A week ago today, I attended the memorial for Bill Leak at the Sydney Town Hall.
As I scanned the crowd, an eclectic group of people who had known Bill one way or another, I had to ask where were the Labor people? Where was Shorten, Plibersek or Dreyfus?
In the wake of the 2004 election, with the Howard government enjoying a majority in both houses, there was no opposition in the parliament. For at least two years, the worst part of Coalition MPs’ days was opening up The Australian and flipping to Bill Leak’s cartoon, to see another hilarious lampooning of their leader.
I would have thought some of the Labor people might have made an appearance simply out of gratitude for those dark days. It bothers me they stayed away and it speaks of a faddish clannishness the old Labor people would regard with contempt.
Bill Leak embraced everyone he met. Ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, it didn’t matter. He genuinely enjoyed the company of people but it was more than that. If he spied someone feeling awkward or a bit uncomfortable, Bill would bound up and make a fuss of them. He not only had the ability to make people feel special but he brought a sense of fairness and equity to any table.
It is a politician’s gift but Bill was not on the ballot. He wasn’t trying to sell anything. He simply loved people.
Full column here.
i expected that Labor would send along some senior people as a mark of respect for a public figure and a political commentator.
i agree with Jack that old Labor would have done so whether they agreed with Bleak’s current work or not. if John Howard could turn up after the bollocking he got through the years then a few Labor people should have had the bottle to turn up as well.
just too worried about what people would think of them.
There’s no other conclusion I can draw either, mate.
They’re piss-weak, mate. Like someone over the wall pointed out, Richo and Latham at least can take a punch as well as give it. I’ve often disagreed with those gents on all sorts of subjects but you could never accuse them of being the moral plague-rats that “lead” the ALP today.
20 career Centuries for Steve Smith and 3 now for the series with one innings potentially to go.
Now out for the Nelson.
The new Chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, seems to be bowling out of his skin (not like a Jim Laker, Bob Massie, or Narendra Hirwani, though).
Reading about Bleak’s prank nearly gave me hiccoughs. Shows you he had more of a real sense of humour than some of his fans elsewhere.
I see the Culture Wars are as tedious and lacking in self-awareness as ever, too.
Ah, hospital meals. Has anyone, anywhere said “I love them”? It’s actually not bad. Described as a Thai Beef Salad. Cold beef, Thai noodles, assorted vegies, accompanied by a pretty ordinary glass of red. But, I suspect they’d object if I had raided my own cellar when I here on Tuesday.
The op was brilliant–couldn’t have been under for more than two hours. I was in my room inside 3.5 and they had me on my (heavily supported) feet within 6 hours, with a shiny new hip. Everything has been good beyond my expectations. Crutches on Wednesday and rehab today.
Not surprisingly, being a teaching hospital, I’ve been interviewed by two nursing students and two med students as part of their assessment. Even on sick leave I’m working! If I was not the kind of person who wanted to help students out, I’d be pretty poor at my job.
My surgeon has let the staff know I’m to be freed on Monday, so all is well. Might have a little bureaucratic argy-bargy but I can cut through.
Heck, even looks like we’ll dodge Debbie!
Hope you’re all well!
Do the rehab, mate. Go well.
Hey Dwight, congrats on a good result, and get out quick and un-infected.
go well mate.
Thanks for your good wishes. Should be back at it in a few weeks.
Agree with you there, jack. Hospitals are not place to linger if avoidable!
You get a glass of vin rouge, Dwight? I’ll be at your bedside quick smart. Failing that I wish you a friendly , benign recovery old mate. Just think how much you’ll save not having to fork out for the Viagra!
Out of interest, are you a Townsville or Cairns person?
Intrusive of me, I know, but I think you’ve mentioned it. If not i’m sure you are capable of telling me to f”?k o?”.
Cairns, Milt.
Go well Dwight, just think of hospital food as your friendly weight loss programmer until you can get home a raid the drinks cupboard.
Got some good plonk awaiting at home, Tracy. Gotta be careful mixing it with oxy, however. _One_ glass won’t hurt.
Just got back from the gym. What they asked me to do +10%. Need the combo now!
Ice skating next week Dwight?
Not since I was a kid, mate. Too much of me is held together with steel and wire.
