pumpkin

Pumpkin positive?
(The Esquire Cover gallery via newthings)

boring books

Should we be enraged when public figures declare that reading is boring, asks Susan Hill (via Arts and Letters Daily)

(boynton has Susan Hill to thank for haunting her with the The Woman In Black - actually not the book, or even the play, but the TV film of 1989 - that can still cause the odd unsettled chilling flashback.)

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Comments: boring books

Hmph! I'm going to read a book.

PS: Woman In Black wasn't bad.
Posted by Tony.T at September 1, 2003 08:12 PM

Wasn't bad?
Still can't watch it without suffering for a week.
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 08:21 PM

I like books and food.

Unfortunate combination, really.
Posted by wen at September 1, 2003 08:31 PM

currently there is an embarrassment of riches catering to y/our taste, wen.
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 08:35 PM

One of my sisters is a gourmet cook-book junkie. She buys these beautiful (expensive!) books with their full page glossy pics - never cooks anything, though, just sits and drools.
Posted by wen at September 2, 2003 08:46 AM

Foodies never eat. Odd that.
Posted by Tony.T at September 2, 2003 11:07 AM

lingo

while thinking about language for that last post, boynton found some assorted links on lingo.

How to be a Propour Canadian Spellour (because australians spell propour too)
(via wood s lot)

Lime Tree's From the Flarf Vaults...The Latin Students

Doctor slang is a dying art
From LOBNH (Lights On But Nobody Home), CNS-QNS (Central Nervous System - Quantity Not Sufficient), to the delightful term "pumpkin positive", which refers to the implication that a penlight shone into the patient's mouth would encounter a brain so small that the whole head would light up.
( via Fragments - From Floyd)

US doctor forced to prove she can speak English
(via Hot Buttered Death)

bolo the bat

Tray beans bass attack, bookoo joy water, vent a tair von blinked – fixed bayonet, trivia chivoo.
Boynton broke to the wide, bumf blanking celluloid,
Whackel out parley – say pah - slapped up Bolo the bat compree, general webb’s entaglement, bumf buckshee, tear off a lump, kangaroo feathers
zubrich-farmer parley bounce compree.
bookoo lock-suey, bumf jerks
finance napoo, steve napoo, kamarad napoo, srd
igaree, douse the glim, coushay, mercy blow through, party

(cheating a bit here - not really LOTE but old slang from the AIF...compree?)

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Comments: bolo the bat

WT blankety?
Posted by Nora at September 1, 2003 04:45 PM

thanks Nora for prompting translation:
(rough guide only)

excellent drinking session, lots of champagne, quickly got drunk, red wine, trivia feast.
Boynton is broke, little @#$% money,
work out language, don't know, put together this lingo, do you understand? - web equipment - little prize - have a go - impossible
wanker speak - arrogance - yeah?
lots of rain, little exercise,
lover gone, casual acquaintance gone, friend gone.
seldom reaches destination/soon runs dry...
quick, turn off the lights, sleep, thankyou, go away.
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 04:53 PM

LOL
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 2, 2003 09:47 AM

turning pages

Just the usual wet Sunday spent turning the pages of the Leonardo Notebook at the British Library. (via Fair and Balanced)

Turning the Pages is an award-winning interactive display system developed by the British Library to increase public access and enjoyment of its treasures.

Visitors can virtually 'turn' the pages of rare books or manuscripts in a highly realistic way, using touch-screen technology and animation. They can zoom in on the high-quality digitised images and read or listen to notes explaining the significance of each page. There are other features specific to the individual books. In the Leonardo Notebook, for example, a mirror button turns the text round so visitors can read his famous mirror handwriting.

Turning the Pages allows many more pages to be viewed and enjoyed than when a single opening is displayed in a glass case. Importantly, neither the original or facsimile are damaged during the process.

