GALLE: “But Cyril, could there be a fly in the primordial soup, that was planted there,” rascals Payton L. Inkletter, “waxing fat on those chemicals?”

Be all that as it may, meanwhile:

In other news…

16^th October 2009:

Friday: I dragged myself up late morning and got ready for taking Bob swimming, managing the almost unbelievably rapid achievement of arriving at Guildford just before three.

The pool was moderately busy at Swan Aquatic, and Bob didn’t leave the water once till our pre-arranged time. We finished with a walk along the river then Bob’s cup of tea at Fish Market Reserve; the mosquitoes were very active, being so warm.

The kitchen spirit had been busy all afternoon doing extra cooking for Reeve Chocson’s planned visit tomorrow for a secret men’s business discussion with me, but she fed me nevertheless, while we watched The Collectors. I had to struggle to avoid falling asleep, but somehow succeeded, watching some recorded TV with the Birmingham beauty.

In no time it was Lateline time: The (Leigh) Sales Graph: Wearing a blue long sleeved top and eye shadow to match, Ms Sales looked very good, with an effectively placed flare to the central region of her hanging loose styled hair, and she looked so clean it was dazzling. Her main interview this evening was with an on-screen Grahame Heckle-or-Jeckle Gesticulate Constantly Morris, formerly John Howard’s chief of staff and current political consultant and clown, and an in-studio Tim Speaks-with-his-Hands Gartrell, the CEO of Auspoll and former national ALP secretary, to discuss Australian politics this week, but inevitably it was largely focussed on the asylum seeker issue triggered by the boat of Tamil-Sri Lankans now in a Mexican standoff in Indonesia. Mr Morris was most dashing, in his dark suit and tie attire, while Mr Gartrell was way too casual to help his cause of being taken seriously, for the all important tie was absent. This was a fun interview to watch for the hand movement entertainment alone of the opposite interlocutors.

That overworked word, ‘hardline’, was the introductory topic chosen by Ms Sales, and well she should have, for Kevin Rudd botched his propaganda this week by centreing it on this word to try to look tough to the electorate. He seems to regularly use words in clumsy ways, does Kevin Rudd; he has used ‘gilding the lily’ on more than one occasion since being PM when he meant ‘sugar coating’. Anyway, Tony Abbott makes a sensible point that ‘hardline’ and ‘humane’ do not sit well together as adjectives to describe the same treatment.

This was an entertaining interview for more than the hand movements of the two lads: Mr Morris did a good job emulating Barnaby Joyce with borderline wild analogies, and some funny things were said by design and accident: take ‘hurling cats’ from Mr Morris as just one example. However, it was unfortunate to hear the dismissive manner in which Mr Morris described the lot of the asylum seekers and the options open to them: ‘…what is wrong with just walking down the road to Colombo in Sri Lanka’s place, talking to our High Commissioner there, and getting in the queue?’, among other comments he made making light of the state of the oppressed; yes it’s unfair on those in the queue, and I don’t sanction queue jumping, but gee, you do make it sound like a Sunday stroll for anyone, Mr Morris, dawdling on down to the High Commissioner’s office.

Mr Gartrell had some more sensible answers to some of Mr Morris’ claims and opinions, and was certainly the more temperate presence, his informal dress standard notwithstanding.

Ten minutes in Ms Sales treated us to one of her second-to-none delightful visual bursts of joy to Mr Morris’ remark ‘All over the front pages’; these spontaneous flows of mirth, in my opinion, are a window into a good soul. She then was unsuccessful in bringing Mr Morris into the 21^st century, for he repeatedly spoke of the Kyoto meeting coming up while she corrected with “Copenhagen”. The interview ended on a funny note, with Ms Sales offering to poke her head outside after the interview to check for any flying pigs.

The last interview was with a handsomely dressed national correspondent Michael Rowland, to discuss economics in place of an on leave Stephen Long. Interest rates and Aussie-US dollar parity likelihood was discussed, as well as Rupert Murdoch’s plan to charge for online news content. Glenn Stevens has to keep walking a tightrope, and for what it’s worth, I have far more sympathy for Rupert Murdoch’s thousands of staff and their jobs, than for the big man himself; I don’t like the way he has long exploited baser human nature to flog his fish and chip wrappers and other wares.

I recorded Letterman, and retired relatively early before three.

+paytontedwithlove+