Posts filed under 'Talkback Emails'
Hello Stuart,
I hear that we have lost Clive Robertson from the overnight show…that is a shame, his humour and intellect through the night were really great company and I'll miss the unusual conversations I used to have with him. I just hope he didn't leave because I haven't rung for a while (or maybe he left because I might ring again).
I don't know what we're going to do without Clive…I suppose you could extend your show by five and a half hours or John Kerr could do seven nights a week…or maybe we should just give the show to Abe? Or what about the king…I don't suppose Lawsie is looking to get back in to radio?
I'm going to miss Clive…if you're listening Clive (or even if you're not), best of luck for the future, it was always a pleasure listening to you.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
(Thanks to Dan for letting us know about Clive’s departure from the overnight show)
February 28th, 2008 at 10:00pm
Good evening Stuart,
In regards to that email earlier about the likelihood of Tiger Woods attending an Australian event. As you are surely one of the lucky people at the basis of that myth about talkback radio presenters earning millions of dollars per day, you could sponsor one of the events and get him over here?
You could probably get him to agree to less money if you get him on to your show, surely he'd be willing to drop a couple million off his asking price for the chance of being interviewed by Stuart Bocking.
Have a great night.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 25th, 2008 at 09:30pm
Good evening Stuart,
It's been ages since I last hear "Queen Of Hearts" by Juice Newton. Thanks for playing it, it's a great song.
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 18th, 2008 at 10:30pm
Hi Glenn,
The email from "Mariana" is, as you say, a scam. I couldn't work out the point of it when I received those emails last year, so I played along for a while…we got as far as her heading to Moscow to catch a plane to Australia, before I gave up out of boredom. I believe the scam was going to involve me sending her money so that she catch a plane to Australia.
I'm about to start the process again with an alias and follow through until I get a definitive answer as to what the scam is.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
February 2nd, 2008 at 01:30pm
Good evening Stuart,
It sounds like the storm really hit you up there in Sydney. We were supposed to have a lot of storm activity down here in Canberra but (in my part of town at least) it was just a light show and a bit of rain. Probably a good thing because I'm doing a good impersonation of a bear with a headache at the moment…the excess noise of more thunder and hail would not have been welcome.
Also, I can see the floodgates just starting to leak with the apology to the stolen generation. This call to teach the history of the stolen generation in schools is a tricky one, because which version of the story are we talking about…the "nasty white people stole children" version that I was taught in primary school, or the factual "aboriginal children were removed because the government thought it was a good idea, and the debate has been raging ever since" version. Undoubtedly the "history" will ignore the non-aboriginal children who were "stolen".
I clearly remember the day in primary school where we had to write down our thoughts on apologising to the stolen generation, I wrote my opinion that we shouldn't apologise, and was forced to cross it out and write something about how important it is to apologise. I have no problem with the story of the stolen generation being taught in schools, it is after all an important part of our history, but it should be taught accurately, not in the biased way it was taught when I was in primary school.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 31st, 2008 at 09:30pm
Originally posted 30/Jan/2008
Hi Mike,
I've been on the fence over this issue with the male sex worker and ACT health not identifying his medical condition…I've been leaning towards your argument that ACT Health should have informed the public, but today's revelation that he may have infected 250 people with HIV makes me agree with you completely.
This is a disgrace, those 250 people, if they're infected, could have infected hundreds more people by now, and those people could have infected others and so on…this all should have been announced a month ago when ACT health were first informed.
I can't see find any reference to the court case about this being over, so I'd be interested to hear how this public announcement fits in with Katy Gallagher's statements to you that her legal advice was that she couldn't say anything. If you try to talk to her tomorrow, I'm willing to bet that she'll be unavailable until three minutes to the hour.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
For your reference, here's the story James Goodwin files for 2GB's livenews.com.au this afternoon:
From http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/01/30/Sex_worker_may_have_infected_250_with_HIV
Sex worker may have infected 250 with HIV
James Goodwin & AAP
1 hour 54 minutes ago.
Authorities in Canberra are desperately trying to contact hundreds of people who may have been infected with the AIDS virus by a male sex worker.
Hector Scott, 41, has been charged with knowingly infecting someone with a sexually transmitted disease and failing to register as a sex worker.
ACT Chief Health Officer Charles Guest confirmed on Wednesday the man had Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV.
"It is a very unusual step to take to mention the diagnosis of this kind in the interest of privacy," Dr Guest told reporters in Canberra.
"But we will be calling people this afternoon and discussing this diagnosis with them so we know that it will be in the public domain today so therefore I'll share that with you."
The health department have begun call around 250 people who Scott has telephoned in recent weeks to warn them they could be at risk.
It is believed a number of the man's clients could have been from interstate.
During 2007 he advertised himself as a prostitute in Canberra media using the names Adam and Josh.