The award-winning interactiive display is so novel that it almost competes with the treasures themselves. Boynton can't seem to shake her low library-special-collections self-esteem though, and even virtually worries that she's being too rough with the pages.

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Comments: turning pages

The hand that turns the pages of Leonardo's notebook is suitably clad in a white glove.
Posted by Nora at August 31, 2003 06:49 PM

aout 2

Last day of August is suitably aout with wind and rain keeping stir-crazy canines cooped up, and boynton now sporting a suitably twee sporting injury - a paper cut to the thumb from the local library opening-hours card - aout-ee.
It was not a good omen for this minion when she read the first line of her horoscope:There is a small part of your left elbow that is secretly Leo
and there was not much grunt in her secret battle cry either:

Lo! Who is that, rampaging through the tundra! It is Boynton, hands clutching two hardened pitas! She roars mightily:

"I'm going to hack into your brain, and type rm -rf !!"

What is Your Battle Cry? (via bifurcated rivets)

and naturally there is not even the odd inuendo in her search requests to exploit

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Comments: aout 2

Yea, verily: Who is that, sprinting out of the icy wasteland! It is Nora, hands clutching a burning branch! And with a cruel roar, her voice cometh:

"In the name of Thor the Mighty, I plunder with reckless abandon!!"
Posted by Nora at August 31, 2003 06:44 PM

verily I covet your battle cry, Nora.
tried to get another for boynton but it kept returning with the pitas.
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2003 10:46 PM

I tried it and got

"You in some shit now, muhfuh! I swear that on this night, you shall dine in hell!"

I'm all class.
Posted by Scott Wickstein at September 1, 2003 10:56 AM

Yea, verily: Who is that, rampaging amidst the freeway! It is Wen, hands clutching two hardened pitas! She roars ominously:

"In the name of Thor the Mighty, I sow darkness and discord until everything has croaked!!"

D'you think this will encourage my daughter to clean up her bluddy bedroom?
Posted by wen at September 1, 2003 10:57 AM

Who is that, sprinting along the desert! It is Gummo Trotsky, hands clutching two hardened pitas! He grunts ominously:

"I'm seriously going to torment you until you turn magenta, and grin like a fucking maniac!!"

Personally, I'm not sure that there's too much to be afraid of when someone threatens to turn you into a grinning magenta maniac. Especially if it's from quasi-coital pleasure.
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at September 1, 2003 12:30 PM

I'll swap yous all.
Hell, darkness and discord and quasi-coital magenta mania sure beat my pathetic, alegebraic (vulgar?) cry.
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 01:07 PM

blog games

In addition to kaleidoscope, (which she's finding to be a great content sport for bloggers) boynton's now signed up for blogstop. Addiction issues?
Don't nod.

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Comments: blog games

Yet another game to try...
Posted by Bill at August 31, 2003 11:23 PM

Less is so often more...

(Finding It Very Entertaining, Bill)
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2003 11:38 PM

Meetings should be Five Words.

"State of the Union," also...
Posted by Bill at September 1, 2003 06:54 AM

I would second the motion

except I have a dream
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 06:58 PM

old slides

The slides are local (scenes from roadside childhoods) and universal.
(Dad's Old Slides via newthings)

snark

as readers may be aware, boynton doesn't care much for the snark - like others she still harbours fonder asscociations of the word. This is an interesting read on the mindset/genre/culture within literary circles. (via fimoculous)
The comments thread provides lively discussion with these from Robert Birnbaum:
We may have entered the era of meta-snark. Saying somebody is full of shit is not snarky. Or claiming that they have heard "an author's last four or five books are not very good." —that is hearsay or as we say in the real world, gossip
I am against the rising tide of snide. Just as I accept the distinction between cynicism and skepticism, I deny the synonimity of clever and snide. Snide is ill spirited and negative. One does not learn anything from it. And learning something, I think, is at the heart of our intentions

