I issued this warning to a reasonably regular contributor earlier today, and now I am issuing it to everyone. If you are going to refer to me by name, Samuel is the preferred choice although I can deal with Sam and am not usually bothered by it.
The one that irks me is “Sammy”. Referring to me as Sammy on these pages will most likely irritate me quite heavily and, depending on how much you manage to irritate me, could result in a banning. In all likelyhood you would have to do it multiple times to be banned, but it really depends on my mood.
I’m sorry if this upsets anyone, but I’m sure you all have things you don’t like people calling you, and in my case it is “Sammy”.
Fresh from being a panel operator for 2CC, Peta Waller-Bryant has taken up a producer position on 2CC’s Mike Jeffreys Breakfast Program.
Peta is still studying as a Flexible Delivery student at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and if performance to date is anything to go by, she has a very bright future ahead of her in the radio industry.
Congratulations and best of luck Peta.
It is also worthwhile mentioning, whilst on the topic of 2CC staff, that the new general manager of 2CC/2CA is Graham Cron, who just finished a seven year stint in the same position at the warmer by name and temperature Hot 100/MIX Darwin. Mr. Cron replaces Doug Bell who left earlier this year.
Official results:
1st: 6 – Efficient – Win $22.40 – Place $7.00
2nd: Purple Moon – Place $1.80
3rd: Mahler – Place $4.00
Quinella $76.10
Exacta $176.90
Trifecta $1431.00
Dividends are Super TAB dividends which are used by ACTTAB, the Victorian TAB and a few others. Dividends may vary in your area.
Where they all finished:
1. Efficient
2. Purple Moon
3. Mahler
4. Zipping
5. Dolphin Jo
6. On A Jeune
7. Blue Monday
8. Master O’Reilly
9. Sculptor
10. Lazer Sharp
11. Douro Valley
12. Sirmione
13. Princess Coup
14. Tawqeet
15. Eskimo Queen
16. Scenic Shot
17. Black Tom
18. Sarrera
19. Blutigeroo
20. Railings
21. Tungsten Strike
Scratched: Gallic, Maybe Better, The Fuzz
If you need help with a gambling problem call Lifeline on 13 11 14 in the ACT, or your local gambling support service.
ACT Industrial Relations minister Andrew Barr says the Melbourne Cup “family and community day” holiday would go away and be replaced by the old union picnic holiday if Kevin Rudd wins the federal election.
Andrew, you know my position on both issues, and quite frankly, that’s blackmail.
If you missed my episode of Editorial Echoes about the Melbourne Cup day holiday, click here.
As I’ve said half a dozen times in various places already in the last twelve hours, I’m usually quite hopeless at picking Melbourne Cup winners, so I was going to let the computers at ACTTAB pick three random horses instead, but then I had a nap and woke up with three numbers stuck in my head for no apparent reason, and therefore my tips are:
1 – Tawqeet
3 – Blutigeroo
15 – Scenic Shot
I will be putting these three numbers in as one of ACTTAB’s $15 cup packs which will provide me with a $1 win and place bet on each horse, and a boxed quinella and trifecta with all the horses. The bottom line with this is that I will get some of my outlay back if one of the horses comes first, second or third, and I will get more for combinations of first, second and third.
If you decide to have a punt, do so with care, only bet what you can afford to lose, and all the best with it.
The race takes place at 3pm Melbourne time (GMT +11) and will be broadcast live on the Seven Network and affilliates, Sky Channel, most radio stations (in Canberra 2CC and 2CA have access to the official radio feed of the Melbourne Cup from the official radio partner Southern Cross/Macquarie/Fairfax Broadcasting (depending on who owns that bit of the company right now)), and will also be live on the various webstreams such as ACTTAB Radio, 2KY Racing Radio and Sport 927. All the webstreams will sound the same but I expect some of them to hit capacity, which is why I provided multiple options.
The race results will also be published here, just like they are every year.
If you have a gambling problem call Lifeline in the ACT on 13 11 14, or the relevant gambling helpline in your jurisdiction.
