In which the pond welcomes Hugo and his elf ...

With Dame Slap away and things a little quieter in the herpetarium - how a papal nostrum will fix almost anything! - the pond thought it might revert to that story about Milo ... it being remembered that the reptiles considered their Milo one of their very best in 2017 ...

What was pleasing was that the pond didn't have to access the lizard Oz to read the yarn. 

It seems that The Times' paywall, which was once rock solid, now has a few holes in it ...and they need a Dutch boy ...

Good old lead paint. 

Damn you intrusive, over-regulating government, damn you to hell with your progressive, politically correct ways ... if the pond wants lead in its paint, and lead in its petrol, why soon enough it might become the lead-damaged leader of the free world ...

Where did that all come from? Dutch boy, dyke, lead paint, Milo? Well it made sense to the pond, though it didn't seem to make any sense to the Times' snowflake, melting at the thought of it all ...

Well if it's all the fault of Steve Bannon, credit where credit is due. It's actually the work of Poundland, a UK chain, and it caught the eye of Huff Post here ...

And the pond swears if anyone deserves the credit, it should be the Donald himself.

He probably should also be credited for that effort by H and M noted in The Independent here (sorry, the pond can't do ampersands, it's a blogger thing) ...

There's no doubt there's a coarse mood out and about in many lands ...

But really the facilitators and enablers should take their share of the credit. The Fox News mob, and the rest of the forelock tuggers, fellow travellers, and supine ... what's the word Donald? 

Lapdogs. 

That's right, all the lickspittle running lapdogs in Murdoch la la land, from Fox News to the WSJ to The Times, to the Daily Terror featuring Gorka nonsense ...

Sorry, Hugo, you were saying?

Actually Hugo - the pond hopes you don't mind the pond assuming a first name acquaintance, love-reach can be just as profitable and every bit as politically useful ...

Okay, okay, the pond swore to lay off the narcissist, delusional, attention-seeking tweets, but perhaps just one, in honour of the fun that Colbert had with it?

Sorry Hugo, you were in the middle of explaining how it was all the fault of Steve Bannon, and nothing to do with the Donald or other members of his circus ... 

Perhaps you can explain how Milo, amongst the reptile best in 2017, also had something to do with the current malaise ...

But now that Steve has passed ...

... who will earn the derision?

Sorry, Hugo, you were saying ...

Indeed, indeed. Some of us might even have been tweeting or Fox newsing our way towards something worse ...

Well we all have to make a living Hugo, and thank the long absent lord you haven't pandered to the Donald, and have explained everything ...

Now all the pond can think is how good it is that it's all the fault of an elf and Steve and Milo, and nothing to do with the chairman or his minions, and thank the long absent lord we now have a stable White House run by a stable genius ...