If this is indeed officially the era of snark, or as Birnbaum calls it : the cultural moment that invites and on some level glorifies this know-nothingism, boynton will head for the heritage hills and jealously guard her irony. The link to the Heidi Julavintis Believer article is worth following -where the infiltration of snark is seen to have emerged in part as a reaction to false hyperbole - This is wit for wit's sake—or, hostility for hostility's sake. This hostile, knowing, bitter tone of contempt".
boynton shares some of Julavintis misgivings about the spirit of snark, and the desert of meaning that sometimes seems to be at the heart of it.
See also: see Hunting Snark: Heidi Julavits Stomps a Virus

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Comments: snark

x
Posted by Gianna at August 31, 2003 05:51 PM

;)
Posted by boynton at August 31, 2003 06:13 PM

cheap cryptic

Several letters to Bonny were ruined from over the ocean in Florida.(7)

update boynton has rarely tried playing this puzzling sport, though she has often heard her father's recitation of abstract clues. So after counsulting the expert,
he has offered the following example, which he claims is closer to the mark

the initial direction separating the child from his weighty capacity?

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Comments: cheap cryptic

I give up!

What is it with fathers?
Posted by wen at September 1, 2003 09:52 AM

Yes he was quite dismissive of my first attempt to "ruin" ... boynton... he thought the literary allusion (see ocean) was superfluous - and the town it referred to was too obscure.

the 2nd was actually a co-effort, he suggested the cryptic logic - (the middle N)- I filled in the dots.

must get around to attempting The Age's puzzle on a regular basis.

Glad your comment gave me an excuse to explain the crytptic, wen, I forgot to embed a link within.
Posted by boynton at September 1, 2003 12:46 PM

one's oddness

Be careful what you wish for... the odd throw-away line may become incorporated. Boynton's casual brag to Mr Wickstein that she was the original odd blogger was actually grounded in a sense that she doesn't fit in within the greater ozpundit blogosphere - the gatekeepers, the cafe chatterers, the football fiskers, the bar-room brawlers or the serial snarkers. Guess she never will.
Not that she's claiming to be original at all - as her loyal readership knows she merely peddles a few well-known genres - namely my dog, my link log, the odd random generator and a few pictures.
It's not even funny.
Obviously though a sense of oddness is quite common amongst the blogging fraternity because Scott's subsequent suggestion of forming an Australian Association of Odd Bloggers has been taken up with enthusiasm. Boynton being predictably odd is half thinking along Groucho's lines:
I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member - one's oddness would seem to prevent the neccessary sense of belonging - but applauds the efforts to try to unify diverse oz bloggers who declare themselves odd and proud of it.
On the other hand, beyond the laudable ring thing, what might such a body achieve?
She hopes serious labour and radical historians and those better versed in the history and ethos of friendly societies will forgive her, but she did a brief google delve of Odd Fellows Associations and found some instructive pages. For instance the IOOF informs us:

Our Vision since founding is:

"To elevate the character of man under the Fatherhood of God and within the brotherhood of man."

Our Mandate since founding is to:

Visit the sick

Relieve the distressed

Educate the orphan

Bury the dead.

One can see how the mandate might have been made for blogging, right down to the bullet points. (the list being the original last word in web style)
Visit the sick The AAOB could organise mass visitations to sick or ailing member bloggers through a pass-round-the-linkage-hat or even by enlisting the support of one of the Tims to send an easy 500 their way. Nothing like a blitz of hits to recharge the batteries. (we would imagine)
Relieving the distressed is similar territory - though perhaps this is conducted in camera - through a buddy system (forgive the americanism). Boynton has often thought of the merits of a comment-buddy (whose only obligation would be to relieve their designated blogger of the distressing (0) with any small comment, on topic or off, extended or simply X - my mark )
A spelling-cop-buddy/fact-check pedant might also be beneficial.
Educate the orphan This might mean either providing formal instruction and help files for newbies, or perhaps, in the future, settlement and counselling for the exes of group blogs who may have decided to go their separate ways.
Or even orphan in the sense of prospective dumpees of servers or ISPs or software wars.
Bury The Dead - in the tradition of this site - this service might provide a more respectful farewell through spontaneous tribute and commemoration activities, eg occasional linkage to the archives or a piss-up in the front bar.
Afterall We're all going to die

