In which the Major Mitchell makes a guest appearance ...

Dammit, any passing mug will just have to look at the pond's holiday snaps, and like it or lump it …

Weep at the sight of the Peel valley in the distance, dry as a bone, possibly god's punishment for the good folk going with Barners. She's not inclined to be happy at Ba'al or Barners worship …

But enough of the Moonee look-out (no, you don't have to drop your pants, no mooning is required), because the pond is delighted to report that the reptiles, for some strange reason, have let the righteous ranting Major Mitchell out of the cage, and naturally the pond had to pay attention …

Yes, the pond is totally over the cricket fuss, and so everything that follows is totally boring and tedious.

And yet the pond insists it will go over the same ground yet again.

The way it works goes like this … the pond reverts to some classic study of the Major Mitchell and the Order of Lenin saga, say this one by David Marr in the Graudian here …

There's more at the link, but the pond usually likes to select a gobbet, like this …

Of course the pond could have reverted to Media Watch here …

Or the pond could have headed off to the AFR here (may be paywall affected) for a delight in relation to another matter …

The pond could go on and on citing major Major Mitchell moments, but it's now time for the wily old bird to let fly with his usual aggregation of hypocritical thunderings about the sins of others ...

The pond has nothing to say about the cricket, but there's much to admire in the "Order of Lenin" man's talk of smug moralising and ratcheted-up outrage …

Uncritical? What, they ran eight pages on the flimsiest basis?

And that's why, whenever the Major has a go at rank hypocrisy, the rank hypocrisy of it gives the pond an immodest amount of surreal pleasure ...

Of course along with the deeply based moral hypocrisy, it's always accompanied by a pumping up of the product.

The Major is an adept shill, and if the pond ever wanted anyone to sell its snake oil, the Major would be its first choice …

As for talk of confidential sources? This is a man whose ideological obsessions led him to rely on the word of Les Murray, not known for his observational skills in relation to Order of Lenin medals, and a bit of hearsay for an eight page spread which he never bothered to admit was wrong …

Out of the mouth of babe, or an ideological tone-deaf obsessive …

But that's why the pond loves every word that the Major scribbles, even if it's about a subject as dull as cricket … soon enough there'll come talk of moral codes and misleading the public and the pond will roll Jaffas down the aisle in sheer delight ...

No doubt there are young journalists at the lizard Oz who can learn from the Major. They might learn that women play cricket too …

But the pond has supped to the full, and rather like an Easter chocolate overload, it must now turn to the Pope for a refreshing, cleansing sorbet … and by a curious coincidence it involves Ruskis and spies and such like, with more refreshing Pope here …