All of the pond's favourite reptiles went missing in action today …
Oh sure, there's an election coming, so a suitable array of EXCLUSIVES was lined up at the top of the digital page, taking a politically correct view of the impending possible DISASTER …
And Anning was still in the news …
But weren't those brave lads simply protesting about the dreadful African crime wave that has swept Melbourne of late … or at least swept through the corridors of the HUN and the lizard Oz on an almost daily news day basis?
There was a mild attempt at heresy …
… but the reptile readership wasn't having anything of that liberal pinko Kenyan Muslim prevert commie nonsense …
The Rath of Voters!! May the Orce be with that one …
Dammit, Hadrian's Wall was a raging success, and look how the Great Wall kept out the Mongol hordes, and don't get the pond started on the astonishing success of the Maginot Line … though it's remarkable how Republicans have turned from chanting with Ronnie Raygun to tear down this wall ...
Dammit, Hadrian's Wall was a raging success, and look how the Great Wall kept out the Mongol hordes, and don't get the pond started on the astonishing success of the Maginot Line … though it's remarkable how Republicans have turned from chanting with Ronnie Raygun to tear down this wall ...
As for the top of the digital opinion page, it was an equally dismal bunch of topics of a predictable kind…
The pond has seen absolutely no sign that the Donald is tired of Putin's wonderful regime, and as for Palestine, all that did was remind the pond of the celebration of a hundred years of the RAF in a recent edition of the NRYB, sadly behind the paywall under the header One Hundred Years of Destruction …
Geoffrey Wheatcroft was inclined to be a little wry about the history …
Egad sir, that's the right stuff, and less than a hundred years ago, when the English strode the world stage and knew how to deal with the pesky, difficult natives in all sorts of places …
So when a kindly reader sent the pond a link to the BBC News, Brexit: Operation Brock lorry park A256 trial 'too little too late', all the pond could think was what goes around surely comes around …in one bizarre bonkers form or another …
So when a kindly reader sent the pond a link to the BBC News, Brexit: Operation Brock lorry park A256 trial 'too little too late', all the pond could think was what goes around surely comes around …in one bizarre bonkers form or another …
So it's still the silly season, it's all a little bonkers, and it'll probably stay silly for a few weeks more …
And that's the only excuse the pond has for deciding to spend its remaining precious time with the ineffable Troy ...
And that's the only excuse the pond has for deciding to spend its remaining precious time with the ineffable Troy ...
Indeed, indeed, though the pond wonders whether this is going far enough.
The pond remembers visiting several museums in Beijing, and in one being shown the umbrella of a revolutionary leader, amongst all other sorts of gee-gaws, nicknacks and items of trivia that might otherwise have been stored in the Courthouse museum in Nundle (just a Hills of Gold drive a little way out of Tamworth) …
The pond remembers visiting several museums in Beijing, and in one being shown the umbrella of a revolutionary leader, amongst all other sorts of gee-gaws, nicknacks and items of trivia that might otherwise have been stored in the Courthouse museum in Nundle (just a Hills of Gold drive a little way out of Tamworth) …
Oh yes, all the elements of hagiography and presidential style, monarchist, emperor - call it what you will - worship were on view …
Truth to tell, while the pond has a vivid picture image of the battered umbrella in its noggin, the name of the fearless leader who once used it has quite vanished … and anyway, how could Australia hope to match the wonderful collection of embalmed detritus that the pond saw?
Is there a plan to put the embalmed body of little Johnny in old Parliament house so that fawning, admiring crowds might queue, and even get a little booklet stamped, as the pond once did in China?
Is there a plan to put the embalmed body of little Johnny in old Parliament house so that fawning, admiring crowds might queue, and even get a little booklet stamped, as the pond once did in China?
A maple pedestal desk, olive-green Chesterfield lounge chairs (what a stunning rarity), sporting tracksuits, colourful APEC shirts, campaign memorabilia, official gifts, and best of all, steel-rimmed spectacles …
Yes, the pond will certainly line up to gawk at the spectacles, just as it lined up at Versailles to gawk at the Méridienne room at Versailles …
Gawk away here …though the pond does hope that the museum has enough money to commission an heroic portrait or three …
Look, it might require a little work, but the pond has every faith in the abilities of Australian artists to weave gold from a tracky dack...
Perhaps it could be called Little Johnny Strides Towards Bennelong (sssh, not a word about electoral oblivion) ...
And so to a final gobbet from Troy ...