Today Samuel takes a look at the Melbourne Cup public holiday and why it is a bad idea. Samuel also provides a few tips for the big race.
[audio:https://samuelgordonstewart.com/wp-content/EditorialEchoes/010.mp3] Download link
You are more than welcome to respond to anything you hear on the show by sending an email to echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com. Emails may be read and responded to on a future episode.
The script follows (although it’s worthwhile that I do make a few minor changes when recording as even I don’t always write properly for my speech pattern).
Samuel
Welcome to Editorial Echoes for November 6, 2007, I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart.
Last time on Editorial Echoes I said that I’d be back the following day with more about GetUp’s campaign to end the coalition’s majority in the senate. Unfortunately a number of other things got in the way of me doing that, it will still be done, but not today as today there is something a tad more pressing.
Yes, it’s Melbourne Cup day, and for some inexplicable reason that means it’s a public holiday in the ACT at the behest of Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope and one of his ministers, Andrew Barr. If you’re not in the ACT you probably don’t care, so I’ll deal with that in a moment, and talk about the race first.
Well in the last few years I have picked horses based either on names or recent form, and without fail, they have failed, so this year I was planning on taking up one of the fifteen dollar Melbourne Cup packs that Kevin Woolfe from ACTTAB has been promoting, and getting the ACTTAB computer to pick three random horses for me, but then I had a nap, and woke up with three numbers stuck in my head for no apparent reason, so, for this reason, my tips are as follows:
Number 1 Tawqeet, number 3 Blutigeroo and number 15 Scenic Shot.
I’ll be popping in to an ACTTAB agency to pick up one of their fifteen dollar Melbourne Cup packs which gives me a dollar win and place on each horse, and a boxed quinella and a boxed trifecta with all of my selections. Effectively it means I will recoup some of my outlay if any of the horses runs first, second or third, and I’ll do a tad better if I pick combinations of first, second and third.
I think one very important thing to remember though is that if you are going to have a bet, please do it sensibly. Do not, under any circumstances, bet money that you can not afford to lose. I think the best way to look at gambling is as a donation to the people you are gambling with. If you’re lucky they might give you a few dollars back, but as you have given them a donation, they are under no obligation to give you anything.
If you have a gambling problem and want help, or you know someone in that circumstance, you can give lifeline a call in the ACT on 13 11 14, or your local gambling support service. You should be able to find them in your local phone book.
Moving on to the Melbourne Cup public holiday in the ACT, which is laughably called “Family and Community Day”. I have mentioned my objections to this holiday on a number of occasions on my blog, and my main reason is that Melbourne Cup day had its own workplace culture. Work was still done in the morning and at a slower rate through the afternoon, but the main aspect of the day was the way work colleagues could get together and have a really good, natural, team bonding session. There were office sweeps and trivial fun things like that, and in general, people just had a good day.
The amount of office harmony that this produced in many ways outweighed the lack of work done on the afternoon of the first Tuesday in November.
Even schools had their own brand of celebration for this national event. Whilst no gambling would be involved for legal reasons, most schools would turn on a television in the library or another common room for students to gather around at 3pm for the race. The day also enabled staff to run various classes around the history of iconic national events, not just the Melbourne Cup.
With a public holiday, none of this will happen, it will just mean that the kids are at home with their parents. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m sure most adults would rather celebrate with adults, and most children would rather be jovial with their peers.
Unfortunately the impact of a public holiday on Melbourne Cup day is worse than just a loss of a good day of some productivity and a lot of team bonding, the impact is far more serious. Having a public holiday on a Tuesday meant that a lot of people took yesterday off, either as annual leave, a legitimate or otherwise sick day, or some other form of leave. This means that in industries such as the one I work in during the day where national customers keep creating work, there were less people available to do the same amount of work…today will be worse.
With the ACT being the only part of the nation other than parts of Melbourne to have a holiday, the workload in service industries will be the same as usual, except for part of the afternoon, and there will be less people present to do the work, resulting in frazzled employees today, and a less-than-fun backlog of work tomorrow.
