Speaking of words, during yesterday's visit to a second-hand bookshop I also picked up Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words (a very timely find during an election campaign) and An Exaltation of Larks which is an entertaining collection of over 1,000 collective nouns.
Of course, everybody has seen The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio which is a sort of Lord of the Flies in a modern setting. I've just found the book by Alex Garland which is so much better than the movie. And, being the armchair-traveller that I have become, I couldn't resist Paul Theroux's Fresh-Air Fiend, Travel Writings, 1985-2000, and Andrew Eames's Crossing the Shadow Line - (obviously, the shadow line is a reference to Joseph Conrad's story).
Only a week-and-a-half to the elections and the papers are full of it. I ignore the front page and go straight to what really matters, such as Bradley Manning now wanting to be known as Chelsea, and WikiLeaks Party candidates having resigned because of lack of transparency and accountability.
Or what about the broccoli that was imported from China with glass in it? Broccoli? Are we really importing broccoli from China? I don't even know anybody who eats broccoli!
And this Luis took the old saying 'eat, drink, and be merry' a bit too far: he sued his GP for failing to refer him for weight-loss treatment and was awarded $360,000. Luckily, his GP managed to have the original judgment overturned before Luis could spend it all.
What a career move: pay a people-smuggler to set yourself up in Australia; then become a people-smuggler yourself. The AFP arrested five today - see here. Now we have to house and feed them in our jails for the next ten years at an annual cost of well over $100,000 each. What a soft touch we are!
And lastly: paid parental leave of up to $75,000 for six months. It's the hot-button election issue but it won't start until 1st July 2015. Sorry, fellas, no nookies for the next eighteen months!
