BARNSTAPLE: "Four gypsy moths and thousands of jigsaws later, he put his stamp on the globe, though neither dead nor royal," PLInkletter circumspected

Be all that as it may, meanwhile:

'In other news…'

17^th September 2010

Friday: I picked up Mum at Melville and got her to the skin specialist for her 11.30 appointment.

He decided to shave the skin cancer growth off her left leg, rather than excise it. The needles for anaesthetic hurt Mum greatly, as did the needles for the excision two months ago behind her ear. However, the shaving procedure meant she could walk and carry on, whereas a deep incision would have been a different story.

The growth was an inch or so from where she had the deep incision to remove a cancer near her ankle a couple of years back, which necessitated her resting with her leg up for many days.

When I got back home, about half three, I took Janny shopping, and so this spent the day. I was so tired I had to sleep for an hour till nearly seven.

During the evening, with Cadbury on my lap, I saw some live coverage a few times from the BBC on ABC24 of el Papa on his visit to London, from Edinburgh the day before. The irony of the grandiosity of it all is so stark, with both sides of the Christian schism so far removed from much that Jesus lived for.

Lateline: The (Leigh) Sales Graph: Sad to learn, sweetened with some Shakespeare from Leigh Sales, that Stephen Long will be away for a few weeks Four Cornering; his riposte was also Shakespearian. Stay safe Stephen and come back with more wisdom with which to scent this economic coil.

Shakespeare's sentiments blossomed during Stephen Long's LATELINE appearance with Leigh Sales

Mr Long was asked, during his 3 minutes of glory, by Ms Sales what's going on with this mob of businesses backing a carbon tax, and that mob opposing one; as per usual, we got his wisdom illuminating the matter: there is no unanimity, just prejudices in the newspapers' reporting on BHP's stance so far, and schisms (great word, Stephen!) within the business world.

And Ms Sales put the question of why the Aussie dollar is going gangbusters, and of course, we received very sensible reasons, such as our comparitively high interest rates and the dollar's link with our high priced commodities.

I can never get enough of Stephen Long's straight talking common sense; if only our politicians could be so candid. I look forward to Mr Long's 4 Corners report.

Ms Sales' long interview was the Friday night fight club, with Scott Morrison and Tony Burke, in-studio, and all behaved most civilly, (and each was presented superbly, with Ms Sales, unsurprisingly, being the most soothing to the eye):

Beauty and the beasts: Leigh Sales attempting to tease some manner of political sense from Scott Morrison and Tony Burke on LATELINE

although the performances were predictable, on the subject of immigration and asylum seekers, especially the boat arrivals. And as ever, it seems the Opposition is having a struggle with bitterness and smallness, even though it was very well controlled by Mr Morrison. I keep noting in this blog how small and negative this last three years long Opposition has been; it's as if they think it's somehow justified.

Thankfully, Ms Sales' good sense of humour helps to lift the tone and keep it up at more acceptable levels. She began funnily with a remark that the interview was almost over due to the length of the pollies' titles.

A wonderful moment occurred when Mr Morrison said "…the Coalition's very united on it (climate change)", and Ms Sales interjected while wrestling with her own laughter: "Well really? …You've got Malcolm Turnbull in your ranks. We've had Tony Abbott previously say climate change is crap and now embracing direction action?" Mr Morrison steamed ahead trying to make nothing of that fact, while the smile that staked its claim on Mr Burke's moosh was a sight to behold. I recommend you watch the podcast just for this sight:

Priceless moment: Tony Burke and Leigh Sales catch Scott Morrison with his rhetorical pants around his ankles!

*

I managed a very late walk, on this relatively warm evening. Janny spent some hours awake in the middle of the night. It's a nuisance when this happens, coz she either wants to gab on with me, or get me to write emails for her, and I can't get my writing done. The burdens of husbandhood…

I was still at the keyboard till well after sunrise.

+paytontedwithlove+