OFF THE RECORD
IT seems we are in the midst of a strange new medical condition. We’re calling it Barnaby Karl Syndrome (or BKS) and it is gender and age specific in those it targets – middle aged men. In the last month we have heard of a handful of cases where married men have played up with a younger woman, decided they can’t live without that warm embrace and have left hearth and home for a new life. Apparently there is no known cure or preventive vaccination short of removing some dangling participles.
WHY would anyone want to be a politician? One of our elected officials posted a pic of himself on social media enjoying the Tim Minchin concert at HOTA. Great night, wonderful occasion – how could anyone be offended? Wrong! Not long after the post went up, the hapless pollie received a fearsome spray from one of the constituents for not taking along some of the voters in the electorate. Huh? The total crowd at the concert was a little over 3000 so the chances of pleasing even a tiny percentage of his voters is close to zero.
ANOTHER tale from the social scene. At her lunch, Nikki Goldstein very kindly left a prophylactic as a present for every guest. On the front of our flash we use a diffuser, a white plastic box which softens the light to make our social subjects look as good as possible. (I know, we’re just too thoughtful.) During the lunch someone thought it would be a good idea to wedge the rubbery present into the diffuser thus making the output of the flash considerably less than we had allowed. Fun and games ensued as these two old heads tried to work out what had happened to our photos. On the plus side we now know that “they” are lightproof which is handy to know considering “their” working environment.
FILE this under “you had one job!” A visiting delegation of high powered executives were left less than impressed by their limousine driver. The brief was ridiculously easy – pick up the group and transport them to one of our better known shopping centres for a sunset boat cruise. Simples! Except the 10-minute drive became much longer because the driver didn’t know where the shopping centre was situated. Some words were exchanged and the driver in a huff then deposited the lot on the footpath which meant that the ladies had to walk some distance in their high heels to the boat. Not good enough.