On Tuesday night, Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead in his car in the backstreets of Earlwood in Sydney’s south.
On hearing the news, I first thought of the difficulties facing journalists working at news desks that night. The first question to answer was which Pasquale Barbaro had been murdered? There’s a small army of them and many are known to police. Two other relatives bearing the name had already been murdered. Another was serving a 30-year jail term over his role in the biggest ecstasy importation Australia has seen.
On this occasion it was 35-year-old Pasquale Timothy Barbaro who became the victim.
In 2003, Jason Moran a key combatant in Melbourne’s bloody underworld feud, knew he was in danger and with a contract out on his life. He came out of hiding briefly to watch his children kick a footy around at an Auskick clinic at Essendon in Melbourne’s north with his bodyguard, Pasquale ‘Pat’ Barbaro, Pasquale Timothy Barbaro’s cousin.
Full column here.
seems steve johnson has suffered what the poms here call a uni, and call a PAFO
When I first stayed for a few months in Melbourne there was a Carlton pizza place I liked. Went there a few times, then stopped for no real reason. It was the place where Benji Veniamin met his end a year or two later.
Everyone needs to see this:
http://imgur.com/4W3v12V
Cricket carnage! Bad luck for Ferguson but really, tat was a veerry ordinary performance.
Necessary changes, TV. I said Nevill had to go, as good a player as he is, he wasn’t performing. I don’t know Wade is a long term answer but given the batting is being restructured, it is sensible to put in an experienced player and one who has got a competitive streak. Handscomb had to come in. Maddinson could be anything. Exciting to see a young bloke get a crack at 20 in Renshaw. His first class numbers are good. Sayers is worth a shot, too. Probably should share the new ball duties with Starc. Good luck to them all. It looks a better side.
OK now I’m interested…
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-south-africa-2016-17/content/story/1067365.html
Good choices. Renshaw looks very good. Handscomb is in freakish form. Maddinson can destroy attacks. I like it.
Jack do you know if that Maltese alleged bikie boss is still stuck stying in his mum’s spare room in Malta after they cancelled his Australian visa? He wouldn’t want to stir up and trouble there – they have annual riots between the same parish church’s two sets of band members in the name of tradition and escaping an extra sermon.
I believe he’s in Malta, Simon but I could easily be wrong
Still there
Dirty old Uncle Egbert came to stay for the weekend Mr Jack and when Aunt Gwyneth went for a shower and reached for her towel she found a big brown streak right down it. She is not happy with Uncle Egbert.
As we gather hands full of Plums Jack The Insider the debate is raging on how much we Fruitpickers should be taxed given you Aussies don’t want to do the dirty hard hot work. Maybe we should not be taxed at all as we are mostly just Backpackers in your country for a short while and needing some cash to travel around?
A random note on the ‘commentary engine’ JTI: The replies mean that you need to scroll through the whole page for any updates, unlike the former method where everything lined up chronologically. I think I might go for the time-honoured ‘XYZ said at (12:00am on Fri), otherwise replies may get a bit lost. Unless we can sort chronologically, which I have seen no reference to. Just an observation.
Yes, that must be annoying. I’ll add it to the list of things I would like to fix and see if my web guy can do it. He’s a gun so if there is a way, he will sort it.
I was just thinking exactly the same. I’m scrolling the same stuff for the third or fourth time and losing interest.
ditto
Good point, Trivalve, You see the number count increase but you have no idea where the comments are posted.
Erm . . . does this fall under the banner of ‘First World Problems’ . . . ?
Possibly Swantoono, I used to read the newest comments first on the old blog and scroll back but that was just my preference. I would like the print on the comments to be a little darker although a visit to OPSM may help with that problem.
Tracy, I recently read that modern web design has as one of the principles the idea that the contrast between background and text is intended to be less than what we were used to seeing. I would like to see greater contrast, too, but apparently we are not at the cutting edge of web design philosophy …
Well, since we live in the First World- what would you expect?
I agree. I do like the threading — even though I’ve messed it up twice already! — but a chronological view option would be great to quickly find new comments.
A couple of weeks ago I recommended the HBO series ‘Generation Kill’ which was about a USMC recon battalion that was first into Iraq in 2003. The general who was in charge of those troops was James Mattis, a famously belligerent commander. Guess who The Donald has been talking to about top spot in the Pentagon?:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/james-mad-dog-mattis-eyed-for-pentagon-meets-with-trump/news-story/709c44d526dfccb59a634aca8fd041b0
The book is a bit more gritty.
I really do have to get it. Thanks.
Yup.
It is even less complimentary than the HBO series.
Quotable guy: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”
Been called the most significant Marine of the last 50 years. Impressive warrior.