If everything has worked out okay then this blog should now be appearing as the front page to the Polliweb site as opposed to living on the Blogger system. Let’s see how we go.

It was only about a year or two that I realised that Little Richard was singing about “Long Tall Sally“, and not “Long Tossed Salad” – I was SO embarrassed when Olivia pointed that one out to me – and she delights in reminding me about it. If you listen to the original I reckon it was a fair enough mistake. And before you start asking “but surely ‘Long Tossed Salad’ seems silly as a song lyric?”, who says that song lyrics have to make sense?

Similarly I always thought that when quiz/game shows on tv were talking about the person who had won the night before and had come back to win more/defend their title, that this person was referred to as the “carrier the champion” as opposed to the “carry over champion” which is what the actual title was.

Happy New Year!

One week ago, the word Tsunami would not have meant alot to a lot of people. Yeah, some sort of big tidal wave (which I’m embarrassed to admit I always thought was “title wave”) deelie. It’s scary how a week can change things. Tsunami is certainly the word of the week, and with 120,000 (and counting) people killed in S.E Asia as a result of one of these, this is with good reason.

I’m not going to launch into a long tirade about how absolutely terrible this tragedy is, to me that’s a given. My main aim for this post is to put up the news links below relating to the disaster for historical reasons. This feels a little like the aftermath of September 11, when all of a sudden the name “Osama” came out of relative obscurity onto the lips of just about everyone.

• The Age – Death toll passes 120,000
• The Age – The immediate aftermath

Yes, there are thousands more articles from countless other news sources – I just wanted a couple for references. I am really scared as to what the final toll will be.

Here’s some great slang from the early 1800s. This word should definitely be used more commonly today:

Rantallion.

Here is a picture of possibly the most famous rantallion of all.

Isn’t it wonderful, the things you find out at Christmas Eve drinks. Thanks Michael.

I’ve only got another 7 minutes before this Christmas day officially ends, so I’ll squeeze in a quick post before the clock ticks over.

Today has been a lazy and fun day. Lunch with the inlaws turned into dinner with the inlaws. The food was nice as was the company. It was the first Christmas where we haven’t had to do the Melbourne-Bendigo drive. Thank god. Not having to do the drive with a belly full of Christmas lunch makes all the difference. Now that Olivia’s folks have sold their house in Bendigo I look forward to not having to endure the above drive in the future.

Tomorrow is my family’s gathering. Home made ravioli, roast duck, panettone – BRING IT ON.

My parents’ Christmas lunch is something I look forward to more than just about any other meal in the year. The only possible to this is the Easter lunch of which my beloved roast goat or “capretto” is the star. Mmmm capretto.

I am pleased to advise that one of my favorite films of all time has finally been released on DVD. “The Name of the Rose” is a fabulous film, that all of you should go out and rent/buy if you haven’t already. Might try and read the book.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.