In which the pond forsakes the bilious dog botherer for the dubious joys of nattering "Ned" ...

Yes, it's a lay-down misère ... there's no way a good hand, even with a Joker in it, could defeat the dog botherer at comedy ...

The bilious hater moaning about bile and hate?

It's simply too rich, too sublime ... and yet such is the innate natural perversity of the pond that it decided to go with an old favourite for the day ...

Pause for a Colbert beat ... just kidding ... but it does set the mood for a burst of hand-wringing, sky-falling nattering "Ned" ...

Now this might all seem a tad premature. The pond takes a very Doris Day Que Sera Sera attitude to Bennelong. The pond isn't within the electorate, isn't voting, and all will be revealed in due course, and the cards - even the dog botherer's Joker - will fall how and where they may ...

But you see portentous nattering "Ned" has seized the moment to do a grand survey of all that matters at the moment ... and even though Julia Gillard managed well enough for three years with a marginal government, it seems there's the usual need for much anxiety and hand-wringing and worry-warting, because the sky is still falling ... or might possibly fall, or Malware might somehow have mis-spoken or mis-stepped yet again ... an eternal conga line of Godwn Grech foppery and harborside mansion foolishness ... a man forever defined by the hat he wears ...

No need to worry where the pond stands ... it stands with the secular Pope ... (here) ... and so at last to Ned ...

And we will get a better NBN within our lifetimes, provided you're only ten at the time you hear this ...

Thousands of jobs and the future of millions of Australians will be guaranteed by the time and expense involved in fixing the mess ...

We keed, we keed, please, do go on and on about the threat from the north ...

Indeed, indeed. Thank the long absent lord no one has been stoking fears about the fiendish people to the north ...

Oh we've been there so many times before ... speaking of dear lost Harold, as the reptiles have been doing in recent days ...

But with the summit nowhere in sight, it's best to get back to nattering "Ned" ...

Indeed, indeed, such an agile, innovative country, and in such good health too ... and with such a fine private education system (public? Meh ...).

And so to a ritual which has lasted from Roman times ...

 

Yes, even though the result is only hours away, it's time to consult the chickens, listen to the omens, read the runes, construe the entrails, decipher the tea leaves and consult the polls ...

Thank the long absent lord that nattering "Ned" was only worried about the heat and didn't feel the need to mention rampant hypocrisy. Fortunately our ties with China are in the very best of hands ...

More of that, with active links, video, and perhaps a serve of 北京烤鸭 (Běi jīng kǎo yā) to go here ...

Well, we all know what's really at stake, and it isn't the future of Australia or jobs or all the rest of it, it's about saving Malware's arse ... as the malcontents circle, the sharks hover, and wait to sniff the first sign of blood in the water ...

And after all that waffle, instead of more roast duck, what about a serve of Rowe, as the chairman gets swallowed by the mouse house?

The pond will treasure this image, though there's much more treasurable Rowe here ...