Finally boynton has only begun reading the digitised versions of historic Odd Fellow magazines, but on the top of page one of the first of this collection, she found a poem which she has dutifully secularised by substituting B for G...and which may or may not stand as a provisional motto for a conglomerate of odds

Well may the world imagine we are odd -
We love our neighbour and we love our blog

see also:
We Unite to assist each other
secret society and Masonic paraphenalia

on a roll

Our trivia team is on a roll at the moment. After months in the winter wilderness a new outfit made an impressive debut and will now have to synchronise whirling social schedules to sip from the victory cup. (And possibly some more communal mudcake - the proof being somewhere in the pudding)

(pics from the very splendid retro americana via J walk)

(this unsavoury boasting was shamelessly posted to secure some more points)

slogans

Recently in melbourne (motto: "fire"), residents reported an outbreak of labradors. Perhaps you think there are no labradors in melbourne. Perhaps you are an idiot.
As the French say, au contraire (literally: "you suck!"). I have here in my hands a copy of an Associated Press article sent in by alert reader nora, whose name can be rearranged to spell "NAOR", although that is not my main point...

This was boynton's first bash at Auto Dave the automated Dave Berry column generator (Lite). Obviously it pays to watch your input nouns and adjectives.
(via Making Light - Particles)

the truth is- boynton is a sucker for any generator, and this magical slogan generator provides a few narcissistic gems for bloggers.
boynton - a little dab'll do ya, Australians Wouldn't Give A boynton For Anything Else, It Takes A Tough Man To Make A Tender boynton, Because boynton Can't Drive etc, (via J Walk)

For a list of some slogans of a different ilk
Slogans Not Found at a Beachside T-Shirt Concession Stand in the Summer of 2003
-The Guy Who Used to Sit Next to Me in Trigonometry II Is a Very Wealthy Man
-Try Rooting for the Losing Team
(via Brad Zellar Open all night)

and you can listen to Oprah's brand (twice) here (via Anil Dash)

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Comments: slogans

Did you see Dave's been listed by "the centre for the easily amused" ?

I want that listing too!
Posted by at August 29, 2003 01:38 PM

and can you let me know when you find a "wen's novel" generator....
Posted by wen at August 29, 2003 01:41 PM

I'll add it to the list, wen.
I'm on the lookout for a few of my own - an oz council grant application generator would be quite handy.
Posted by boynton at August 29, 2003 03:08 PM

Yes - with guaranteed 50 points for each category & clever two page synopsis of as yet unthought of best-selling literary novel .... (hah!)

Was going to suggest creative doctorate/scholarship route - but have a feeling that Miss B would know all about this particular lurk.

Have you considered a serial web-novel, with a comments facility available only to very generous subscribers & an alternative narrative (let me write my story your way!) for premium patrons??

Failing that - garret, hunger, addiction, consumption ... masterpiece!
Posted by wen at August 29, 2003 03:48 PM

Currently trialling all of the last options - save the masterpiece. (The addiction and consumption bit refers of course to blogging)

Seriously - I hadn't thought much about these other possibilities, but they sound quite exciting. Maybe subscription is the elusive way to go - but I would be wary of instituting any hierarchy of readership. Everyone's pretty premium round these parts ;)
On the other hand, perhaps there are some genuine ways to "filter" membership?
I've only written plays to date - but I am enjoying writing "non-dramatically" - whetted the writerly appetite perhaps. Suspect I could only handle writing a fragmented/associative "on line" style novel - who knows.

btw there's one example of an on-line group novel being written at " Exit Stage Left" that Meredith at Invisible Shoebox initiated -
http://www.exitpageleft.netfirms.com/

Hmm...Interesting ground...
Posted by boynton at August 29, 2003 04:45 PM

Recently in Toongabbie (motto: "something stinks"), residents reported an outbreak of scandals. Perhaps you think there are no scandals in Toongabbie. Perhaps you are an idiot.
As the French say, au contraire (literally: "that is dead!"). I have here in my hands a copy of an Associated Press article sent in by alert reader boynton, whose name can be rearranged to spell "BYNONOT", although that is not my main point...