The health department first became aware of Scott's actions on December 20 last year when notified by another jurisdiction. The department alerted police within 24 hours.
But Scott was not issued with a public health order – to stop working as a prostitute – until January 4, when he was arrested.
Anyone who has been in sexual contact with Scott is urged to see a doctor.
Update 31/Jan/2008: Mike Jeffreys interviewed Dr. Guest this morning, they went around in circles for a little while with Dr. Guest insisting that the government’s approach to this issue has not changed. Dr. Guest terminated the interview when he declared that Mike Jeffreys’s summary of the situation was incorrect (despite being almost identical to the story that Dr. Guest had told Mike a few moments prior) and that he didn’t have time to explain the investigation to Mike. Dr. Charles Guest hung up on Mike Jeffreys.
I think the PR people will be having a word with Dr. Guest today, as he was doing fairly well until he decided to hang up…he was holding his ground, and then he threw his credibility out the window by making it sound like an enquiry from the media about an important public issue was too hard and too time consuming. Dr. Guest did himself and the government no favours by hanging up…this is why Katy Gallagher should have been the person to spout non-answers, she could have read the same script, and just re-used her (possibly true) “I have to go and look after the children” line when it all became too much to deal with.
I will say this in Dr. Guest’s defence though, it should not be left to him to deal with the media, it should be the minister facing the media, not a public servant. Making Dr. Guest hold a press conference yesterday was a disgraceful act, and Ms. Gallagher should either be ashamed or discipline the person responsible.
End Update
January 31st, 2008 at 08:00am
Good afternoon John,
I can't imagine you with hair, I think the bald head suits you quite well.
As for my hair, I'd be much happier if it didn't grow. I dislike haircuts, and I also dislike having long(ish) hair. If only it could remain short without needing to be maintained!
And welcome back to Canberra, I've missed you since you disappeared to the drive show. I was very excited when I heard your voice after the 3pm news, I hope you're enjoying your new timeslot.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 28th, 2008 at 04:00pm
Good afternoon Tim,
I'm another self-confessed clutterer. I mainly collect paper, and anything paper based…I even have a disposable christmas design coffee cup from 2006 sitting on a bench as an ornament!
If you look in some places in this house, you'll find a few old catalogues that I just decided to keep for some reason and have forgotten about since then, and I have a Daily Telegraph from the mid 1990s here somewhere…not that I know why I kept it.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 24th, 2008 at 12:30pm
Good morning Steve,
Ye gods, are you sure Shirley was from mid-west USA and not from another planet far far away?
She's madder than a cut snake, and it wouldn't surprise me if she was the one that cut the snakes.
Well handled Steve.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
For those of you who are wondering, Lesley is from Westboro Baptist Church’s http://www.godhatesfags.com/ and is one of those people who manages to instantly swing from asking a (albeit loaded) question quietly to screaming at the top of her voice about something mildly related to the question, regardless of the answer.
This group have decided that they want to picket Heat Ledger’s funeral because of his involvement in the movie Brokeback Mountain.
Steve’s interview of Shirley can be heard at http://www.mytalk.com.au/aspx/pages/mediaplayer.aspx?t=audio&w=6207.
Update: I must have missed Mike Jeffreys interviewing Shirley this morning, but I just heard a promo for his show with her on it, saying almost exactly the same things, word-for-word, that she said to Steve Price. One wonders if she is reading from a script or similar, and if so, why she has so much trouble remembering her own beliefs. End Update
January 24th, 2008 at 10:06am
Good morning John,
I haven't been paying an awful lot of attention to the presidential nominations in the US…in many ways it's of little concern to me until they whittle it down to one candidate and their running mate on each side. That was until you mentioned that Rudy Giuliani is one of the republican candidates. I think Mr. Giuliani is a great man, a lot of the work he did as mayor of New York and previously as a United States Attorney was fantastic…and now, all of a sudden, I am supporting him in the presidential campaign.
Incidentally about the tennis…I find tennis painfully uninteresting to watch at the best of times, but to have it still going at this time of the morning is surely a mistake…couldn't they have delayed the final match until 9am?
I suppose at least the crowd are getting more than their money's worth!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 20th, 2008 at 04:00am
Good afternoon Tim,
I would just like to echo your sentiments about Bill Woods and Deborah Knight having done well over the last few weeks filling in for Glenn Wheeler.
I am generally not a fan of duos on talk radio, but Bill and Deborah were fantastic, they work very well together and should be at the top of the list next time 2UE are looking for a duo.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 16th, 2008 at 01:30pm
Hi Mike,
Quick question for you…how many times have you written a shopping list, taken it with you to the supermarket and walked around crossing items off as you get them from the shelf…and thought "Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to carry this bit of paper and instead could type a shopping list in Word and have it appear on my shopping trolley with a heap of advertising next to it"?
Let me guess…never?