Keep safe Dwight. Looks like Ayr is going to get a bit windy around about Tuesday morning.
Almost forgot! A mate of mine is a surgeon and he reckons the key to any joint replacement is sticking stringently to the rehab and doing exactly what they tell you. So listen to them mate and do what they say.
He’s precisely right about that, Guv. With now two hips a knee being after-market parts, it’s one of the few things I heed religiously.
Despite the early loss of Renshaw, a good start and at a good clip. Our session.
Well done to the Crows chicks for the inaugural AFLW Premiership.
tough league to win…….hard at the contest…
Sad news down here – our A-G, Vanessa Goodwin, diagnosed with multiple brain tumours after falling ill yesterday. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
That’s awful Boadicea. A friend of mine’s son (only 32) has been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. He’s coping, they aren’t. Live life well and do as much as you can while you can.
Yes. She is only 47. One of the best and most popular politicians here. an active person, she has done the Kokoda trail and climbed the fearsome Federation peak here
Saddest thing is that she lost her mother just last year to the same illness.
It has been a huge shock for everyone here – and from all sides of politics.
A little bit of Christmas every day Penny.
Thylacines! You never can tell!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-24/tasmanian-tiger-sightings-spark-scientific-study/8383884
Theres quite a few species that have returned from extinction. I met sober men who plainly and calmly stated they saw them, once only yards away, crossing roads making their escape from forest fires, and had not seen them under any other conditions. But then they didn’t spend a lot of time perfectly silent and unsmellable deep in the forest, and whats more couldn’t be bothered alerting “them professors” to it.
I’d only be mildly surprised if they were rediscovered, and I certainly wouldn’t bet against it unless they were very long odds.
“Theres quite a few species that have returned from extinction. ”
Yeah, they’re obviously not too concerned about that AGW caper, eh.
Um, okaaaay, the species never were extinct Carl, just misjudged to be extinct by us. Are you with this so far?
If they had been extinct and had choices you’d be right, they would have had about the exact amount of awareness of AGW as Carl on the Coast, the Basil Marceaux of AGW awareness.
Best wishes, your old mate JB.
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/over-20-of-the-most-terrifying-images-of-2016.html
“Are you with this so far?”
Ahem, the unqualified initial reference to “extinction” were your words JB. Not mine.
The real question is – are you with it me old mate?
Re your link JB, you’re obviously addicted to pretty pics of the arctic. Did you happen to catch the report about the polar bear conservation success story?
They’re arctic dwellers as you know, and apparently the bears are quite partial to a decent dose of the old climate change caper. Their present population is reportedly greater than 25,000; more now than 40 years ago.
That’s even before AGW was discovered me old mate.
Good news. eh!
Not so I’m afraid Carl.
Polar Bears depend on a sea ice platform to hunt, rest and breed. Summer sea ice has been decreasing in size for the past 20 years & melting for longer periods. They’re listed as a Vulnerable Extinction risk mainly because of the rapid loss of their habitat resulting from man-made Climate Change.
In extreme cases, females with cubs are now facing starvation.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/66377/20150706/polar-bears-will-be-extinct-sooner-than-thought-how-many-are-left.htm
Of course many wildlife protections put in place by Obama have been overturned by the pig-ignorant fruitcake currently unravelling the FWS regulations in the US. Trumps new legislation allows the savage & inhumane killing of all bear species including shooting females & their cubs just sleeping in their dens.
My contempt is difficult to contain Carl because the carnage will be immense & unrecoverable.
Regards, Bella
For God’s sake! Obviously they were not extinct, “returned from extinction” is clearly a sarcasm. What is the matter with you?
Well if you think 25.000 polar bears going extinct instead of a slightly lesser number going extinct is “good news” then you’ve got kangaroos in your top paddock.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/66377/20150706/polar-bears-will-be-extinct-sooner-than-thought-how-many-are-left.htm
And that’s bloody optimistic!
Maybe it is time to upgrade?
Maybe it’s time to upgrade. ?
Um, okay. How does this grab you?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/science/polar-bears-global-warming-climate-change.html?_r=0
It was the trappers who decimated the thylacines. Carl. The pelts were in demand in Europe and the hunters were paid handsome bounties – because the beasts were killing sheep.
There is a walk one can do here through magnificent forest in the Florentine to a restored trapper’s hut – where the last thylacine trapped was reputedly held.