A distrust in politicians continues to rise?
Yep, a display of spectacles, Chesterfield lounges and tracky daks will surely fix that …
But what to do when the spectacle gets as big as an eighty inch screen?
Indeed, we are entertained, thanks to Donald, Brexit, Marie, Mao, little Johnny and Troy ...
Meanwhile, on another planet …
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteAccording to Merriam-Webster;
Definition of rath
: a usually circular earthwork serving as stronghold and residence of an ancient Irish chief
fairy denizens of rath and hill
— O. S. J. Gogarty
So if there isn’t going to be a concrete wall and there’s no money for "artistically designed steel slats” maybe they could construct a giant earthwork defended by ancient Hibernian warriors.
Sounds as reasonable as anything else I’ve heard from the White House recently.
DiddyWrote
A close relative of the pale then.
Deletehttps://www.dictionary.com/browse/beyond--the--pale
Diddywrote, being a literary fellow, will doubtless be aware of the rath mentioned in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, which is explicated in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There as being a type of green pig. However I note that an earlier version of that poem (in Mischmasch) glossed the term as "a species of land turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark, the front forelegs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees, smooth green body, lived on swallows and oysters".
DeleteDoubtless, many Voters have pet raths, ready to unleash on the unwary Dems, along with other imaginary creatures like frumious Bandersnatches, slithy toves, or Trumpians with any grasp on reality.
Ah yes, how "the mome raths outgrabe". I had completely forgotten that bit of commom folk knowledge, FD, thanks for the reminder. Though I doubt, just a wee bit, that those Voters would have had the perspicacity to domestic a rath or two in anticipation of a Dem takeover.
DeleteTroy Boi: "libraries and institutes to be set up in the name of Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull"
ReplyDeleteAnd we already have the Curtin, Hawke, Whitlam and Fraser libraries, it appears. But, Curtin and not Chifley ? And what about Menzies, Holt, Gorton and McMahon ?
And why start with Curtin ? What about all those great pre-WWII PMs right from our founding leaders on ? Doesn't anybody want to know about Deakin, Fisher, Hughes, Bruce, Scullin, Lyons, and Page (the only PM other than Howard who lost government and his own safe seat all in one election) ? And even Black Jack McEwen - PM for less than a month, but oh, what a time.
Ah but according to Troy, The National Library has "Robert Menzies' extensive collection of more than 600 boxes."
Well, apart from no indictation as to whether they are big or small boxes (shoeboxes or crates), that's a great collection, and every single bit of paper or whatever in every single one of those boxes is a hugely important facet of Australia's history. Absolutely no doubt about it. After all, as Mister Bramston avers:
"As the number of students studying politics continues to fall, and distrust in politicians continues to rise, it is vital the government supports initiatives that create a more active and engaged citizenry with a better appreciation of Australian democracy."
Yep, there'd be nothing quite like 600 boxes of Menzies junk and trivia to fix all the ills of our failing democracy. Oh yes, and of course "a display of spectacles, Chesterfield lounges and tracky daks" too (thanks for the reminder, DP).
"no indictation as to whether they are big or small boxes (shoeboxes or crates)"
DeleteGB, Australian Archives use a standardised size archive box, with internal dimensions of 380 x 250 x 168mm (exact dimensions have changed over time, as the standards are reviewed every two years), which is large enough to hold 2 of those large lever-arch folders (about 750 sheets of 80 gsm paper). Menzies-era typing- and manuscript-paper was thinner than today's printer/photocopier paper, but copier paper (mimeograph/gestetner/spirit duplicator) was often coarser, so it probably evens out.
Although finding anything of interest in a half-million pages (more, if double-sided) of Menzies' personal papers would be like panning for authentic gold in Sovereign Hill Creek.
Assuming that all of Menzies' "papers" have been so neatly systematised, FD. But then I suppose they would have been since Fed pubserves don't really have much to do and they'd have to find something to keep themselves busy with.
DeleteI do hope all those Menzies papers have been systematically indexed and cross-indexed though (and how many more boxes of lever-arch folders would that require ?) lest it truly be 'needle in a haystack' panning as you indicate.
Sheesh, FrankD, must you shatter all the dreams? The pond must now reassure the young 'uns they really did find gold at Sovereign Hill … how else to prepare them for a life reading the thoughts of Ming?
DeleteSheesh, DP. "learning by rote the words of Ming" don't you mean ? They'd never be engaged by anything as abstract as "thoughts".
Delete