Anybody listening?

Better a cat than nobody

According to a leading Australian cartoon editor, the political cartoon is waning in influence and popularity. Big noses and big bums don't cut it anymore, according to him.

In the Murdoch press, big bosoms and big bums however continue to gain in popularity.

One really writes a blog for oneself. I do anyway. Given that the market for cartoonists is huge and the talent out there horrendously enormous , it gives me a buzz that I can endeavour to meet a need that in other days and times could not be foreseen. That's the marvel of today's computers,good for some but for many others a death knell.

Writing a blog like this is a bit similar to the theoretical question of the tree falling in the forest. If nobody hears it, has it happened and has it really fallen?

It's akin to silence in response to the blog. Hello! Anybody out there?

The design below is a sketch reproduction of an original photo which has done in paint form

a number of times. As far as I am aware it's the first time it's been reproduced in sketch form and suits the content of the blog to a "T".

Government a la Pinocchio or is it "au"Pinocchio

Serious cuts for public broadcasters

Despite pre-election promises the Government has slashed funding to the two public broadcasters ABC and SBS, with some 400 to 500 jobs to go as a result. 

Abbott apparently "fessed"up to the porkie claiming that he had no idea of the budget problems he would inherit. Therefor he had to cut the respective budgets. It seems odd that this should be the case;.perhaps due diligence is something confined to the big end of town which the coalition supports.

I

It comes but once a year

The good, the bad and the ugly....

'Tis the season to be jolly etc etc. For children say to the age of ten (before the cynicism of adulthood makes them doubt Santa's existence ) it is good. 

For the adults it's a good and bad time of the year; bad on the bank account and the stress of facing a whole, long day with relatives . Uncle Bill or his counterpart will be there to discuss at length the shortest way from this point to that while Aunt Milly reels off a list of those who have been stricken with some awful disease. A stiff noggin helps to bear the agony. For many its good as they will be be leaving on holiday.

For not so few, unfortunately, it's not a nice time of the year at all , either because they have painful memories of loved ones no longer there or they are simply too disadvantaged to enjoy a single moment of it. For them it is really quite ugly.

Whatever. It's Christmas time and in case you forget this , the commercial media stations will not give you a moment's peace until Boxing day when thankfully the jingles stop and they spin into New Year's mode.

Anyway, have a good one. There's still a bit of time to go...

Home,sweet home

Bank on it?

Real estate agents have a strange sense of the value of money but to be fair many people suffer the same conception of those printed bis of paper or digital numbers . For agents phrases like "It's only $30,000,00 more"  or "for $100,000.00 you can build a nice little extension ( as one views a scene not unlike a bombed garbage site) and you'll be set for life" . Set back, more like it.
Then there are the sellers and buyers who will refuse the budge over an issue of $500,00 and  both losing out on a sale. Now there, word "only" has some merit.

House prices in Australia, particularly in the metro areas are somewhere up there in orbit with communication satellites. The bogey man or woman is currently "investors" a faceless army of well heeled individuals whose sole intent in life is to spread misery and wonderment through their own wish to own a slice of the action..Home ownership in  Terra Australis is still a right, a prerequisite for many more than . say, in Europe where renting is par for the course. So there might well be four driving forces that put pressure on home costs. The third of course would be a general shortage of land and properties while the fourth is the fact that interest rates are currently at record lows. .

Midsomer county village conditions, as they exist in the U.K. and elsewhere on the Continent are not an option for Oz unless you are at ease with the sight of Utes transporting three legged blind dogs called "Lucky" stumbling in the tray. There both sexes are named Bruce.

Country life in Oz has its merits but folk have be calm and adaptable in the face of drought, bush fires and rogue kangaroos;salt of the earth stuff.

Quiet... at all costs