Just between us

A LITTLE glimpse into the spin cycle in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

A LITTLE glimpse into the spin cycle in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry from yesterday, as a supposedly internal email went out among Joe Ludwig's troops: "Hi guys, We're still getting a lot of media interest around the story in The Australian around a new assistance package.

Can I get your views on this proposed holding line: 'The government is considering a range of options in relation to assistance. It's too early to pre-empt any decision.' " Sadly (well, Strewth's not sad, but you get the drift), it was also sent to the media list, which packs so many addresses that if printed out in 10-point Arial, could get you well under way to covering a doona. The email was followed by a more plaintive one, "Katana Smith would like to recall the message." So much said with so few words.

Bear and Emmo

JUST to keep you up to date with how federal Trade Minister Craig Emerson is going in China, here he is with a local in Chengdu. Emmo suggests this portrait caused "panda-monium", which we wouldn't normally allow in this space, but as it's his Emmonence, we'll let it go. Just this once.

Not bare of ammo

WHILE some like to lead by example, it's refreshing to see John Howard's biographer prefers example by lead. As his wife, NSW Community Services Minister Pru Goward informed state parliament yesterday: ". . . local police carried out an inspection of our family farm at Yass with my husband David Barnett. My husband has a firearms licence with registered firearms. Although locked, his gun safe contained a loaded rifle and also housed live ammunition. It is a requirement that citizens store unloaded weapons in locked gunsafes and that live ammunition is stored in separate locked safes. My husband is of course co-operating with police and I do not intend to comment further on this matter."

Beastly figure

WE'RE not sure whether to be surprised Westpac spotted the devil in the detail, but we were struck by this in yesterday's Westpac AustralAsian Daily: "The low in the S&P during the GFC was 666. Last night it closed down 6.66 per cent. Spooky."

Keep calm

BRITISH Home Secretary Theresa May last September, assuring the nation's wallopers that slashing their funding wouldn't lead to more crime: "The British public don't simply resort to violent unrest in the face of challenging economic circumstances." Bless.

And carry on

THEY'RE a tough bunch, Opera Australia subscribers. When OA artistic director Lyndon Terracini told them, at the Sydney Opera House launch of the 2012 season yesterday, that all three Mozart operas on the program were to be performed in English, no one fainted. Nor was there consternation when he told them that for Erich Korngold's Die Tode Stadt, the orchestra would play next door in the Studio (rather than the opera theatre's overly modest pit) and the music relayed by speakers. It was a lavish launch with plenty of arias and balloons, and the only disappointment (give or take the inclusion of South Pacific, but that's just Strewth's grumpy fundamentalism showing) was that Kamahl wasn't coaxed out of the audience and on to the stage to join Jose Carbo, Cheryl Barker and the rest to belt out a tune.

Tick the box

READER Tony Kennedy has marked the census by sharing with us a crucial detail from Ireland's census in 1901 and 1911. Writes Kennedy, "The last column in both forms is headed thus: 'Write the respective infirmities opposite the names of the affected person: Deaf and dumb; dumb only; imbecile; idiot or lunatic.' These forms were completed -- not the last column, thank heavens -- by my maternal grandfather in County Wicklow." Better than weighing up if it's passe to put Jedi in the religion bit.

Top-shelf pedant

A COMMENT under a piece in Britain's Guardian about the fading of the subjunctive: "I'm not sure Americans 'get' the subjunctive better than the British and, as exhibit one, I give you Jim Morrison saying, 'If I was to say to you' in Light My Fire. When my band used to cover this, I refused to sing this line and replaced it with 'If I were to say to you.' Before each rendition, I would point this out. To be fair, it generated befuddled looks most of the time, except on one occasion in a boozer in Muswell Hill when a bloke who was about 60 started clapping really loudly . . ."