may the circle be unbroken

May the circle be unbroken - the blog post title you have when you can't remember the title you came up with earlier today when you had your regular Sunday morning read of Jeremy Clarkson. But what mainly appealed was the first comment. I love Poms (and by virtue of that comment I've just remembered the proposed post title).

Anyway, the commenter is obviously doing pretty well to afford his Phaeton, and doesn't mind showing it, but there's just a little hint of tongue in cheek to make you think one and half times before moving on to...what's bad about labour market flexibility, in those instances where it actually results in some benefit for the worker. Can't have too much of that sort of thing going on, can we?

Still and all, there's a better range, not to mention quality, of reading in the Times even if you don't agree with it, than the slovenly smearing of political enemies that passes for 'informed journalism' in this country. Puke.

So here we are on Sunday evening, and all eyes turn to...Australian Idol. Yes, even here in the rarefied intellectual atmosphere of Chateau VVB we love a good dose of warbling as the week slumps to a conclusion. So who will go on the last night before the grand finale - Natalie or Carl?

Then, via Freakonomics, we found Indexed. It's quirky and a bit uneven, but a little bit mesmerising nonetheless. I have nothing but admiration for people who are able to come up with concepts like this and pursue them.

Aaah, on the TV behind me we have a scary ad about how Greg Combet and Julia Gillard who single-handedly brought the wharves to a standstill are going to "take over the economy." Presumably by retracting the Reserve Bank's Independence and reintroducing pattern bargaining. The fact that the wharves are now an effective duopoly - like many industries in Australia - and gouging exporters dry, is a bit beside the point.

And that ad was immediately followed up by one for Ross Vasta in which he pledges to fix the roads, the parks, and so on - all local government responsibilities? What's Can-do Campbell doing, then?

Finally, I went to bottle a batch of ginger beer today for Mrs VVB but the fermentation process had failed - air had got in somehere. Bummer. The advice is always to bottle anyway, but I only bottled half the keg as I didn't want to waste another hour bottling stuff that may have to then be thrown out.