[the p-g] has he joined the select society

The Pedant-General in Ordinary appears to have a new blog and very nice it looks too. Are you select enough to visit and when you do, are you prepared to go through a registration procedure whose complexity was clearly suggested to the P-G by Bournemouth?

[foley] can one man’s folly destroy a party

Started to read this thing from MSNBC: Foley tips party into crisis with core voters. The latest scandal … could prove the "tipping point" for social conservative voters, already disillusioned with their party's congressional and presidential performance. According to a Reuters-Zogby poll on Wednesday, the Democrats have a clear lead over the Republicans in 11 of the 15 races and there are growing indications that the Democrats could also be in a position to win the six seats they need to recapture the Senate for the first time since 2002. "The mood among conservative voters in America reminds me of the atmosphere among British Conservatives in 1997 shortly before Tony Blair became prime minister," said Frank Luntz, probably the most influential Republican political consultant. "The level of incompetence and mismanagement by the Republican leadership has been so bad it would take an act of God to regain their momentum." Well maybe so but not just over Foley, surely? Can one man destroy a party?

[sam and the city] e-interview with samantha brett

It’s different for a girl. As teenage boys, I suppose we’re out there playing football and cricket or else are deep into our computers. We might even try to date a girl or eight. And a girl? If she’s the go-ahead kind, the offers have already been coming in for some time and she finds she’s interfacing, not just with the local boys but with the world in general, of all ages. She finds herself carving out a career and gaining experience all the while. Just such a girl is Samantha Brett, who has taken Australia by storm with her Sam and the City blog, new television spot and now the world is also sitting up and taking notice. Interview here.

[advertising] is this offensive to you

From the home of the bizarre comes this beauty:

A raunchy Lee jeans "Lolita-style" advertisement portraying a young woman in a sexually explicit pose has been ruled inoffensive. The Advertising Standards Board yesterday dismissed complaints about the advertisement – seen on billboards and in magazines – saying while it had sexual overtones, it was not inappropriate. The advertisement is displayed on a billboard at South Yarra railway station.

Comments by readers:

I'm offended by this ad. Why not advertise the quality of the product rather than use a woman to promote its sex appeal with such an obvious pose. [Posted by: Stephanie M of Kew 1:12am today]

Of course it's not offensive. What's wrong with a attractive lady promoting a product. I've seen far more offensive ads than that. [Posted by: Jason of Epping 1:05am today]

I know that drab station and such an ad would surely liven it up. [Posted by James of Russia 1:54 am today]

[peak hour] death on the tramlines stares us in the face

I’m not lying – I almost died just now coming home and what was more, the driver was a crazed madman hunched over the wheel, hands 10 to 2, with gritted teeth. I was late for work and did what we all do, went downstairs, stuck out a hand and phoom! Instant taxi. That was fine and the day progressed, haranguing innocent girls and drinking milk cocktails and then it came time for home. Peak hour. Mayhem hour. Major traffic lights out. No problem – mounting rutted footpaths [replete with pedestrians making their way home], carousing through gaps onto the tram lines at 120kph, whilst other cars left the road and joined us plus [and this is the truth] a tram following us and another coming the other way, lights furiously blinking and bell, ding, ding, ding. Then at the eight point intersection, total gridlock and my man actually wove his way through it. And you know why he did it? Because I offered him 100 roubles, well over the odds and therefore demanding full throttle service to get me home. Point of honour. You remember the end of Bourne Identity chase in Paris? This was faster.

[curmudgeon rising] never give a half-way reasonable speech

Fellow curmudgeon

I’m not in a good mood. Actually, I’m anything but gruntled. What started it was that speech I gave last week to help kick-start the new uni and tele got involved and I had to go to teas and dinners and things but worst of all, it appears I complimented the Minister for Education’s wife on her good looks by mistake [well she was a looker] and she decided to add me to a list for tomorrow and another bl--dy speech I don’t need and I can’t, ’cause I’d rather be here sipping a whisky, ranting at you [and my stats are down today] and I’ve just looked death in the face on the roads on the way home but that’s a separate post. And the thing is, I have absolutely no idea what they want me to talk about at this conference or what conference it actually is. My interpreter Leila just phoned and she doesn’t know either but we’ll still have a nice cappuccino and struedel tomorrow at the Pyramid before we find out.