Latches

I found a pretty good pisstake on the way the PM talks, by Jove. I like Adam Hills' suggestion of his moonlighting as a blue comic Kevin Ruddy Wilson but this too has merit.

A slab of Vic

For all the travails that Victorians are going through right now, they can at least take solace that their state was not founded a little earlier or a little later or they could have ended up being resident in the state of Edward.

Governors

Captain Sir Charles Hotham, RN, KCB:22 May to 31 December 1855

Sir Henry Barkly, KCB: 26 December 1856 to 10 September 1863

Sir Charles Henry Darling, KCB: 11 September 1863-7 May 1866

The Hon. Sir John Henry Thomas Manners-Sutton, KCB: 15 August 1866 to 2 March 1873

Sir George Ferguson Bowen, GCMG: 30 July 1873 to 22 February 1879

The Most Hon. George Augustus Constantine Phipps, Marquis of Normanby, GCMG, PC: 29 April 1879 to 18 April 1884

Sir Henry Brougham Loch, GCMG, KCB: 15 July 1884 to 15 November 1889

The Right Hon. John Adrian Louis Hope, Earl of Hopetoun, GCMG: 28 November 1889 to 12 July 1895

The Right Hon. Baron Brassey, KCB: 25 October 1895 to 31 March 1900

Sir George Sydenham Clarke, KCMG, FRS: 10 December 1901 to 24 November 1903

Major-General the Hon. Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot, KCB: 25 April 1904 to 6 July 1908

Sir Thomas David Gibson Carmichael, Bt, KCMG: 27 July 1908 to 19 May 1911

Sir John Michael Fleetwood Fuller, Bt, KCMG: 24 May 1911 to 31 January 1914

The Hon. Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, KCMG: 23 February 1914 to 30 January 1920

Colonel the Right Hon. George Edward John Mowbray, Earl of Stradbroke, KCMG, CB CVO, CBE: 24 February 1921 to 7 April 1926

Lt.-Colonel the Right Hon. Arthur Herbert Tennyson, Baron Somers, KCMG, DSO, MC: 28 June 1926 to 23 June 1931

Captain the Right Hon. William Charles Arcedeckne, Baron Huntingfield, KCMG: 14 May 1934 to 4 April 1939

Major-General Sir Winston Joseph Dugan, GCMG, CB, DSO: 17 July 1939 to 20 February 1949

General Sir Reginald Alexander Dallas Brooks, KCB, KCMG, KCVO, DSO, K.St.J.: 18 October 1949 to 7 May 1963

Major-General Sir Rohan Delacombe, KCMG, KVCO, KBE, CB, K.St.J.: 8 May 1963 to 31 May 1974

The Hon. Sir Henry Arthur Winneke, KCMG, KVCO, OBE, K.St.J., QC: I June 1974 to I March 1982

Rear Admiral Sir Brian Stewart Murray, KCMG, K.St.J., AO: 1 March 1982 to 3 October 1985

