In which the savvy Savva and the bromancer run deep, if not running so silent ...

 

 

Given the heaviness of what's to follow, the pond thought it might start off with a joke. Good old onion muncher, still battling irrelevance, still seeking attention, still delivering great one liners ... and so self-deprecating. Fancy admitting that there were politicians far superior to him ... fancy confessing that he's as substantive as a knight at a barbie ...

As for the rest the pond was consternated. What a stellar line up, what a choice ...

 

 

 

 

The wandering, wayward Oreo, still continuing the war on China, but now on a Thursday ... just when the pond had got used to the idea of the reformed, recovering feminist on a Monday ...

And what a selection at the top of the page early in the day ...

Killer Creighton on the move, Gladys thinking flu, the bromancer finding salvation in subs, lying cows in the back paddock ... and yet, as always, the pond turned to the savvy Savva for guidance ...

The pond deeply regrets that the reptiles have fallen into the habit of putting a cartoon at the top of stories, both because it's a slander on cartoons and cartooning in general, and because the pond remembers the good old days when the cult master would whip up an illustration, and produce great admiration and a cult following in the pond ... 

Gone it seems, and yet somehow the pond must show the header, before heading to the text and a screen cap of the usual click bait video...

 

Of course the pond has nothing to say on the matter, because frankly the pond knows little of the matter, but it is interested in the savvy Savva's counsel as to the future of the man who changed his name to Christian ... 

 

Indeed, indeed, and as the onion muncher so cogently observed, not one a patch on them compared to the onion muncher in his glory days ... but do go on ...

 

 

 

Here the pond must interrupt to note that the reptiles had prepared a handy summary which seemingly littered every story on the matter ...

 

But it was a short interruption, because nothing could stop the savvy Savva prognosticating gloom and trouble ahead ...

 

C'est la vie, as they say when dealing with French submarines,  but what of nattering "Ned"?

 

 

Well, you couldn't expect "Ned" to follow the savvy Savva. 

"Ned" is a company man, though thick and thin, but the pond has a saying ... "a short 'Ned' means trouble ahead", and this day, "Ned" was remarkably short, an astonishingly thin effort from a man who can usually fill a phone book in a trice ... all the more noticeable if you deduct the handy primer the reptiles inserted yet again into the piece ...

Amazing. "Ned" in need of bolstering, "Ned" in need of padding with a pro forma summary? "Ned" creating space so that the defence might repeat its lines?

 

 

Hmm, a little more ambivalence creeping in, a reminder of the pond's firm belief that "a short 'Ned' means trouble ahead" ... but it also created an opening for the pond to contemplate a real cartoonist, the infallible Pope ...

 

 

 

And most blessed of miracles, it also allowed room for the pond to contemplate the bromancer's latest effort on those pesky, difficult French subs ... (tip, it's all the fault of Chairman Rudd and his war with the reptiles) ...

 

 

 

 

 

The bromancer has had a long and troubled relationship to the sub saga ... who could forget that long ago he really wanted the Japanese subs?

 

 

 

 

But that was long ago, and this is now, and the bromancer is always ready to rally around the flag and the government in troubled times ...

 

And yet strangely it wasn't so long ago that the bromancer was alienated and confused ...

 

 

 

It's been a national disgrace, and an Irish joke, though no malice is intended towards the Irish or their sense of humour? But that was then, and this is now, and the government is taking water, so it's time to rally around the flag ...

 

But wait, before we get to the four compelling reasons, wasn't the bromancer once compelled to diss the bloody useless crow eaters? Didn't he have other harping to offer? Wasn't he forced to nuke the opposition to the deal?

 

Say what? A sub-optimal capability delivered late and over budget is infinitely better because that's the Australian way, and good luck to the crow eaters ... 

No wonder the bromancer was chortling into his triumphant soup this day, memories of nukes and Japanese alternatives long gone, safe in the knowledge that we'd have a set of out-dated subs delivered in their entirety long after the pond had turned to ashes blowing in the wind ... though the pond was reminded of another of its old saws, "a braying, triumphant bromancer today heralds regret and dismay on the morrow" ...

 

Indeed, indeed ... and the pond deeply regrets remembering that the informed, but dotty, bromancer thought from the get go that the French deal was hopeless and the Japanese deal was the way to go ...

And so the pond turns to the immortal Rowe to remind itself of what a real cartoonist has to offer, as opposed to the wretched cartoonists the reptiles have started to shove at the head of stories, with more real cartooning always to hand here ...