way you have chosen to rebut the notion set forth. Of all the possibilities open to you, you chose that of a tired cliche – demeaning to us all.
Either you refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the point or you are a simpleton.
You choose.
To those that welcomed me here so warmly yesterday I apologise for continuing the battle in your space.
To Vee-ell – I agree with you. White is the greatest author Australia has produced. Only one other chap comes to mind.
To atomou – let breakfast finish and I shall return to your post on authors.
To astyages – thank you.
To Vee-ell,/ Funston – well, well. well…..it appears we DO have a conversation after all! 😉
argument
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To atomou – breakfast can wait for just one moment. Aside from the obvious Melville parallels it is the Emersonian “feel” that I find equally rewarding. There is a single line at Voss’ first meeting with Laura Trevelyan that outlines that ascetic, that desire to cauterise the external world : he looks at her and watches her neck…..and he “lay beneath his pale eyelids….. he was sufficient in himself”.
I like that last line.
To astyges – hello cynicure – yes of course! I have seen you often. You with the wink! And yes, “Riders” is indeed a most satisfying novel. For me, they all are 😉
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Good morrow, Lieutenant Cole.
You’re conflating bloggers’ arguments.
However, we can start with ‘beware of the echo’? What meant Simpleton?
What is BER?
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Thankyou for backgrounding the pseudonyms, T2. Otherwise it’s too much a closed shop.
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Be quick. I have a garden to attend.Do not creep like a snail (that I may find). Show your ‘shining morning face’!
And what’s all this nonsense about Julialiar.
The only reference I have made is that it is pinched from Blake?
I referred once to Wedgewood Benn marching next to a giant Scarfe cartoon. he remained blameless since he was “just there”; as was Abbooot when those liar banners were held up.
I have never made a reference to her lying. To me that’s part and parcel of being a politician. and it wouldn’t be good capital for an argument.
Think of me as your own Sir Les Patterson spilling whisky on the haughty faux ideals of imagined aspirations. Aspirations which I (may) consider too weak; not realistic; ephemeral. However with out the mystique.
Ideals which are often espoused by the wealthy: retirees from Canberra par ex.
And don’t forget, you come here with unclean hands: Bill Ludwig hired and fired your leader. A display of sickening homophobia. A contempt for the masses. IMHO 🙂
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Did you mean that Voice?
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Lack of ‘insider knowledge’ might be a high barrier to participating comfortably in the comments. Unravelling pseuds helps. Is that controversial,VL?
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‘Nothing’, is controversial here. However a paring back; a stripping naked, can have unintended consequences, since there is no history, no building of the anologue.
But hey, I’ve also got stuff to do Cavaliers to be ‘summer scalped’.
To J.J. Cole: about your oldness. It is welcome. Bonne chance!
“You are old,” said the youth, “one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose—
What made you so awfully clever?”
“I have answered three questions, and that is enough,”
Said his father; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!”
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Funston, are you talking to me? Read on if you are. Disregard if you are not.
And I shall progress according to your order.
Good morrow to you too Private First Class Funston. A fine morn indeed; the sun is mild, the birds glide and the new day promises much.
Conflating bloggers arguments is, make no mistake, one of the things I’m railing against.
My primary target here is, of course, the Moderation team – I despise them for their incessant blurring and their obstructionism. The secondary targets are the bloggers themselves – easily distracted by the cliché and the simple.
“beware the echo” was your phrase…..the explicit suggestion being that I was arguing for a homogeneity of opinion. I was not.
I referred to you as a “simpleton” in a post of last week. I thought that you posting under that name now was a veiled and ironic reference to that. By the way, you failed to congratulate me on correctly uncovering your pseudonym. I await .
BER is the Govt’s Building Education Revolution – the acronym for the school infrastructure build. But you already know that.
I often perambulate in the manner of many different animals – snails being just one. Spot the next one when you can.
Julialiar? I;m not sure as to your meaning. I can only guess that it was another reference to my “conflation” argument.
“Just being there” is hardly a defense. Abbott knew the company he was keeping. That some fool popped a sign up, a sign we can all safely assume he and his minders had seen whilst they were there, is the cross that he must bear for his……..associations. A little like Gillard and her…….associations… with the Union boys.
“haughty faux ideals of imagined aspirations” – are you thinking of anyone in particular? Speak your mind. It is your site we are on – I am just a guest – unburden yourself. You will feel better for the declaration. Then, and only then, can we speak of those “faux ideals” and “imaginings”.
My hands are not “unclean” because of hubristic buffoons like Ludwig, they are “unclean” because if it were left to me I would have had them all, dabblers and dilettantes all, lined up against the wall for their acts of cowardice and unprincipled deceit. I unfurled each and every Shakespearean invective I could muster at their craven foolishness……….
But what’s done is done…..and I shall not be distracted by fools, whatever their ideology.
I shall also not be distracted from illuminating the hypocrisy of the Coalition at every opportunity. Their present stature far exceeds their merit.
“A contempt for the masses.” – thank you for concluding on a comical note. A peal of laughter on a bright sunny morn does the soul wonders and I am reminded of Timon, “hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy” to hear a Conservative speak of the “masses” and express solicitude as to “their” condition.
A little like Abbott expressing “concern” for the plight of the asylum seekers.
He is though, quite correct to imagine his “concern” will be believed. After all, as Andrew Elder put it so sweetly in his article of yesterday, “whatever he dishes up is good enough for the likes of you”.
Contempt has had no finer expression.
Finally, I don’t know” IMHO” means.
A fine day indeed for the garden!
Enjoy.
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Sure! We won’t even censor you if you should happen to say ‘fuck’! (Oh fuck! Did I just say that?)
😉
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