The Smoking Gun overlooked: Vehicles adornments...

Yet another news item out of Florida (US) missed by the editors of The Smoking Gun.

State moves to ban fake testicles on vehicles


Again, you can't make this stuff up, folks!

- Farmer Ted

International House of Horrors: The Oracle of Seneca speaks...

Seneca, South Carolina (US) I mean. And by that I'm referring to John Edwards, who finally threw his endorsement to Barack Obama as the Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming US presidential elections.

When you think about it, our John was a man who held his own counsel about who to back. Like the Oracle of Delphi, eyes closed in a seeming trance ignoring supplicants until ready to speak. After all, what was at stake was being chosen as a running mate to the winner of this bloody battle for supremacy between the good Senators.

No sense in speaking before the die seems cast, right?

Thus, the endorsement of Senator Obama by John Edwards is easily seen as an indication of the state of Senator Clinton's hopes for Democratic presidential candidacy.

And given how her ill-spoken observation "how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me" is foolhardy considering that Edwards counts the same constituency; putting into my head that an Obama-Edwards ticket could be a winner for the Democrats.

Who knew that Mrs Clinton has oracular talent as well.

- Farmer Ted

Import/Export...

Everyone here who knows someone overseas does it. I mean have visiting friends from the US bring over items for them, almost always items unavailable here in Australia.

For me, that's pretty much personal grooming products that - like everyone - I find I like but just can't seem to find the same ones over here. Well almost. You see, I like Aveda products; which are available here. Only for some reason they are 2- to 3-times as expensive in Australia as in the US despite the current exchange rate. Look at this price comparison chart:

So since I don't have an organ to spare, I have friends bring over whatever I'm out of. Each sorta like my own personal "Chanel" Corby, so-to-speak.

But at least I look my best.

- Farmer Ted

Have I got a tip for you...

One of the favorite sports here is Australian Rules Football or "footy". There are 16 teams in a an organization called the Australian Football League or AFL. Patterned after the NFL, each team is a franchise and is associated with an Australian city. In the case of where I am, there are two footy teams.

And like in US football, fans are rabid over AFL and their local teams. Not being a big NFL fan and on top of that being American, I can't say I get all the AFL excitement. Especially since some of their uniforms are pretty dumb looking.

But I have been to a footy match and participate in an activity here called "footy tipping." Footy tipping is essentially and organized selection of the winning teams each week for fun. I do it just to be sociable, truth-to-tell.

Like I said, not being from here I have absolutely no affiliation with any team or strong feelings at all about any particular one for that matter. So when I tip, it's pretty logical and unsentimental. I look at the favorites, remember any team news I'd heard, figure there'll be a few upsets and then make my selections for the 8 matches played per weekend.

I was 8/8 last week, 7/8 the past two weeks and am #2 out of 55 on the rankings ladder in my competition.

Let me just say this has not endeared me to the Australians on the ladder, who find it unthinkable a "yank" could out-guess them at their own game; meaning they hardly stop by to say "congratulations", that's for sure.

Oh well, bitterness never is pretty.

- Farmer Ted

The oldest profession...

AppleTV has been an absolute godsend in keeping connected back to the US. With it, I can access the US-based iTunes storefront, downloading content such as TV programs and music that are relevant to the culture. One ability of AppleTV is to download video podcasts. These podcasts are free and cover an amazing breadth of topics from health, to cooking, to many news programs like "Meet The Press". It also allows me to download the daily evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, and CBS.

Showing a video podcast of the NBC Nightly News to my Aussie friends, we came to a piece where Andrea Mitchell - a well-respected TV news journalist - was doing a field report. A derisive comment was made about how old she was.

And you know what, she is. Something you don't see on Australian TV news programs. This reminded me of an interview show I saw here with TV news journalists in which all the females on the panel (who were of a certain age) were lamenting about the short shelf-life of female journalists. All is well when you're young and buxom, but start getting a wrinkle and you're made redundant faster than an FAA inspector at Southwest Airlines.

Or Mary Kostakidis from SBS World News Australia.
Or Jessica Rowe from Channel 9's Today Show.

Add to that in the US female journalist are paid on parity with men (and at 51, Katie Couric is the highest paid TV news anchor followed closely by Meredith Viera at 54 on NBC's Today Show) and I think they get a much better deal in America. Paid for your experience rather than how you look in a push-up bra.

I can't help being one those watching the news for, well, news.

- Farmer Ted