The pond finally worked out which of its posts had been disappeared by the google bot. The bot had used an address that the pond never looks at, and after learning the details, the pond went and checked, and the posting was still up at the Wayback Machine here ...
The pond isn't going to be bothered fixing it, because it hasn't the foggiest how its different from other pond postings, nor is it going to worry about the ancient posts slapped with a warning by the bot. The pond feels every post should carry a warning sticker approved by Tipper Gore - take care, herein lies reptiles ...
But looking back on those ancient times, the pond did feel an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.
This as the infallible Pope as he appeared on 17th September 2014.
By golly he had it then, just like he has it now ...
This was the front page of the lizard Oz ...
Why it verges on the tedious, unlike the front page of the SMH ...
This was jolly Joe Hockey, doing his best to help save the planet ...
This was the dog botherer ...
By golly, he looked young then. As he aged, did he grow in wisdom? Sorry ...
There were other items. In those days, the pond was reliving its second Tamworth childhood, so things like this popped up ...
Still doing it, the pond will always honour Enid Blyton for giving it Dame Slap's nickname ...
And this was "Ned" ...
In those days, the pond didn't actually get into the reptile mind ... but if you hunt around you can find reminders of the time when the reptiles had a graphics department ...
Truth to tell, the pond found one closer to the date ...
But it much preferred the one with the graphics ...
And these were the opening comments provoked by "Ned's" brief appearance ... the pond was pleased to see that they'd been saved on the Wayback Machine ...
Hi Dorothy
I observed you have that editor at large image on this piece. I happened upon 774 this morning and Jon Faine had Mr Kelly making observation about the ALP and its demise because of Julia Gillard still having to answer question from her past.
Could someone anyone tell me why we are subjected to the opinions of critters from Murdoch giving their opinion of politics on our ABC so they can sell a book and to add insult to injury they were accompanied by a scatter brain by the name of Sally Wharhart not sure of the spelling but I am sure that is close enough. Jon Faine was lamenting how short of talented people available to pursue a career in politics.
There is so much to be said about how poorly we are served by the idiots employed at the ABC and Murdochracy so perhaps we should start a campaign to get rid of a few of them.
Glad you raised the manner Anon. I heard that interview too and I was struck by Kelly's response. News Ltd and assorted others will never be satisfied. They do not accept that Gillard answered questions directly because they did not like the answers.
I was also struck by the tedium of the discussion. All parties contributed in such a predictable way. But to confine myself to Kelly, I found it particularly yawn inducing that he banged out the 'whither goest' the ALP line. Hasn't he realized that that could be applied to the Coalition as well. It is not because they have the shield of govt.
Kelly and other MSM commentators do not realize that the old two-party system with the certainties of the rusted-on divide is no longer what it was. Both have lost their traditional base and both have very little power over anything much any more.
The only time I pricked up my ears was when Kelly started off by recognizing that there were problems with our political system and that there was increasing disparity with voters' expectations throughout Australia. But the discussion ended up with the same old 'whither goest the ALP' stuff.
In any case I would have thought that the concerns of voters in Townsville and Turramurra would never have lined up exactly and that would have been the same throughout the land. Despite differences though the wide brown land would have been united by the shared public ownership of nation building utilities and essential services. Those days have gone or are on the way out. What is left to bind us? Football? War? Kylie?
Now, now. The pond is always kind to Paul Kelly, lest comments be confused with the honourable singer.
Just because Kelly is a tedious, boring, senile old fart of the most pompous self-important tedious blowhard humbugging kind, there's no reason to be abusive ...
Same as it ever was. Everything changes, so that it can remain the same.
Back in the day the pond was inclined to be potty-mouthed, if only in the Tamworth way. Was that what set the bot off? If so, there'll be more disappearings into the corn field to come ...
There were a few other matters, but just looking at the highlights, the pond grew misty eyed, and a tear streaked down the cheek.
All this back on 17th September 2014 and on 27th May 2023 the Google bot decided to tell the pond that it had been unpublished, disappeared, banished, shunned, sent into the internet ether ...
Let it rest in peace in the Wayback Machine ...
It's too late now, the genie is out of the bottle. Just like Uncle Elon and Ron DeSaster, the pond broke the internet with that posting. Hordes of BLM agitators and anarchists rose up as one after reading the post, and took to the streets, and that's how the great revolution of 2015 came about and changed the world completely. You don't remember it? Sorry, it was in all the reptile rags at the time ...
When the reptiles talk of cancel culture, the pond can look them in the eye and do a Sybil: "Oh, I know, I know ..."
So with no attempt to convert ancient musings into a form acceptable to the Google bot, instead a poem ... which the indignant can find in proper form here ... a reflection on passing and mortality, for we are all digital fish and chip wrappings in the end ...
In one another's arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies in Google bot.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of ageing anti-intellect.
II
An aged "Ned" is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Murdochium.
III
O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of reptile eternity.
IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Chairman awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Surry Hillsium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
Tomorrow is another day, unless the Google bot says no ...
“By Paul Kelly and Editor at Large”? Was Ned drawing two salaries for the one screed?
ReplyDeleteThat illustration reminds of Spider-Man’s defining line (sorry, I’m a comics nerd) - “With great power comes great responsibility”. The Onion Muncher certainly had the first, and he certainly never accepted the second. What a hoot, though, to travel back to a time when we actually had to take him seriously!
So back in August 2014, "PAUL KELLY and EDITOR-AT-LARGE reckoned that Abbott was inter alia "focused on ... Russia's threat to the Ukraine". My, how much things change yet remain unalterably the same.
ReplyDeleteLovely poem.