I heard a story the other day about a publican here who had a Labrador. At closing time he would send the dog out into the street – on whose back he had painted some stripes. There were many inebriated folk who swore blind they had seen a thylacine!
I doubt the “story” about the publican is correct, unless he was an idiot or wanted his poor dog run over or getting shot to pieces.
You are talking about Tasmania, right?
Fair dinkum JB. We don’t walk around with holsters here actually!
Boady, you need to get away from the genteel yachting, tennis and bushwalking society and get out and discover Tasmania.
If we had a “Bogan Olympics”, and we should, The Apple Isle would garner more medals than the rest of the states put together.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/bogan-hunters-reveals-seven-finalists-in-its-search-for-australias-greatest-bogan/news-story/a06d97827905a37d4fda8c0f4f5de2d6
Paint stripes on a pair of overalls and walk through the bush yourself and ………..
NO DON’T! What am I saying!
JB – I just hope you all keep thinking that way up there. I am getting alarmed at the number of mainlanders moving down here. They’ll wreck the joint eventually – because they think they can behave like they do on the mainland. Road rage, rudeness, etc etc. They’ll destroy what people came to enjoy.
Here in Tassie, the people are genuine. They know they are living in paradise and appreciate their good fortune.
Heavens above, I’ve been chased out of my local café (Jackman & McRoss) because it’s got overrun by tourists. The staff have lost the personal touch and are after the tourist dollar. It’s a shame. So now I just pop down to good old Retro Café where one can still find locals hanging out!!
Haha – I was driving up north the other day and came across a road called Bogan Road – fair dinkum. The locals were telling me that the council has to erect the sign on an extra high pole – because it keeps getting stolen!!
The people are genuine? Genuine bogans!
Tassie is “cute” but that’s about the strength of it.
Thanks for the tip on Café Retro (sounds so bloody cute) I’ll put that up on Twitter and Facebook.
You probably got chased out because you would not pay for the paper
Not sure about playing but I’ve been saying for a while now that Kohli isn’t fit to captain. Anywho, we win the toss and to the amazement of a billion Indians we elect to bat. Sir Richie Richardson is match referee, he’s a blast from the past. On winning the toss I read, on cricbuuzz I think, that due to the advantage a correct head or tail provides there are suggestions for tinkering with the rules. One idea floated was to allow the team that lost the toss to change their team. Personally i’m not in favour of this change. As in life, as in cricket, as in cards, one has to play with the cards they are dealt.
Love the Dharamsala cricket ground, beautiful spot.
Attractive scorecard, too.
Not now though
Moving Forward …..
Was
I can live with 300 though
Low standards TV – too many did not get a score.
The left arm wrist spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, worked the middle order over but 300 isn’t a bad score. Watched the last session and the ball was doing a bit here and there. India have gone in a batsman short. The wicket will be best to bat on by tomorrow afternoon (according to Clarke), so Australia need to take wickets with the new ball. Smith has just about batted himself into elite class. Up there with Ponting and Chappell, G.S. IMO and he may not be satisfied with that. He’s 28. He’s played 53 Tests and he’s made 5234 runs at 61.57.
Four bowled – you don’t see that too often
I wonder what Smith’s average is if you took out the matches where he was a bowler?
If the middle order had gotten into the 20’s it would look a lot better.
not gunna bat 140 overs….. dammit
53 years? As I recall, Piltdown Man was exposed after only 40. Well done!
Australia has a rich history of this stuff, Dwight. Lithgow Panther. Another giant cat around Kangaroo Valley. Every state has a giant cat story somewhere or other. As I recall Bill’s dad painted the stripes the wrong way on his thylacine. Rather than add to the evidence the pic may be a bit dodgy, it seemed to attract more curiosity.
Ah Jack, who says a thylacine never changes it’s stripes eh?
Having lived in Tassie for three years many eons ago, and having a house just up the road from the Cascade Brewery, I can tell you a thlacine can change your spots after an indulgent excess.
Oh and forget the animal reincarnations Jack, how about the famous Nullabor nymph. She got a few people excited from Ceduna to Esperance, but I don’t think anyone quite got to know her, so to speak.
A nymph would really test my cardboard carving skills.
Wasn’t her name Azaria?