TRARALGON: "Not immune to shyness, he was feverishly interested in his p's & q's, canaries in test tubes, and railed against baccy," PLInkletter says.

Be all that as it may, meanwhile:

'In other news…'

03^rd September 2010

Friday: I had high hopes of taking Bob swimming today, but a poor quality of sleep in the first few hours put paid to that, and I realised I'd be dangerous on the road if I tried, so Janny contacted his people (I got my people to contact his people) and rearranged for Wednesday coming. Thus I returned to sleep till dark.

During din dins, given a guest, he who cannot be graciously differed or debated or examined with, but who insists on a preponderance of spontaneous opinions, the shine was taken a tad from the TV watching over the ensuing hour. Just one of the small crosses to bear…

Lateline: The (Leigh) Sales Graph: Doubtless fortified with two or three Pramin, Leigh Sales, looking really good by the way, did a sterling job of interviewing a couple of our federal politicians still in limbo, Christopher Pyne and Tony Burke (the medication needed due to the former, according to some severe commentators), both men, as usual, looking crisply turned out. I wish I couldn't say it, but as per usually usual, the Labor man was less small, bitter, nasty, hysterical, arrogant, and hyperbolic than the Coalition man.

I have been pining (pun intended: see above) away for my weekly Stephen Long fix, and at long last he returned to give us The Long View: It is difficult to overestimate the quality of Mr Long's assessments; they are usually confined to things economic, but even when he strays from his specialty, the pearls of wisdom keep coming. Oh, by the way, I wouldn't blame him for gloating tonight, because he was given over 4 minutes! He went white shirt tonight, with a most fetching tie, within the background of his dark blue suit. His mum had less curls to tousle, given the shearing he must have recently undergone.

Ms Sales quizzed Mr Long on the hullabaloo surrounding the Coalition's election costings finally submitted to and chewed over by Treasury. And true to his habit, Mr Long set about telling it more as it is, and in fact came out very fair for both sides, and supported the Opposition's suggestion of a budget office to cost both sides' election commitments.

There was a funny and joyous moment when Ms Sales asked Mr Long to the effect why Australia's financial world hadn't imploded due to the political uncertainty during this limbo, and his answer was embarrassingly true to our politicians' detriment: the economy is run by Treasury and the Reserve Bank.

Stephen Long reveals Australian federal politicians' worst kept secret, to Leigh Sales delight: economically speaking, they're irrelevant!

Mr Long came up with a pair of gems as he expounded on the reasons for the steady course freighter Australia is plying – that we won't be ending up with a "Julia Chavez or Adolf Abbott".

+paytontedwithlove+