Snow and Mrs Robinson
There are two amazing stories coming out of Britain at the moment.
The affair between the First Minister of Northern Ireland’s wife, Iris Robinson, and Kirk McCambley is extraordinary. She was 59 and he was 19.
According to The Guardian: “Mrs Robinson’s transgression was the more astonishing given the controversy generated last year when she described homosexuality as an abomination on a par with paedophilia that made her nauseous. As the BBC program coyly noted, the passage in Leviticus that she quoted contains similar sentiments about adultery.”
And there was money involved too. She helped him to establish a business.
I wonder if Kirk is familiar with this scene from The Graduate:
Or if Mrs Robinson is a fan of the Simon and Garfunkel song and its lyrics: “God bless you please Mrs Robinson. Heaven holds a place for those who pray.” (with thanks to Wendy).
Labor of lust
Australian newspapers today carried reports of the American journalist Doug Brown and his wife Annie who had sex for 101 consecutive days.
Here is a link to an American newspaper report.
Interesting story. The couple are the same age as my wife and I. I’m not sure about writing a book on the subject though. It seems to rather cheapen the intimacy.
And I don’t really want to think about what their definition of “sex” was during Annie’s periods. Read the book, is their commercial answer, I guess.
Sex romp
I started in journalism 21 years ago but never had a sex romp until Friday. The front page of the Kalgoorlie Miner read:
“A Kalgoorlie man who assaulted his girlfriend with a sex toy during a sex romp foursome was fined $1000 in Kalgoorlie Magistrate’s Court and urged to seek counselling.”
The bloke whacked his partner with a “rubber sex toy” about 30 times on the backside.
The defence produced references from the man’s mother and girlfriend. The girl tried to have the charges dropped, but the police didn’t allow it. (more…)
Giving a sperm sample
I don’t know what prompted me to think of this subject today. Probably it was a repressed memory which must have been triggered by something. Certainly it was a memory I had banished from my conscious mind.
After Michael was born in 1996 Juliet decided to have no more children. It wasn’t something I agreed with, but who am I, a mere male, to challenge someone who spent 20 hours in labor giving birth to our first child?
Being a woman though, Juliet changed her mind a couple of years later. We spent the next couple of years practicing the business without producing any dividends.
Suspecting a plumbing issue, Juliet went to see a specialist in Albury. Being a very competent and thorough gentleman he wanted to rule out all possibilities before giving his pronouncement. (more…)
Bad news
Some people seem to think that newspapers delight in publishing bad news. As an editor I admit that bad news, tragedy and conflict often help to sell papers. That says something about human beings, I think, rather than newspapers.
From a personal perspective I prefer to focus on the positive but unless you're colorblind or wearing rose-colored glasses the world necessarily appears in different hues. The "negative" stories need to be told as part of a balanced overview.
The stories that disturb me most involve assaults on children.
The Kalgoorlie Miner has this month reported a terrible case in which an immigrant father admitted to sexually assaulting his 13-year-old daughter 40 times.
I won't reprint the appalling details here.
I will say however that I received email contact this week from the victim's family overseas requesting copies of the reports. They thanked me with courtesy for providing the information in reply.
It was reassuring for me to know that people suffering indescribable pain appreciated the role of a newspaper in communicating such shocking information.
If society preferred to ignore that such things happen they would happen more often.
Me and Jackie Weaver
I don’t have any celebrity tales to tell, except this one. Jackie Weaver is a moderately famous actress in Australia. She appeared in the classic film “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and many others. Her stage reputation is supreme.
Jackie must have a love for regional Australia, and I admire her for that. She recently came through North East Victoria performing a one-woman theatre production. (more…)
