Dr John Dee

As for me, I've got some lantana to get tangled up in. More enticing than bothering with bigots and bullies.

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see (Robert Louis Stevenson: Child's Garden of Verses ... about the appropriate level of maturity I presume)

And in contrast ...

Post of the week, Mr Old.

Gotta feel sorry for the kid.

Where exactly did I misrepresent you by saying/suggesting/implying/insinuating that you'd said any such thing? This, of course, is a standard manoeuvre of yours. Maybe it's time to put up or shut up. Why? It hasn't done you much good.

Don't try to patronise me Biff, you've already shown yourself an abject failure at that. BTW I've never used a word or reference whose reach I haven't understood, but I can't take responsibility for any that might fall outside the confines of your narrow and prejudiced little world.

There's not much point, Moneider. Biff loathes: (i) Muslims; (ii) anyone he deduces to be smarter than he is; and (iii) anyone he fears to be wittier. While it's easy enough to find plenty of people in each category, Waleed Aly has the misfortune of belonging to all three.

Great posts, Pauline. We need all the simplistic contributions from all the addlebrained keyboard warriors we can find before this war will be won.

Sorry Moneider, you can get away with all sorts of claims about the cultural importance of Christianity, but this is reaching too far. It was the Greeks (Aristotle for one).

If you're really that bad at reading basic English, maybe you should think a bit more before posting anything. And as for disingenuities maybe you should take a look in the mirror sometime since that's exactly what your use of the word 'merit' was.

I didn't realise that there was some sort of competition for owning reactions to this new outrage but if there is I'll leave it to the Parisians to decide. And merely repeating 'BS' doesn't make an argument or even a coherent observation. You think Islam is a monolith, fine. I'm just glad that those who do the security analysis stuff (whether it turns out that they've missed something again this time or not) have a slightly more nuanced view of the world.

So, since you seem to be more confident in your knowledge of these than the French security forces at the moment, what are the ‘merits’ of this chain of atrocities, Daisy? I’d have thought that Moonie’s point is that we might need to get beyond knee-jerk religious labels before the particulars of the Paris attacks are identified and understood. If that’s sitting on a fence, so be it but I can’t see how it’s any more intellectually ‘lazy’ than Biff’s comment, which might be a good one liner but isn’t anything other than that. Meanwhile, back in the world: ‘The France midfielder Lassana Diarra has revealed that his cousin, Asta Diakité, was killed during Friday night’s attack. ‘Diarra played 80 minutes of the match against Germany. In a statement posted on Twitter, he said his cousin was like “a big sister to me … In this climate of terror, it is important for all of us who are representatives of our country and its diversity to speak and remain united against a horror that has no colour, no religion.” ‘Diarra’s team-mate Antoine Griezmann, meanwhile, said that his sister Maude had escaped the attack at the Bataclan concert hall which left at least 87 people dead.’ (Guardian Online)

So you don't deny the temptation to abjure your fleshly ways, Uncle Bitters?

No opportunity should be sneezed at, R&B, although when it comes to dodgy artworks we have a preference for the nineteenth century. I refer you to our last brush (so to speak) with fake artistic fame: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/30/1088488031771.html?from=storylhs (Hopping Dicks Creek is aka Limpinwood ... you may spot the third-class pun)

That is simply taken for granted by all on this thread, Mr Leg.

All disreputables welcome here, Daisy. We’ve recently suffered an invasion of small hordes of true (sic) believers for whom their god hath builded pristine white houses with pristine white sheds and pristine white letterboxes. We need whatever help we can get in returning the valley to the paths of unrighteousness. I had thought BBO might be just the sort of immigrant we need since he could correct the balance with his unique collection of iniquities; but his little outburst of Weltschmerz the other day makes me fear he may be a prime candidate for religious conversion.

There you go, boasting about your s-x life again.

If it's ok with you Uncle Bitters I'd rather not. Nothing personal, but you're not really my type.

A fine, upstanding one, I might say, except that all it would probably do is open the door to all sorts of nonsense about Cialis.* * had to look that up, obviously.

I haven't ... oh, actually ...

Your Freudian slip, Moonie, betrays a truth that only we locals understand the full measure of.

A pleonasm, surely. Of course, Uncle Bitters, if you were to offer more adequate remuneration for my advice you could expect more effective service ... although I presume this won't be the first time you've been told something like that.

Around here that would be walk and chew bananas wouldn't it?

I think we may be at cross-purposes, Uncle Bitters. I fear that either to confirm or to deny your impressions about the practices of certain exotic establishments may damage the remaining few tatters of my reputation irreparably. In fact I had in mind something much more pragmatic, given Mr Cutter’s legendary standing in the more familiar establishments of Burwood, in that the use of numbers seemed to suggest a form of mnemotechnics (as we say in the trade, though I have in truth forgotten what trade it is) based on substituting retirement villa or apartment numbers for the names of their residents. Perhaps I was wrong to do so. I notice that the more innocent, or those with more generosity of spirit amongst us, such as the inestimable Biffen, have taken Mr Cutter at his apparent word and see nothing more licentious at issue than the consumption of Chinese food. If so, I will need to regard Mr Cutter from hereon as a mere gourmand rather than (as others had promoted him to be) a gourmet of more interesting tastes.