Posted by Nora at August 29, 2003 05:10 PM

photos of signs

Love this sign
From the "weird, misc" group in photos of signs
There aren't many things I appreciate more than an interesting sign or a unique type sample...
This is another.

via the wonderful, misc iconomy

mars

so boynton and a couple of friends went to Victoria Gardens and took the lift that said: Mars (actually claustrophobic boynton took the stairway to mars) and dodging puddles in the bleak rooftop carpark joined the small crowd gathered around the various clumps of telescopes owned by volunteers who tweaked the settings graciously for each beanie clad punter who wanted to see better. It was a rather miserable affair on such a night - the various volunteers seeking the sustenance of polystyrene hot drinks at their lonely stations. It's been a long three days confessed one young telescope-owner. Friday was the best night.
The biggest queue was for the biggest looking telescope, but boynton sampled a few of the lesser lenses and Mars always looked pretty much the same - a little white moving dot, like spilt liquid, even you might say, a tear drop. It seemed a little odd to take the disembodied view - to peer down into technology, away from the sky. To take the telescope's word for it as you took your bearings again by looking up and seeing that bright yellowish star within the clouds. The view of the city lights to the west, through the naked eye, looked pretty good too. For Earth.

Millions watch Mars... The Age

boynton's first visit to Victoria Gardens

nz trivia

Can electric fencing be an effective contraceptive? (answer)

as boynton prepares to rejoin the trivia fold, she found this interesting archived
quiz from lifestyleblock - the information hub for lifestyle farmers in NZ.

she's just not quite sure if studying these particular questions will pay off...
When is a barrow not a wheel barrow
Is a Crossbred Dog-Trial winner eligible for the NZ Sheepdog Stud book?
What was the longest period without rain in the Waikato in June?

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Comments: nz trivia

So, was the cow AC or DC?
Posted by Gummo Trotsky at August 26, 2003 01:46 PM

EZ
Posted by boynton at August 26, 2003 01:49 PM

sorry - realise that zee was a gratuitous americanism which is a shocking thing for miss b to indulge in. pls forget I ever zed it.
Posted by boynton at August 26, 2003 03:03 PM

Due to an early exposure to Sesame Street I can never remember which way we're meant to say it anyway!
Posted by wen at August 27, 2003 10:26 AM

Got to watch the dude-speak creep, wen.
In any case, this site is an elevator, sidewalk, janitor, vacation, math, sports, buddy, faucet and zee free zone.
we're all cobbers on the information footpath here.
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2003 03:28 PM

Righto, mate.
Posted by wen at August 27, 2003 03:41 PM

loon

walking rogue dog up street, she has almost completed a perfect round of pretending to be canine companion - (as complex as dressage for such a dog) -when she suddenly enters that wolf zone and starts stalking something in the distance, oblivious to all the usual suspects, totally focused on this herd-able object loose on the footpath. Unlike other dogs she shows no embarrassment when she encounters the truth. At least the illusion did not burst but floated happily away, gloating.

