No laughing matter?

Bishop the Elder speaks... and everyone collapses in hysterics.

Fat is good. Fat works! But...

... only after 65 years of age according to new research into obesity. The same findings even indicate that trying to slim in old age may be counter-productive.

Early days of B&W

These are B&W op/ed cartoons published in TravelWeek during 1979 and '80. Indeed, the one featuring a kiwi was the first ever of mine in that magazine. It appeared in Feb,'79.

The Ansett father and son piece appeared in May of '79, eliciting a request for the original by Bob Ansett himself. I believe it was on the wall of his Budget office for some time.

The remaining example is from May1980. It depicted the then joint leadership of Ansett (by none other than 'Rupe' Murdoch (News) and Sir Peter Abeles (TNT) representing shared control of the airline) and the TAA figurehead (Sir Robert Law-Smith) pondering the Qantas reaction to their refusal to pro-rate domestic leg components of through international fare structures (if I recall correctly. It was a long time ago).

I actually wince every time I see stuff from that era. It was my 'big foot' phase. I now think big feet are just a silly distraction from other more important points of recognition in a cartoon figure. 

Floating object(ion)s?

Well... it's as good a guess as anything else that's been 'confirmed' to date?

Naphthalene flakes

And, there was I thinking that they'd decided to introduce free travel officially because most people weren't paying fares anyway.

George! SSsssh...

You're in Cabinet George. Speak freely!

Titles again!

Mr. Rabbit is alive and well... and living in the middle of the 20th century.

Or perhaps, even further back in antiquity, breaking bread with Dionysius?

Security?

Latest news once again underlines the need for the 'big end of town' to realize that when sub-contracting work it pays to remember that cheap is often coupled with nasty! Failure to check credentials may end up creating serious collateral damage to their brand(s).

Howes that? OUT!

Paul Howes has resigned his leadership of the Australian Workers Union. Initial reports indicate he may not immediately pursue a new career in politics, as many pundits might've presumed. Instead, he might be interested in a position in the private sector.

We'll have to wait to see what the future holds for this well-known 'faceless man' of the political Left.

Memories of The BULLETIN

The old 'Bullie' was a great market for free-lance cartoonists way back to the last two decades of the 19th century. Though not primarily a 'gag' cartoonist, I first submitted some free-lance work whilst living in Perth during the mid-1950s... I must confess, more in hope than certainty of acceptance. Sure enough, a week or so later they were rejected along with a short note, which thanked me for my interest... but, 'no thanks'. Sadly, there was no reason given, so I naturally figured they were not up to their required standard... and, moved on to other things.

After turning full-time professional in 1990, I thought it might be a bit of a diversion to send off another batch of speculative gag cartoons. Especially for the purpose, I decided to sign the 'toons with the pseudonym 'Hob'... not really sure now why that was done but, probably to separate the work from other regular contracted stuff I was doing for a number of other publications at the time. This time I had 3 of 5 accepted, a strike-rate of 60%! Best not to get carried a way by sudden wind-falls in this business though. Soon after that initial success, the magazine started limiting their cartoon content to the work of a few established 'toonies who had been contributors over a long period.

Sooo, here's a sample of some of the toons which made it into the 'bullie'. These are copied from the actual magazine pages. I have the originals somewhere in my chaotic archive, but failed to find them at first attempt. They appeared during 1991-92.

Leaner cleaning?

One of the almost 10000 regulations mooted for discard in Abbott's proposed bonfire of government  'red tape'... is one which may lead to a steep reduction in the pay of already lowly paid parliamentary cleaners.

Tony intending to bring in his own gloves, apron and trash-shovel?

Trampling Hird?

James Hird, suspended coach of the Essendon AFL team, now more mired in controversy after his wife weighed into the ongoing club drug scandal saga? She claimed to be doing the 'right' thing by her hubby... but, that depends on how her intervention is viewed by the club and AFL nabobs.

Not looking so good this morning.

Red Tape.

The government's 'red tape' purge will include acts and regulations currently aimed at curbing malpractice in the investment advice industry. If the move succeeds, I would be very, very, careful of entrusting my life savings to anyone whose credentials and track record I was not absolutely happy with.

Out of sight...

... out of mind? Is Arthur a real target or just potential collateral damage?

'Roo as pet food.

What next indeed? Incorporate a can of pet food into the Coat of Arms?

Between a rock and a hard place?

