BONWAG

After a long hiatus, the Bonwag Tips are back! Only this time, I won’t be busting a gut over every single sporting contest there is: this time, it’ll be more fun. Check out for the deal. You have to sign up, and then track your Bonwag Euros!

We’re pretty proud of Caleb, who’s been practicing for the last few months for a Christmas recital with his violin school. Caleb barely flinched when his music was bowled over (during a song he knew by heart anyway). Who knows where to from here? Carnegie Hall? Royal Albert? Hay Street?

ABC News is reporting that a british restaurateur has successfully held off a challenge from McDonalds, who had problems with him calling his outlets “McChina”.
I mention this not because I think it’s cool that Maccas was told that it doesn’t own the ‘Mc’ name (which it doesn’t; HA!), but the fact that the owner described himself being “as happy as a drunken prawn”. Now *that’s* happy.

A few points about the Harry Potter craziness at the moment (people banning/burning/bitching about the books):

• If you’re up in arms about the contents of the Harry Potter books, why weren’t you out marching years back when the first Potter book found its way onto school library shelves, rather than now, after the Coca-Cola deals are being signed?
• Would anyone really sit and *watch* a game like Quidditch? Did JK Rowling really think the scoring system through? A single ‘goal’ – completely unrelated to the main activity of the game – could effectively end the entire match after 5 minutes, or 5 weeks. If you have two evenly-matched sides playing each other, the closest possible outcome is 150-nil. It’s the equivalent of holding a chess match and awarding the prize based on the competitors’ fashion sense. Not since the French mangled the tennis scoring systems have we had to cope with such a strange new world of maths.

For more info; the old Harry Potter Home Page is a nice-looking site for the movie.
P.S.: Quote of the week from Caleb; on hearing the controversy about the Harry Potter books and discussing the pros and cons:
“C’mon; it’s just a book. Oh – and a movie.”

In the interests of everyone’s sanity, I’ve taken away one of the BONWAG ‘news’ listings; it made little sense to maintain both of them, and even less sense to read them. I am sorry. I have seen the error of my ways. Bat on.

By popular demand – from a guy calling himself ‘Ryan’ in ‘China’ – there are more Dead Useful Things To Say In Latin

Anyone with an email address has seen the picture of the guy on top of the World Trade Centers which was doctored to look like there was a plane heading for it on September 11. TouristGuy.com reckons they’ve found the person, and they have some other photos to prove it. See what you think.

Just last week, I was talking to someone about the wonderful (non-Disney) short films that Pixar studios have done over the years (before there was Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.) Here they all are!

Humph. We decided to go with the short, balding lawyer, rather than the large, jolly scholar, then? Oh well. Majority rules. At least I can complain about government policy, unlike a lot of others out there. I’m mightily miffed that an organisation that can produce election stunts like Political Big Brother won’t be let loose on the trade deficit. The election at least cleaned out a lot of the dross, most of it in Queensland. Nice to have a little spring clean every now and again. I’m just disappointed that our nation gets to have as its representative a man that looks like he’d rather be at home with a model railway than sending our troops in to battle on the world stage.
Whine, whine, whine. OK, that’s enough. Let’s get back on with the important job of keeping those nasty refugees out.

While you’re waiting for me to get around to documenting the exploits of my now-not-so-recent trip to Ireland, you might want to brush up in preparation: I found this guide to speaking with an Irish accent which is targetted toward Americans, but still holds some truth today, to be sure.