Regardless of that, I will be working today as a matter of principle. I’m against the holiday, so I won’t be having the day off.
Other industries such as hospitality will also suffer as Bryan Cossart of Flynn pointed out in a letter to the editor of the Sunday Canberra Times. Quote “Melbourne Cup Day, while taking workers out of the picture for up to half a day at employers’ expense, provided a boon for caterers and the like whilst providing a wonderful opportunity for workplace bonding. [..] This must be a major loss for our city’s caterers. To top it off, any catering that is done is now done at penalty rates.” End quote
Of course Bryan is right, the caterers and food stores will suffer, the caterers from a lack of offices to cater for, the food stores from a lack of offices catering for themselves. Sure, some people will have their own celebration, but it will, from a sales perspective, be nowhere near the level of revenue or stock sales that workplace celebrations generated…and of course staff will be on various public holiday arrangements.
Of course, the predictable argument from people is “how can you possibly be against a day off?”. Well apart from the immaterial fact that some of us like to work, it should be blatantly obvious by now that it is not the day off that I am complaining about, it is the timing of the day off. It’s not just the fact that the holiday has ruined the traditions of Melbourne Cup day, it’s that we have just been given yet another holiday up this end of the year.
We have a holiday in October, then this one in November, two in December and another two January, then one on March, the three Easter holidays in either March or April, and ANZAC Day in April. Between April and October we have one holiday, just one, the Queen’s birthday in June. Surely if we are going to have a public holiday it would better to produce a bit of balance in the holiday structure and have it somewhere between mid July and early August. I don’t know if there is anything the ACT could celebrate in that date range, maybe balance day considering why I think it should be placed in that part of the year. Then again, it tends to warm up a tad at that end of winter, so perhaps family and community day would work well there. It would certainly be better than holding it on Melbourne Cup day.
This has been Editorial Echoes for November 6, 2007, if you have any thoughts or comments about any of this, email them to echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com
And of course there is the weekly poll on samuelgordonstewart.com, this week’s question is “Do you think Labor’s environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, was joking when he told 2UE’s Steve Price that Labor will change their policies if elected?”
Last week’s question about whether you would prefer Australia to sign Kyoto or a new climate agreement if we must sign something was a 50/50 split. It’s a difficult issue, so I’m hardly surprised.
I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart, best of luck if you decide to have a punt on the Melbourne Cup, and until next time, tada.
On Friday at an airport in Melbourne, Labor’s environment spokesman told 2UE’s Steve Price that Labor will change their policies if elected. Channel Nine’s Richard Wilkins has confirmed that Peter Garrett said this to Price, and Charles Wooley had a similar tale to tell on his national Macquarie Regional Radioworks morning show “Across Australia” on the 8th of October:
I know what Peter (Garrett) is saying, he’s saying to blokes, to people of green persuasion or to others, or even to some journos, he’s saying, ‘Mate, what we say now and what we do then could be two different things.’ Now you know he’s been putting that out.
Peter Garrett says he was joking and that his comment to Price was “jocular”, but Price denies it was a joke, so the poll question for this week is:
Do you think Labor’s environment spokesman, Peter Garrett, was joking when he told 2UE’s Steve Price that Labor will change their policies if elected?
I personally have no doubt that Peter Garrett was serious, and I have no doubts that Labor don’t believe a number of their policy positions, and fully intend to do something quite different once elected. I suppose the other possibility is that, if Mr. Garrett was joking, then he was incredibly foolish, as that would be one of the stupidest jokes imaginable in an election campaign…and to be quite honest, I don’t know which is worse, a party which intends to dishonour its word, or a party that continues to support a fool.
Anyway, the results from last week’s poll:
If Australia must sign a climate change agreement, would you prefer Kyoto or a new agreement?
It’s hard to know what to make of that. People are clearly divided, and on this issue I think that is perfectly understandable. I would prefer that we don’t sign any agreement, but that wasn’t the question.
