In which the pond farewells the Mooch but is saved by the Caterists ...

Devastating news. Not the Mooch. Take anyone, but don't take the Mooch. Colbert and the pond distraught and in tears, and so the pond hied off to Twitter to take a last look at the Mooch's feed before it vanishes forever ...

We did but see him passing by ...

There is a Mooch sweet of word and twitter kind
Was never tweet so pleas'd pond mind
We did but see the Mooch passing by
And yet we'll love the Mooch till we die
His gesture, motion and his wiles
His wit, his voice, the pond's heart beguiles
Beguiles its heart, we know not why
And yet we love the Mooch till we die (or some such thing, here).

What a loss to humanity and comedy ... but on the upside, at least the pond will never have to get into an argument about that damned song again ...

But don't despair in this vale of tears ...

Tweet and blog like no one is reading, and all will be well, and luckily the reptiles of Oz have valiantly stepped into the breach ...

From the Mooch to the world's greatest climate scientist and the status-obsessed Caterist?

Well, it's a fall, no doubt about it, but the pond knew its duty, and immediately went in search of the Caterist, and discovered some grand images illustrating sinkholes of stupidity ...

The pond has no idea who's been fiddling with the google logarithms, but anyone who thought it was a grand idea to illustrate sinkholes of stupidity with a photo of the Caterist must stop it, stop it now! Think of the defamatory implications for sinkholes going about their daily business of sinking ...

The Caterist is just your fair average reptile sinkhole, and it's a category error to assign stupidity to a deep and empty blankness ...

Now around this point, the pond should probably pause to note the chip on the Caterist shoulder.

Those without short term memory loss will recall that the Caterist started off this day's piece moaning about second rate university education, but the Caterist routinely gets agitated about book learnin' and toffy Profs and all that stuff.

Indeed this is a favourite Caterist ploy ...

Please allow the pond to recall a previous Caterist piece, when the redoubtable Pom down under slagged off Nick Champion, in this way ...

14th ranked university? Communications degree? Now there's a risk of irony in this sort of idle chatter, as noted here ...

Oh dear ...

But everyone knows that the Caterists have considerable chutzpah ... it takes incredible, remarkable chutzpah to keep scoring government cash in the paw, while berating others for doing the same ...

But where it gets interesting for the Freudian is this constant talk of status and university degrees ...

The Caterist wiki advises us that the brave, stout-hearted lad scored a degree in sociology from the University of Exeter before embarking on a short-lived, but clearly scarifying career as a laundry van driver.

The University of Exeter?

Depending on your ranking and how you use it - Greg Hunt the art and science here - the dear sweet lad did a Champion and attended a lowly ranked university to get degree in sociology, so he could eventually land down under and score an abundance of taxpayers' cash in the paw, even while monkeys in cages were cracking jokes about his degree ...

Well in the usual pond way, all this was only intended to enliven the read, and it's on with the next Caterist gobbet ...

Now the pond will leave it to others to judge how much the Caterists contribute to the knowledge economy, and the extent to which scribbling a column for the lizards of Oz might be judged a bullshit job, spreading a thickish layer of bullshit around the land ...

Rather than providing an argument or a countervailing point of view - the pond's own universities never having ranked highly - the pond would rather leave the discussion with a poem ...

"We’ll all be rooned," said Caterist 
In practical intelligent accent most forlorn 
Outside the Surry Hills bunker ere digital edition began 
One frosty Tuesday morn. 
The reptile congregation stood about, 
Coat-collars to the reptile ears, 
And talked of universities and knowledge industries and drought 
As it had done for years. 
"It’s lookin’ crook," the Caterist did croak; 
"Bedad, it’s cruke, me lad 
For never since the banks went broke 
Has practical intelligence been so bad." 
"It’s sinkhole stupid all right," the Caterist did squeal, 
With which 14th rank astute university remark 
He squatted down upon his heel 
And chewed a piece of practical intelligence bark. 
And so around the reptile chorus ran 
"It’s keepin’ sinkhole stupid, no doubt." 
"We’ll all be rooned," said Caterist, 
"Before the year is out. (with apologies to the original, here).

And speaking of rural metaphors, the Pope's encyclical this day featured chooks, and if there's one thing to give a Tamworthian pleasure, it's the sight of chooks singing like a Mooch ... with more Pope here ...