Bill n Albo... faced with only a miniscule 'light on the hill' extant in the ACT, and flickering hope of a continuing ALP foot-hold in SA... find clutching at straws may be the only game left in town?

St. Patrick's day.

Oscar Wilde, brilliant 19th century literature genius, controversial socialite, all-round scallywag and, Irish to the core. Like many other famous art figures of his time, he was apparently addicted to Absinthe, a bright green licorice tasting hallucinogen... which had the unfortunate 'end-game' of killing its adherents if they let it get out of control.

It was banned in many countries from early in the 20th. century, but is reportedly making a come-back amongst some Europeans as I write this.

Let there be light?

A hill to climb... unlit by inspiration?!

AFL ANTipathy?

Re introducing a panel which I used to display frequently on a previous blog. ANTipodes is an ant level view of human affairs based on english words containing the 3 letters in the required order.

Ho-hum! Last night in Melbourne the new AFL season commenced... but, not in a way the 'magpie army' would have preferred!

457 Visas

Removal of control over willy-nilly issue of 457 visas may not only interest local industries hell-bent on importing foreign labour rather than hiring local unionized workers.

Maybe it will open up opportunities for other nefarious operators involved in overseas travel?

Flummoxed?

Oh dear! Bishop the younger went into a BBC interview without her prepared script and warbled off-song a little.

The number one Abbott wont be too pleased!

Browser update

Yesterday's lock-out from my blog... and, this morning's discovery that only one of the three browsers on my ancient desk-top remains able to do the job, started my cartoonist' mind to thinking about the hazards arising from conjunction of age and compatibility...

DICTUMS FROM A HIGHER ENTITY?

Tuesday, 11/03/2014

Yesterday was the first anniversary of rim-o-rama blog. Co-incidentally, today something has gone amiss with the blogger control mechanism, so this is being written as a draft for publication when/if the facility returns to normal operation.

Australia's richest woman persists in offering advice to government which boils down to ' you can quickly  restore budget equilibrium by screwing the poor masses with reduction of benefits, whilst favouring big business per medium of endless tax reductions made available by those savings! '

Is the government listening? I hope not!  

PS This post delayed due to sudden browser incompatibility problem. My ancient desk-top's limitations finally caught up with my innate niggardliness(?) Hopefully, this temporary fix will give me breathing time to adjust the machinery shortfall?

Vale - Roy (Professor) Higgins.

Another Australian legend rides off into the sunset. The great Roy Higgins passed away over the weekend at age 75.

I've never been much into horse racing, but I bet there are not many Ozzies of my age who are not aware of this champion of champion jockeys, who was also a household name during the height of his career. And, according to the published memory pieces so far ... he was a genuinely bonzer bloke as well.

You can't achieve much better than that.

Caricature 1994/5.

As I've possibly mentioned before, I have very few archived original examples of the industry nabob caricatures I was doing for TravelWeek magazine during the time artwork was still being done in the traditional 'pen and ink on paper' era. That was largely because I had a deal with the editor to accept an additional stipend over and above my usual fee, so the mag. publisher could have the originals mounted/framed for presentation to each of the 'victims' of my work. Previous to the 'arrangement', subjects of the art-work often came direct to me to purchase originals. Frankly, it was a nuisance hassling about cost, then having to pack and despatch the items... so the deal was a 'win-win' for all concerned.

Today, I've scanned a sample set of originals I still possess. The personalities depicted are doubtless unknown to anyone casually visiting this blog, but in the context of my cartooning past, these caricature jobs formed a solid base platform for all the other not so regular stuff I was turning out at the time. These were evidently part of an exhibition, because I had gone to the trouble of affixing small pics of the individuals so viewers had a reference to how the subjects actually looked in 'real'.

In order, they are Keryn Smith, grp mgr Tek Travel in NZ. - 09/11/1994... Jim Clements, UFTAA (international federation of Travel Agent associations) - 23/11/1994... and, Chris Chaplin of Thos, Cook - 18/01/1995. The situations in which each were pictured was illustrative of some part of the accompanying printed interview texts.

Privacy?

A major retailer has admitted that personal data, obtained against issue of reward cards, has been not only distributed amongst Australian companies owned by its parent, but also to entities distributed over every continent on the globe. Apparently, all recipients of their customer's private information have been requested to treat the data in an ethical manner.

Oh... well, that's alright then?!

ALP!

