In which the pond connects with prattling Polonius and B. A. Santamaria and Franco ...

The pond is vastly relieved this day. For a time there, prattling Polonius seemed banished to a reptile gulag, a back page ghetto, there to live out his days blathering in the wilderness to the discerning few.

But there he is today with an eye-catching reference to Mao on the front digital page, and in important company, whereby it's surely established that it's all the fault of women. It's always the fault of women. Just ask Roger Ailes!

But the pond can't be distracted by Bettina's important message slagging off the femocrats, because B. A. Santamaria is personning the barricades again, and the alert Polonius has heard his call ...

Indeed, indeed. The pond is no lover of Mao, nor even Lee Rhiannon as the NSW Greens wonder where the voters went (hint, don't preference Fred Nile above a gay indigenous lawyer).

But around this point, the pond felt inclined to take a breather, and to wonder how the Fairfax cartoons, wheeling through the clouds, settled on car-based metaphors to summon up the spirit of Malware ...

Well this is all very well you say, and quite symmetrical, but we all know we can find Fairfax cartoons here, and has the pond done a click-baiting, trolling trick by dragging in the sure-fire attention-attracting, worm-like name of B. A. Santamaria and then left him dangling on the hook?

The pond pleads not guilty, and urges close attention to the final pars of prattling Polonius's sterling work ...

Now it's always pleasing to see that prattling Polonius remains a dedicated viewer of the ABC, such that he can always cite chapter and verse what's said, and decry the irrelevancy of gay rights and climate science - what nonsense they talk about climate change - but the really interesting bit comes when the naked pain of being called a "silly old bugger" by that wicked Mark Textor comes rolling off the keyboard.

And even worse, the cad called B. A. Santamaria an irrelevant historical figure. 

Por el amor de Dios, maldita sea, dios mio, this sort of heresy will not stand ...

Everyone knows that B. A. Santamaria was a major supporter of Franco and Franco was not a Fascist!

It was around this time, out of sheer perversity, that the pond thought for the first time to feature a piece by Phillip Adams ...

Now this seems a little grim, but then there was an admission from Adams right at the end ...

Adams of course, was never given to post-modern, post-ironical statements, and so we may take this as a singular admission that prattling Polonius was right, and that Franco was never a Fascist and so B. A. Santamaria was perfectly right in supporting Franco and so prattling Polonius is perfectly correct in adoring B. A. Santamaria as an important historical figure.

Take that, silly young bugger Mark Textor. How dare you call a silly old bugger a silly old bugger ...

The pond was having so much fun, it couldn't resist another little detour, to another figure sure to arouse the ire of prattling Polonius ...

Hmm, is it only the pond that sees an admirable resemblance?

     

Never mind, there's more of Paul Collins here thanks to those damned, pesky Jesuits at Eureka Street, and the pond has had enough of history and theology for the day, thanks as always to prattling Polonius, so there's just time for Rowe admiring the works and deeds of a most important historical figure, and more excellent Rowe here ...