Frank frog saver

AND so we say farewell to former NSW opposition leader, Peter Debnam, one of the brave pioneers of the conservative budgie-smuggler look.

Like many a pioneer, he laid down his life (politically speaking), in the 2007 state election so that other Speedo-donning Liberal leaders might succeed. Giving his valedictory speech yesterday, he dished out brickbats aplenty, saving an especially big one for former Labor premier Bob Carr, but we suspect Carr didn't notice, as he was busy on his blog, tapping out his thoughts on another departing MP, former Labor frontbencher Frank Sartor. Carr starts off by listing some of Sartor's finer achievements (contributions to cancer research, his time as an Olympic-period mayor), but then changes gear: "From his start as a minister, however (and I brought him into the cabinet as soon as he was elected to parliament in 2003), he started presenting with such a hangdog air that one wondered whether he might have preferred a different job. I saw him on TV recently announcing protection for frog habitats. He had such a miserable, half-believing air about him I came close to shouting at the screen, 'Liven up, Frank! That's what environment ministers do! They save frogs! Do it and believe in it !'."

Boring victory

WE'VE been taken by news from the US, where Google has been sued by an Aaron and Christine Boring for trespass after Chez Boring was photographed for Google's Street View service. It wasn't a gigantic victory - the Borings were awarded $US1 for their efforts - but surely what was at stake here was principle. As it is, we've been distracted by a Google issue closer to home, more specifically a link to a story on the brand-new speaker of the Victorian parliament, Ken Smith. Nothing is amiss in the story itself (no surprises; we are after all talking about the Pakenham Gazette), but it seems the gremlins have been hard at work in the snippet that shows up on the Google link. Fewer letters went astray in the Great Mail Robbery than have here: "LIEAL sitting MP Ken Smith looks likely to etain the seat of ass in this Satuday's State Election. The Victoian Electoal Commission states." Hopefully, there'll be no repercussions; the Bible may have had some stern things to say about coveting asses, but it's mercifully silent on the topic of etaining one.

Ted's baleful letters

HOPEFULLY fewer letters will go astray in Ted Baillieu's name, now that he's Premier of Victoria. We've seen a broad spectrum of misspellings including "Ballieu" (on the ABC's website and The Age), "Bailieu" (The Age, Aunty's website, Business Spectator, 3AW's website and even the website of the Liberal Party in Frankston), "Baileu" (Aunty really deserves some sort of medal), and the somewhat more off-the-mark "Too shit" (Catherine Deveny's Twitter feed). We could admit that were it not for Strewth's illustrious sub-editors, we quite possibly would have botched it, too, but that would be taking self-deprecation too far. Split it into two words Bail and lieu, join them together and Bob's your uncle. Or at least Ted's your premier.

Multimedia men

OUR self-effacing colleague George Megalogenis would probably be horrified to hear us describe him as having a warm and mellifluous voice. Nevertheless, we are pleased to learn that Mega's contribution to the Quarterly Essay series (Trivial Pursuit; at all good bookshops, do yourself a favour and so forth) has also been rendered in audiobook format - read by the author himself. We have every intention of playing it in our car during our Christmas holiday odyssey up the Pacific Highway until our children are demanding: "No more Roald Dahl, we want Mega!" But we digress. Greens leader Bob Brown also has a book out. It's In Balfour Street (nice echo of Patrick Kavanagh), a collection of poems written by Brown in the 1970s. So far, it appears to be available only in paper form, which may be a good thing. As much as we respect Brown, we suspect an audio version, as read by the author, might be a touch risky. Or at least for those operating heavy machinery.

That does it then

THE latest issue of The Spectator Australia hit the newsstands yesterday with a pleasingly thunderous editorial on why Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann ought to be the heirs to Kerry O'Brien's throne. Amid the gravitas, there was this touchingly self-promoting endorsement: "Both also have a touch of class: after all, they've penned Spectator Australia diaries!" A few hours later, Aunty named the hosts for the show we may henceforth refer to only as 7.30: Sales and Uhlmann. It's difficult to write this off as coincidence.

The longest day

ONE for the Borings (see above), courtesy of The Times of India: "April 11, 1954, was the most uneventful and boring day of the 20th century . . . According to the results of the search machine, called True Knowledge, on that day a general election was held in Belgium, a Turkish academic was born and an Oldham Athletic footballer called Jack Shufflebotham died. Apart from that nothing much happened."