spectators

Winter Saturdays

Medicinal drugs

Sorry. Have withdrawn this page..not in good taste.My apologies

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

Mon Chapeau......ou est il?

Hats Off

On November 17, The Australian reported the sale at auction of Napoleon's bicorne hat for $2.7 million (Australian) to a South Korean collector .This was highlighted in the Executive Living section. Wonder what he's going to do with it. Probably wear it of an evening while as he sips his vintage whisky and dreams vengeful thoughts of the Beloved Leader north of the border..

And talking of all things French, it's interesting to note that, according to historians, the French have defeated the English more often in battle. That's a good croissant to serve up in English classrooms.

Be that as it may, there's no doubt that both sides have an affinity for each other forged over the years of military encounters and political intrigue. It's a clash of temperaments. The Brits are suckers for French wine,cheese and poodles while the French idea of a sort of eclectic charm is their idea of Le Gentleman Anglais.

Unfortunately for both sides they have found themselves at odds within the E.U. There are dark mutterings traversing the Channel about the duplicity of Les Anglais with the Brits shrugging off the inexplicable and complicated as being very French.

In the end what does it matter? We're all human, non? Shakespeare said oinks ago,

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" 

Wise old Bill, innit?

Look on the bight side....

Optimism is many things to many people. For Americans more and more to Australians it is the hope that there's a buck in it, For the Brits it is that they only have to shake hands with strangers and none of this kissing nonsense that goes on. For the Italians and Greeks it is that the taxman never visits them and for the Chinese it is that every day is a twenty four hour working day. The French are optimistic that they'll find a cute little mistress and the Germans hope that each day runs like clockwork.

Of course without optimism one cannot succeed; never heard of a pessimistic tycoon. Miserable, yes but not without hope.

Optimism relates to a state of mind that one will be satisfied with one's  lot in life. So there you go, be happy, be optimistic and you'll rarely be disappointed.

No?

Spotlight on Australia

Tales of the unexpected?

The G20  meeting in Brisbane  was followed by informal visits to Sydney. Rock star status was accorded to Indian PM Modi ( more popular than Gandhi apparently but that's easy as India's population has grown a zillion times after the Raj downed his G & T , tearfully sailing out of Bombay some 67 years ago) and last but not least,  photo opportunities with cuddly Koalas. Tony and Boris must have made up as they fondled their marsupials together for the Press. No clean shirtfronts there.

Tony Abbott's opening speech, according to some weightier members of the Press, was a doozy, leaving the audience to pick their teeth and glance furtively at their watches as the wonders of the coalition's policies were splashed cross the broad canvas of everything and anything that moved. 

Obama had Brisbane students swooning in their Nikes while,for afters , China and the U.S,  vowed to put the dampeners on pollution. Xi Jinping and Boris were obliquely slapped on the wrist by David
Cameron; the criticism sunk like a pair of soggy socks in the wash. Ebola was in there somewhere. From an appeal point of view the Koalas blitzed ém. 

Now it's all over with Everybody lurvs Orstrayleeyah ,there's a cluster of trade agreements , maybe free Yoga classes in India,  (spare Boeing parts from Russia?) from which benefits will accrue ......when? China managed to put a bit of a lever under Canberra to loosen U,S. Australian ties.They don't give up. 

Talk about the unexpected? Not really.

What's around the corner

Expect the unexpected.

The dragon depicted below doesn't have any wings, As a little dragon he backed into a deli slicer and lost both flaps. Hence for him the immediate danger is what he can't see and that is namely, the unexpected.

This really applied to negative events like being faced with a sudden bill or a twist of fate which knocks you off your feet.

Talking of unexpected,  thirty years ago, or more, a highly intelligent and close relative marveled at the advent of the computer but wondered what one could do with it. T

he internet has been an extraordinary development but it has also revealed the weirdos out there.

Today I received an email  from someone purporting to be a U.S.$50 million lottery winner who wished to share his good fortune with me having picked my email at random. He proposed to gift US$1 million to my account out of the goodness of his heart provided I forwarded details etc etc. Yeah, right. Now that was unexpected .

Weather or not.......

...we change for the inevitable?

A bit of a bombshell for Mr. Abbott at the APEC meeting this week ; an agreement in principle between the U.S. and China to work seriously towards realistic target emissions. It may not work but it brings into focus the issue that has been confronting scientists for some years, namely global warming and the changes that it foreshadows in our environment. 

Where to now? Will Australia concede there is a problem? (Vladimir is also very quiet..he's been preoccupied with sending covert submarine missions as well as naval shenanigans near Australian territorial waters. )

Dream on....

A local politician (not someone I admire) recently stated that if at first you don't succeed , just forget about it. 

Personally I find that rather sad. Without dreams where would we be? In many cases possibly a great deal wealthier.