This week’s award goes to Bobby Pickett, and the feature song is the rather amusing 1962 hit narrated by a mad scientist, “The Monster Mash”
I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
He did the mash
He did the monster mash
The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
He did the mash
It caught on in a flash
He did the mash
He did the monster mash
From my laboratory in the castle east
To the master bedroom where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from my electrodes
They did the mash
They did the monster mash
The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
They did the mash
It caught on in a flash
They did the mash
They did the monster mash
The zombies were having fun
The party had just begun
The guests included Wolf Man
Dracula and his son
The scene was rockin’, all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, “The Crypt-Kicker Five”
They played the mash
They played the monster mash
The monster mash
It was a graveyard smash
They played the mash
It caught on in a flash
They played the mash
They played the monster mash
Out from his coffin, Drac’s voice did ring
Seems he was troubled by just one thing
Opened the lid and shook his fist
And said, “Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?”
It’s now the mash
It’s now the monster mash
The monster mash
And it’s a graveyard smash
It’s now the mash
It’s caught on in a flash
It’s now the mash
It’s now the monster mash
Now everything’s cool, Drac’s a part of the band
And my monster mash is the hit of the land
For you, the living, this mash was meant too
When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you
Then you can mash
Then you can monster mash
The monster mash
And do my graveyard smash
Then you can mash
You’ll catch on in a flash
Then you can mash
Then you can monster mash
If you thought the rain over Canberra and surrounds in the last little while was quite heavy and an awful lot of rain…well, you’d be correct.
(Click image to enlarge).
Nattie and I were having one of our walks when the heavy rain hit rather suddenly after we had been enjoying a bit of light rain. We’re both a bit wet, but it was certainly an interesting bit of rain and storm activity. We found some cover a short distance from home for the majority of the really heavy rain, and then made a run for it when the rain eased off a bit (and one of the nearby trees started to look a bit unstable, to the best of my knowledge it is still standing minus a branch or two, but we would have had to wait another ten to fifteen minutes if we hadn’t made a move at that time).
Update: The weather radar also indicates that inland Australia is getting a decent share of the rain…of course it needs more, but it’s a good start, especially when you consider that much of New South Wales is not covered by a weather radar (see http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/ is you don’t believe me).
(Click image to enlarge). End Update
I was looking at the CityRail website for some reason (that I can't recall) a short time ago and spotted an amazingly insightful "travel tip" which read "Do not obstruct the doorways."
I can only hope that there aren't any people (young children excluded) that actually need to be told this.
I've attached a screenshot of it for your reference.
There isn’t much I can add to that headline really. It’s just another sign of the Macquarie Bank buyout of Southern Cross Broadcasting and the subsequent sale of the Southern Cross radio stations to Fairfax.
One does have to wonder how long it will be until the “(Station name) Southern Cross Network News” voiceover gets changed to “(Station name) Fairfax Network News”?
Yesterday afternoon whilst taking photos of the next hill in my Hills and Mountains of Canberra series I came very close to twisting my ankle, and it is still quite uncomfortable whenever I put weight on it.
I can walk, but it is more of a hobble than a walk. The reason I mention it is that last night I was planning on writing a few things to appear throughout today, and I was going to record the next Editorial Echoes, alas none of those things happened because it was too difficult to sit still for a reasonable length of time, which made it difficult to concentrate…I also tired quite quickly last night, and found myself quite frustrated by not being able to get to sleep as a result of not being able to find a comfortable position.
I don’t like being idle…so I found useless things to do for short periods of time, this (sorry Abe) meant that for one reason or another Abe, Clive Robertson’s producer, heard from me half a dozen times. Abe seemed to take it all in good humour though, and tried to help me get to sleep, so thank you Abe.
I also sent a rather irate email to someone who, in hindsight, completely deserved it.
Anyway, I’ve forgotten my point, but I think it had something to do with a current delay in writing things for this blog…I think.
