Red and Bluebeard

Perhaps we should call him Clarence Olivier, as he is a class above most others at his craft (only old farts will get this!)

Which bit?

Just when you think this thread has quiesced and couldn't get weirder, it proves you wrong on both counts! And what is so special about a fat Tuesday in Parramatta?

The footy season can't start soon enough, eh?

Especially as that means the considerate [censored] missed out on our back-to-back-to-back flags of '39, '40 and '41 ...

Never heard of that type of banana before ...

Sounds like some dodgy spread you would get served at the Gat ...

And keep our eyes on the Red and the Blue, of course

But pies won't see the colours in the rainbow, only shades of black and white ...

I guess it could be railed, though, by mention of a certain GWS player ...

And?

Only James Hird probably thought the sun flew too close to him ...

You can't freeze what you can't derail ...

Or perhaps he has been on some bizarre substance of Biff's, sourced from a prized Indo-Chinese contact somewhere between the shadows and the grey area ...

But which broad? And the wogs start at Calais, Carlisle and Cardiff (not to mention Croydon)

Mine ancestors hail from Pommieland as well, although far enough back that I try to forget this as often as possible ... Slagging off Poms with terms like 'Sassenach' is a habit that comes surprisingly easily after living in Scotland during the reign of one Ms. Thatcher. It is also good that you are not a Hamburger

Didn't know you identified as a sausage, BB

You left out Vikingised and Normanised (and Pommified for that matter)

But they are not Europeans any more

Not sure that I see the link between British rah-rah and the assassination of Archiduke Ferdinand (heir to which throne again? ) but you have a good point about military victory but economic loss in both wars. IMHO I think it was more the insanity of the German Kaiser which ensured that a relatively minor dispute in the Balkans escalated into a pan-European Gotterdamerung that killed millions, but that was only possible because of the Great Powers of the time (Britain, Russia, Germany, France etc) wanting to belt the snot out of each other at any given opportunity. Makes Demonland look positively sane ...

That is why they invented Australia ...

Sure. Arnie's 'Peace on Earth' is a favourite of mine ... Mahler has more than his share of moments as well.

Pointless is too harsh a description. Much as I generally like putting the boot into Poms, a fairer comparison might be the Britain that gave us Britten, Vaughan-Williams, Elgar, Beecham and the Proms concerts, Tolkien, CS Lewis, JM Barrie, Tennyson, PG Wodehouse etc. And, to be really nasty, in which part of the world was that master warmongerer named Adolf born?

Germany?

James Hird is not one of my heroes, and if I saw him walking down the street, I would probably cross the street to avoid him. But like others I feel sorry for his children and family for what he has put them through, and I wish him the speediest of recoveries. It is one thing to thoroughly disagree with what he has done and how he has done it; it is quite another to wish him harm. Get well soon, James Hird.