The Reverend Dr John Davis McCaughey, AC: 18 February 1986 to 31 March 1992

The Hon. Richard Elgin McGarvie, AC: 23 April 1992 to 23 April,1997

The Hon. Sir James A. Gobbo, A.C., Q.C.: 24 April 1997 to 31 December, 2000

John Landy, M.B.E.: 1 January 2001 - 7 April 2006

Professor David de Kretser, A. O.: 7 April 2006 -

Premiers

List of Premiers of Victoria
Premier Party Took office
Dr William Haines - 30 November 1855
John O'Shanassy - 11 March 1857
William Haines - 29 April 1857
John O'Shanassy - 10 March 1858
William Nicholson - 27 October 1859
Richard Heales - 26 November 1860
John O'Shanassy - 14 November 1861
James McCulloch - 27 June 1863
Charles Sladen - 6 May 1868
James McCulloch - 11 July 1868
John MacPherson - 20 September 1869
Sir James McCulloch - 9 April 1870
Charles Gavan Duffy - 19 June 1871
James Francis - 10 June 1872
George Kerferd - 31 July 1874
Graham Berry Liberal 7 August 1875
Sir James McCulloch - 20 October 1875
Graham Berry Liberal 21 May 1877
James Service - 5 March 1880
Graham Berry Liberal 3 August 1880
Sir Bryan O'Loghlen - 9 July 1881
James Service - 8 March 1883
Duncan Gillies Conservative 18 February 1886
James Munro Conservative 5 November 1890
William Shiels Liberal 16 February 1892
Sir James Patterson Conservative 23 January 1893
Sir George Turner Liberal 27 September 1894
Allan McLean Liberal 5 December 1899
Sir George Turner Liberal 19 November 1900
Alexander Peacock Liberal 12 February 1901
William Irvine Reform 10 June 1902
Sir Thomas Bent Reform 16 February 1904
John Murray Comwlth Liberal 8 January 1909
William Watt Comwlth Liberal 18 May 1912
George Elmslie Labor 9 December 1913
William Watt Comwlth Liberal 22 December 1913
Sir Alexander Peacock Comwlth Liberal 18 June 1914
John Bowser Nationalist 29 November 1917
Harry Lawson Nationalist 21 March 1918
Sir Alexander Peacock Nationalist 28 April 1924
George Prendergast Labor 18 July 1924
John Allan Country Party 18 November 1924
Edmond Hogan Labor 20 May 1927
Sir William McPherson Nationalist 22 November 1928
Edmond Hogan Labor 12 December 1929
Sir Stanley Argyle United Australia 19 May 1932
Albert Dunstan Country Party 2 April 1935
John Cain I Labor 14 September 1943
Albert Dunstan Country Party 18 September 1943
Ian McFarlan Liberal 2 October 1945
John Cain I Labor 21 November 1945
Thomas Hollway Liberal 20 November 1947
John McDonald Country Party 27 June 1950
Thomas Hollway Electoral Reform 28 October 1952
John McDonald Country Party 31 October 1952
John Cain I Labor 17 December 1952
Sir Henry Bolte Liberal 7 June 1955
Rupert Hamer Liberal 23 August 1972
Lindsay Thompson Liberal 5 June 1981
John Cain II Labor 8 April 1982
Joan Kirner Labor 9 August 1990
Jeff Kennett Liberal 6 October 1992
Steve Bracks Labor 19 October 1999
John Brumby

All of which probably signals how far they've come since candlelight.

Just added my South Australia entry. It has the date I started it - 20 December 2007.

I've reached my Quoter

"Did you know that 54% of all Americans believe that the world was created 6000 years ago? That's 1000 years after the Sumerians invented glue."

_{Donald Sutherland}

My quote of the year.

The funny thing being that I was just musing on that very thing (well, not the Sumerian glue bit) earlier in the day.
The most 'remarkable' thing about the Bible is that it has no account of things unknown to the people who wrote it: no microbes, no dinosaurs, no life on Mars, no theoretical possibility of time travel. It doesn't differ greatly from other prevailing myths other than in the beauty of its language. If Shakespeare had started a religion instead of L Ron Hubbard, would it have achieved this level of success? Readers bedazzled by the beauty and genius of the language. This Elizabethan 'dianetics' would have, in addition to the flowery prose and the just-so epithets, all the drama and intrigue; all the bloodthirsty darkness of the much-loved scripture.

that's dedication for you

It may seem incongruous for someone who is deeply suspicious of self-aggrandising powerbrokers, but I have held a long fascination in the pursuit of prosperity. I actually differentiate those who have made it through entrepeneurial acumen and those who have got there by cheating.

Which hopefully serves as some kind of preamble as to how it is that I found myself spending three days straight at a Breakthrough to Success seminar. Normally this kind of rah-rah bravura would be nauseating but, given that the goal was improvement for every individual in the room, on their own terms, it became bearable. And I really got something from it. I'm just not clear on what exactly.

The presenter was Christopher Howard, an alternative Tony Robbins if you like, and he brought the more cautious intelligentsia into his sway by demonstrating a profound knowledge of the areas of hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming he was working. Not to mention that, if you're a public speaker, you could not help to be damn impressed at how he could hold the stage for hours on end. I'm good for probably two hours and then it helps to have notes.

Of course if you wanted to be cynical, you could say that he offers free tickets to this event in order to get you to go to further events that cost thousands of dollars. But I didn't say that.