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Comments: loon

argh! the truth has slipped from our grasp (aka that link appears to be broken). any more clues?
Posted by Gianna at August 27, 2003 01:33 PM

Oh no!!
That link was fine all day yesterday then, bang - the balloon bursts!
That link was actually a picture of a balloon dog - which was a bit of poetic license on my part, Gianna, as I'm not sure if Flo was seeing canine or feline or even bovine (folk-memory) or plain bird in the small balloon bouncing happily along up the street.
Thanks for the alert. I may have to substitute -
fix the link, but break this thread - eh!
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2003 01:45 PM

Fixed.
alas the purple jpg not quite as good as the earlier green model.
Posted by boynton at August 27, 2003 02:03 PM

ah!
Posted by Gianna at August 28, 2003 12:23 PM

comic camp

Last week boynton returned to a site she once visited almost daily IRL - the books at the old local Salvos. The word site is probably quite apt because the over-laden tables of uncategorized books made for a browsing experience not dissimilar to surfing the web. Precious children's books nestled with cooking, cultural theory classics with lonely planets, Neil Postman with Women who stay with Men who stray Boynton was hovering for a long time near a man who was squarely staying put over this title, with her eye not on the lofty literature, (as of yore) but the pop culture ephemera. Always a Batman fan - she snapped up The official Batman Batbook by Joel Eisner.

Included in the memorabilia, anecdotes and trivia was this account by one of the writers, Ellis St Joseph.
'My experience with 'Batman' was a very strange one. I loved doing it, but when I came into it, it was in its second year, and its ratings were falling off. I knew why- it was very clear to me - but it wasn't to them, because I believe they were so into it. There is a delicate balance bewteen comic or camp and suspense, and if you listen to the critics too much about the camp, you become totally comic and lose suspense. I think kids as well as grown-ups want a litlle suspense along with the comedy, but they had lost it. So, I set about creating something that would restore the feeling of suspense and even increase, if possible, the comedic elements.."

Getting this critical balance right, and then holding it is indeed the crucial factor.
Boynton can think of a few comedy shows that have sadly devolved into camp by their second or third series. It is rare for them to be able to regain the lost
cred, or comic suspense - as Elllis suggests.
This rare tonal balance is just as important and just as elusive in the theatre - boynton has often watched as the fine line is walked, sometimes trampled, sometimes waltzed.

(footnote: more on the fate of Eliis' episode The Sandman Cometh here)

shark net

Thought The Shark Net was fabulous TV. Everything came together - writing, direction, casting. The universality of the story worked because of the authenticity and complexity of the local. It was so clearly Perth early 60's - an otherness of geography, light, social scale - but there were resonances everywhere in the layered imagery and dialogue.
In this long (46 min) but lively ABC Perth radio interview, the book's author Robert Drewe claims that the story of the serial killings that terrorized the city has become one of Western Australia's Central myths - almost like Kelly. Drewe joins Producer Sue Taylor, and Tony Cooke - son of the convicted killer, Eric Cooke - for a discussion that looks at both the techie questions of the series and also the social context - and the talk back callers confirm this sense of parochial myth - everyone has a story, and the story as a cultural catalyst.

Maxine McKew Lunch with Robert Drewe
what makes The Shark Net such a singular effort is Drewe's marriage of the ordinary and the positively gothic

The novel was adapted by Ian David. (Police crop, Blue Murder) Interesting transcript here of an earlier talk - mainly discussing the docu-drama form, but containing some good general observations on writing...
Since after-dinner chat became de rigeur in the odd cave in the South of France, those who peddle ideas and words, even pictures and music, have a contract with society, I believe. They're given a licence to journey into strange territories, and they're expected to be honest in their dealings and report back with due care and reverence to their experiences. They represent all of us in that collective dreaming pool, the human condition. If a writer can't, or won't take responsibility for being a diligent scout, then I believe society should strip him or her of their prizemoney and keyboard, and ignore their protestations until they day they pass on...
As a writer with this form of drama I am obsessed with irony. Apart from structure, it's the main creative contribution I make, it's my fingerprint. I try to suffuse my stories with irony like waves through marble cake. I try to look at things as though there is another opinion and another impression to be gained...