And for this reason Microsoft have invented it…it's a solution that just needs a problem. And Microsoft will profit from the ads while we try and work out what problem they're solving.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
From http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080114/D8U5LR780.html
Video Ads Are Planned for Grocery Carts
Jan 14, 8:00 AM (ET)
By JESSICA MINTZ
SEATTLE (AP) – Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart. The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line.
Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company, last year for $6 billion shored up the company's capacity to serve video ads onto these grocery cart screens.
Starting in the second half of 2008, the companies plan to test MediaCart in Wakefern Food Corp.'s ShopRite supermarkets on the East Coast. Customers with a ShopRite loyalty card will be able to log into a Web site at home and type in their grocery lists; when they get to the store and swipe their card on the MediaCart console, the list will appear. As shoppers scan their items and place them in their cart, the console gives a running price tally and checks items off the shopping list.
The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points – an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle. Microsoft said it is still working on how it will present commercials and coupons.
Microsoft is also working with MediaCart and ShopRite to help advertisers reach potential consumers based on past grocery purchases, which are logged when they swipe their loyalty cards.
"This is not all necessarily about bombarding consumers, about targeting advertising," said Scott Ferris, general manager of Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group. "It's about also making the shopping experience better for the consumer."
Advertisers will get more feedback about which commercials or coupon offers are effective, because customers either buy the products or accept the offers on the spot, or they don't. But Ferris said neither Microsoft nor any advertisers will have access to the personal information consumers provide when they join the supermarket's loyalty card program.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:00pm
Good evening Stuart and welcome back.
Oh dear, it's that time of the year again when the Australian Open tennis steals the headlines. As far as I'm concerned they could remove the players from the court and I would be more entertained by the growing grass than by a tennis match. I find tennis very boring.
I do, however, like hearing about the results and hearing match summaries, and it's good to hear Graham Agars reporting on the tennis again…but I just can't watch a tennis match…that ball going back and forth for hours on end…the grunting…the commentators making the same generic comments hour after hour after hour. Give me a nice open round of golf any day!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
January 14th, 2008 at 10:30pm
Good afternoon Glenn,
Welcome to weekdays, it's nice to hear you during the week.
I don't really take much notice of the Queen's message, I certainly wouldn't sit down to watch it, but I'll certainly check to say that she has said the usual things which is a bit of a fait acompli. She says pretty much the same thing every year, so unless she broadcasts her bank account details or launches a scathing attack on Prince Charles I don't think many people will take all that much notice.
The only thing I really remember about the various messages from Queen Elizabeth the second over the years is when her baton was late for the 1998 Commonwealth Games and the opening ceremony wasn't able to continue until it arrived. That being said, she is a lovely lady and I do agree with you that her message is one of those "stabilisers" for this crazy world in which we live.
By the way, Congratulations to Lil on getting her Driver's Licence back. That's great news, and thanks to both you and A Current Affair's Ben Fordham for helping her out.
Merry Christmas to you and all the listeners…and is that Dave I can hear counting in the program? If so, Merry Christmas Dave, it's good to hear your voice occasionally under the ads…or announcing “this will be a two minute break” straight after the news theme and weather intro which started the 12:57 ad break!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
December 24th, 2007 at 01:30pm
Good morning Tim,
About this poor child that died after being accidentally left in a car in Perth…I have to wonder how it is possible to accidentally forget that you have left a living human being in a motor vehicle, especially a two year old.
I can't imagine how it is possible to get out of a car and leave a two year old in it, and then drive away in a different car for an hour. To me this is just beyond comprehension.
I hope this really was an accident and the parents did just forget, because as horrible as that is, the other possibility is stomach churning.
Also I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of Isaraelu Pele. It seems to me like a case of shared blame, doctors not picking up on the symptoms, and the administrators for making the medical staff work longer and harder than they should have to. The decisions of these dedicated professionals directly affect whether people live or die…we have limits on how many hours professional drivers and pilots can work, why is it that the powers-that-be expect medical staff to work so much longer and harder than the rest of us.
As for the politicians who wouldn't even talk to the media yesterday and left it to the administrators to explain, "spineless" is about the only word for it. And the stupid statement by the administrator that "if we ran this test on every child that had symptoms of meningitis then we would be running the tests all day every day", well if we are having children turning up at hospitals vomiting blood all the time, doesn't this indicate a more serious medical problem in the wider community that deserves more action that stupid statements?
I'm sorry Tim, don't mind me, I know this email is too long for you to read in its entirety on-air, these two stories have managed to get under my skin and it is hard to stop writing.
Anyway I would like to wish you, your staff and all the listeners a fantastic Christmas and new year.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Just in case you’re wondering, the two stories I was referring to:
Toddler dead in family car, police investigate
Boy dies after being sent away from two hospitals
December 24th, 2007 at 10:00am
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