TRAFFIC chaos erupted during Tuesday’s morning peak as a plumber’s van broke down just over the crest of the Telegragh Bridge heading into Geelong.
The plumber dutifully engaged his hazard lights but it was to no avail because no one could see them until cresting the bridge.
No doubt a few were late to work that morning – including the plumber himself.
And his slogan? ‘Prompt and reliable’.
CORIO MP Richard Marles was relishing his role as federal Labor’s immigration spokesman earlier this week, urging the coalition to come clean on alleged payments to turn back people-smuggler boats.
As he must have known, Australian spies probably made the payments, and governments rarely comment on national security operations.
So, thinking he had the government pinned, Richard mischievously pressed on – until media reports of similar payments under Labor.
Then it was his turn to explain.
“It’s unlawful for the government or the opposition to divulge security or intelligence information,” he replied to Fairfax.
Maybe Richard, a former lawyer, could explain, then, why he urged the coalition to break the law.
SOME interesting content in a local quarterly publication released recently.
The editor’s letter on page five promoted “tit bits” inside. Double Take discovered none, unfortunately, but did encounter some ‘tidbits’, which can also be spelled ‘titbits’.
Then a couple of pages after the editor’s salacious offering was an advertisement for a counsellor surnamed Quarrell.
As the editor wrote, it was truly an edition to “kick off the winter gloom”.
A LOCAL netballer wants to remove the shortened version of her given name from a club windcheater.
The name, pronounced Sint, sounds safe enough.
But the spelling, with a C instead of S, certainly encourages a second look to ensure the correct reading.
Apparently the lettering’s attracted a few double takes of its own.
GEELONG will host a seminar next Tuesday as part of activities celebrating – wait for it – Public Sector Week 2015.
The seminar – at the waterfront’s four-star Novotel hotel no less – will discuss “opportunities for diversity in the public sector”.
And Geelong certainly has many such opportunities, with government agencies replacing manufacturers as the region’s biggest employers over the past decade.
At the risk of infuriating many friends working in the region’s many, many, many governmental offices, Double Take would like to celebrate Public Sector Week with a favourite joke.
Question: Why don’t public servants look out the window in the morning?
Answer: Because they wouldn’t have anything to do in the afternoon.