This is something that Americans are very good at. Martin Luther King had a dream which eventuated to some extent but only some time after his death. They are great believers in following the dream in striving to achieve the impossible. Does it work.? Probably not in the majority of cases.

Indian Prime Minister Modi has a dream that Yoga resume its place in Indian culture and society and he has appointed a minister in his newly formed cabinet to be I/C Yoga. He's got something like 66 new ministers. 66 Lotus positions at a Governmental meeting would be something to behold.

Few of us are lucky enough to get to the goals we set ourselves because life, like voters , is  fickle. However, everything is relative, especially in India where everybody is related to everybody and a farewell at Heathrow resembles a miniature New Delhi without the rickshaws. Funny lot. On the one hand so spiritual and mystical and on the other really very materialistic. Anybody seen young middle class Indian ladies shopping? It's scary.

A person one may consider to be a drone may be extremely content in his or her humdrum existence.Yet another who avoids stress and worry could well be at peace with the world and live to a ripe old age. It doesn't mean they have not had dreams but they've faded with age; sometimes dreams turn into nightmares.

Waffle,waffle.....there's so much more but you'd be bored to tears.

And when he was halfway in he was....

neither in nor out...

It's been a while coming but it seems as if the Brits are not happy with the EU. Of course, there was always the deep rooted suspicion of "foreigners" eg those who live across the Channel. It is hard for them to accept the concept of a system that operates fairly smoothly without class. Unfortunately for Mother England, class still exists, maybe not as pronounced as previously but still prevalent.

Now the British have developed a taste for French wine, French cheese, German cars and spaghetti but that's enough of a good thing. The pretty little houses en Provence and in Espana are also all part of the deal but again, enough's enough. The wealthy ones are sitting pretty. Now is the time to get serious.

Unfortunately for the "Continentals" the British also also fairly rigid in their concept of rules and how things ought to be done. Hence the finger pointing at the "PIGS" ( Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) whose system of book-keeping is somewhat akin to gambling. The Germans and Dutch are pretty rigid but somehow manage to function without treating blue or white collar workers as troublemakers. There's a gap as wide as grandma's bloomers between the divisive Anglo Saxon philosophy and the more inclusive European system.

Having narrowly survived the eventuality of Scotland leaving the Union, the UK is now paying the price of many wealthy nations with refugees ,both economic and political,  flooding their shores. It's compounded by the old colonial outposts now wanting a piece of the action and repayment for wealth extracted. 

When voting regarding EU membership comes along who knows what will happen?. In the meantime the UK is taking a much harder line with refugees , much to the chagrin of the EU.

More than cricket

Stability in the sub-continent ; anyone for Yoga?

""I am prepared to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with Pakistan in a peaceful atmosphere, without the shadow of terrorism, to promote our friendship and cooperation. However, Pakistan must also take its responsibility seriously to create an appropriate environment". So said Indian Prime Minister Modi in his maiden speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other since independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Then there is the problem of Muslim unrest on the world stage.

His comments on Pakistan came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif criticised India for cancelling bilateral talks last month.

India's economy is well on its way to becoming an industrial powerhouse as well as rivaling China in terms of population.Will Pakistan get dragged along by India's coat tails or will it fall behind causing more instability?

P.M. Modi's speech was well received by hundreds of delegates.  Mr Modi also proposed creating an International Yoga Day. Hallmark must be working on this already.

 Don't know if yoga can solve this one. Should we be concerned, hopeful or apprehensive?

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Believe it or not

A bizarre load of crap

Sorry. Got to be direct. Maybe you missed it but it was reported on the news that people are tuning into YouTube to watch complete strangers whispering as they quietly fold towels or brush their hair; it supposedly creates what is known as ASMR, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Enthusiasts describe it as a kind of bliss; seven million people have viewed  a 16-minute clip of Maria, Gentle Whispering, as she's known, brushing her hair.There's more; much,much more and it does get worse than that. What about watching someone fold a towel? Got ten minutes? Come on! 

PS: I've asked my wife to have me sectioned if ever she catches me doing this!

Horses for courses

Melbourne Cup of course!

A bit of nonsense, really

Fear of flying................

" Lone " wolf of Wall St.

Investor husband pushed me into sex for business deal: Estranged wife

So read the headline from one of the online news services dd Oct 30th 2014.

It continues " CHRISTINA Kelly says her investment-banker husband made her go the extra mile to help him land a client — pushing her into a partner-swap with the business honcho and his wild girlfriend.

The mum of two revealed details of the kinky alleged hook-up — and every drug binge, extramarital pool fling and sex encounter in between — in salacious Manhattan court papers targeting her husband, Jefferies & Co. wunderkind Sage Kelly.

A high degree of sophistication needed

And now, she and her reputed real-life "Wolf of Wall Street' hubby are "the talk of the town," a Wall Street source said.

  (News.com.au)

No closed doors for them, then, A sophisticated settlement coming up..and expensive.