...Irony is a way to make comment while sticking to the facts. People always say what they don't mean. Intentionally or unintentionally, irony is revealing. Corporations and governments have elevated irony to an art-form, and to what they say is always what they don't mean...
Irony is everywhere

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Comments: shark net

Damn - I missed it. Will have to keep a list of 'things to watch' somewhere obvious & stop falling asleep at ridiculous times.

Met Robert Drewe (briefly) a few years ago at a talk he gave here - asked him a really, really stupid question which ( thankfully) has been completely excised from my memory-zone, & which he very politely - er - was unable to answer.

The Ian David talk interesting - would have to agree that fiction easier, but not quite sure what he's saying about irony. Suffusing your stories with irony like waves through a marble cake is a rather yummy image though!
Posted by wen at August 26, 2003 08:56 AM

Stories like the Shark Net are what David Marr is missing or misunderstanding or ignoring when he calls on Aust. writers not to write about the "ordinary". Finding the extra-ordinary in the ordinary can be far more compelling (and instructive, if that's your thing). What if Alice Munro moved into the 'big world' - unthinkable!

Thankyou Miss Boynton for this opportunity to vent.
Posted by wen at August 26, 2003 09:02 AM

As an former Perthian, I agree the visuals were very reminiscent of Perth in an earlier age, but strangely I'd never heard of the serial killer myth.
Posted by Tony.T at August 26, 2003 10:15 AM

wen - sometimes dumb questions are good in such forums - better than the dreaded 'what does (the novel/play/poem) mean?'
I think David is talking about using irony in the political doco-drama context - as a way to expose the gap. It's a greatly abused and appropriated word, and it's prob less ironic than moronic for me to have put those 2 links together. But I think the Shark Net was really helped by having this gritty edge. Too often the tendency has been to go into whimsical overdrive with the surreal moments of a novel - gothic becomes grotesque, or worse, 'suburban quirky' - but David's restraint meant the ordinary did indeed become extra-ordinary. And as with that line of comedy and camp, I think it helps to play 'weird' as straight as possible - to keep the magic credible - lest it turn EZ lazy quirky.

Tony - there were things that were also reminiscent of "bygone" melb - (or even "present in certain pockets" melb). My nostalgic rush at the retro was tempered though by the story.
The light seemed different, very WA.
Interesting that you had not heard of the 'episode'- perhaps sometimes like the Beaumonts it's always there under the surface, and it takes a novel or a film to get people talking.

Posted by boynton at August 26, 2003 12:06 PM

If you or any of your readers want to learn the full story of our serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, read my book Broken Lives, published by Hardie Grant. It tells it all - and succeeded in exonerating John Button who was convicted of one of Cooke's murders, and a second one is going through the appeal court in Perth now.
Posted by estelle blackburn at September 4, 2003 05:44 PM

pidge take 2

Your a Labrador I'm afraid. Your an old slipper, a soft touch, a clumsy dumb dag. Your a dome-headed double-coated wolf-descendent domestic round hound. Your not really hip. Rarely dysplatic - fairly static, often eats plastic. Your kind to your significant others but are sometimes lazy. Your not currently stylish. Because your not regarded as feisty you may be overlooked by those wanting a guard dog, your more a failed guide dog. But maybe one day tuesday who knows you will be well fed by those who like the folk memory of a childhood fido, a kindly shadow, a swinging gait, a gentle wag.

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

(blame kaleidoscope... nb: all yours strictly sic )

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Comments: pidge take 2

Nice photo of your crazy dog, Boynton.
Posted by Nora at August 24, 2003 04:58 PM

Yes - Doug as a 4 y old
Once was Devilishly Handsome.
Now is silly distinguished
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2003 05:51 PM

Ouch. That misspelling is beautifully done!
Posted by joh at August 24, 2003 09:12 PM

your too kind, joh.
tho' I have noticed that this seems to be special quiz-dialect?
Posted by boynton at August 24, 2003 10:36 PM