Jerry: You kept making all the stops!?

Kramer: Well, people kept ringing the bell

On the 50th anniversary of the Dismissal, here’s a part of Gough Whitlam’s life story you may not know: he was the Australian national quiz champion before entering politics. These pages are from my book, The Quiz Masters.

This was all known at the time but seems forgotten now. The Courier Mail in 1938 reported Catalogue “is owned by a woman and was trained by a woman” and quoted Allan McDonald saying his wife was the true trainer. This photo of them is from Palmerston North City Library, Ian Matheson City Archives

Bob Brown turns 80 today. And while he's best known as a long-time leader of the Greens, what you may not known is that as a young doctor working in London in 1970, Bob Brown was the resident on duty when Jimi Hendrix was brought in, dead from drug-related asphyxia.

Australia's batters collectively average 28.40 so far in 2024, their second worst in 40 years.

So, why the 5-2 winning record this year?

Because the bowlers collectively average 23.51, their third best average in 65 years.

Fair to say one department is carrying the other.

I haven't seen him in much lately but even so this seems a pretty big step down from The West Wing etc

On this day in 1919, ex-MP John McDougall was tarred and feathered and dumped on an Ararat street by returned soldiers angry at a satirical anti-war poem he wrote during the Boer War that was now being used against him by political opponents. And you think politics is toxic today.

This, from the page for 'Father Christmas', is one of my favourite Wikipedia subheadings. To be honest, I'm surprised the corporate watchdog allowed it as it's now basically a monopoly.

Re this passage in the SMH.

The fact that the Liberal Party would see this as evidence of trying to dupe voters instead of evidence that the party has left behind much of its traditional base is pretty mind-boggling.

Bill Medley is the perfect name for a righteous brother

90 years ago today, in 1934, Czech writer and communist Egon Kisch was denied entry into Australia due to the notorious "dictation test" used to decide who could come in. Kisch spoke six languages but the authorities could choose any European dialect, so they picked Scottish Gaelic so he would fail.

Everyone says The Simpsons predicts stuff, but what about the Mr Men?

44th book = Mr Cool. 44th US president = Barack Obama.

45th book = Mr Rude. 45th president = Donald Trump.

46th book = Mr Good. 46th president = Joe Biden.

47th book = Mr Nobody. 47th president = Not a Mr?

When Jim Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation did the inaugural Olympic decathlon in 1912, his shoes were stolen and he competed in mismatched, ill-fitting shoes, one of which he found in a trash can. He still won by a country mile. It was the only decathlon he ever did in his life.

As we watch the Olympic athletics, worth noting that the crouch start was invented by an Indigenous Australian athlete - Yorta Yorta man Bobby McDonald - in 1887. He would crouch before the start to keep warm and then found he could also get off the mark faster from that position