ALP leader Bill Shorten has resurfaced with a plan to revive flagging party membership and funding by democratizing eligibility criteria to attract the many supporters on ALP mailing lists as actual members without having to negotiate the tortuous process which applies to potential applicants at present. He contends that unless the party rebuilds the critical mass to regain government as soon as possible, deprived elements of the ALP's natural constituency eg. the lonely, homeless and mentally ill, will continue to suffer the 'don't care' policies of their political opponents.

Good luck with that Bill.

Ludlum speaks...

... and, almost half a million people (at last count) are watching the video on social media! Amazing!

The speech delivered in a practically empty senate chamber, went feral almost immediately. It comprised a 'welcome' of PM Tony Abbott to visit Western Australia in the lead-up to a re-run of last September's aborted senate election in that state. Scott Ludlum, a Greens party senator standing for re-election, was speaking with his tongue firmly in cheek, because his dissertation was delivered as if  using a verbal cattle prod on the Prime Minister.

The question I'm left to ask is 'Why were the president, Ludlum and one government senator the only members attending the session? On the face of it, this apparent dereliction of duty by so many of our highly paid parliamentary representatives, is nothing short of scandalous!

Tree hugger?

Is there no end to the many and varied facets of our fearless leader? Now we learn he is a latent wood-worker, thanks to the influence of his grand-father. As such he hates to see his beloved trees locked up.

Unfortunately, certain human beings do not attract the same consideration. But, what else could you expect from a man with such a love for wood in his heart... and presumably, his head as well?

Asylum seeker?

Looks like the Senate's 'great big spotlight' is soon to illuminate the grubby Manus island riot story?

Who's Putin?

When you have a world leader of dubious nature who possesses a name which, in Australia, could easily be associated with the manner of questioning an odorous act...?

Down the 'chute?

With a state election scheduled for later this year, incumbent minister for community services Mary Wooldridge was suddenly without a seat in parliament when her constituency of Doncaster was abolished in a recent re-distribution. No worries. The safe Liberal seat of Kew is vacant, so Premier Napthine urged his well performing minister to stand for pre-selection there.

Oops! The pre-selection was determined yesterday. Contrary to the premier's wishes and the parliamentary party's expectation, Ms Wooldridge was not supported by Kew party members!

A classic case of 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched'?

Lifeboat?

Sooo... assuming intercepted asylum seekers survive the 'life' boat float back to Indonesia (or who knows where if the fuel runs out before they're washed up on that country's shores?)... what then?

Life in detention forever? Who cares? Certainly not the Australian government, it seems.

Nor do they apparently care about the multiple debris left to rot, or be pillaged along the shoreline of a 'friendly' country.

Well, Abbott and company. I DO care about what is done in my name by witless fools. And, as a point of further interest... how much are these non-recyclable orange (potential) coffins costing the OZ taxpayers?

Where there's smoke...

... there's a fire in the open-cut brown-coal mine serving Hazelwood power station in the Latrobe valley of Victoria.

Because of extreme difficulties encountered by fire-fighters in tackling the blaze, together with weather conditions generally lacking a wind component, the near-by town of Morwell has been virtually shrouded in potentially toxic smoke for over a week. Authorities estimate it may be a further week or so before the fire can be controlled and extinguished.

The health of town residents must be of great concern... particularly the elderly and children. Our part of Melbourne was similarly covered by bushfire smoke for 4 or 5 days early in February (though, less intense than the Morwell experience, I presume). I, for one, became gradually more lethargic as the cloud persisted. Irritation of my lungs and throat clearly became worse as the period of exposure lingered. Fortunately, the weather changed and strong winds quickly dispersed the menace. Improvement in my general well-being began within hours of the atmospheric clean-out. Morwell has already suffered for substantially longer than we did. I dare say the smoke and particulate arising from a coal-fed fire would also be far more toxic than the result of mainly grass-fires which affected us. We can only hope that nature comes to their aid by laying on some decent winds to give the beseiged inhabitants some relief.

My interest in the plight of Morwell residents is further prompted by the fact that I spent 4 or 5 years of my boyhood in the town. My dad was posted there as a policeman halfway thru' WW2. I completed both primary school and almost all of my secondary education (at the now defunct Yallourn Tech.) during our time at Morwell. My dad was later appointed O.i.C. at nearby Moe before returning to Melbourne during the early 1950s. Hence, I know the area well.

I just hope the current tribulations haven't dulled the laconic sense of humour generally possessed by our country brethren. After all, Morwell is where I learned my version of it!