Sweet or sour

THE closest Sunday night's debate came to electrifying us was when a thunderstorm over Sydney did its best to take the roof from over our head.

THE closest Sunday night's debate came to electrifying us was when a thunderstorm over Sydney did its best to take the roof from over our head.

The aftermath, however, has shown a bit more promise. For example, take this exchange during Tony "Family Guy" Abbott's press conference yesterday. Journalist: "You've decided to bring your wife in to campaign today. Is it correct, as has been tweeted by one reporter, that you mentioned last night the absence of Tim Mathieson, the Prime Minister's partner, from the debate?"

Abbott: "You shouldn't believe poisonous gossip, OK?"

Poisonous gossip? Blimey. Strictly speaking, it was a tweet to Nine Network reporter Ben Fordham, which he duly retweeted: "Saw Tony out celebrating at restaurant in Canberra. Heard him bagging Julia 4 not having Tim at debate." (This takes on a slightly droll aspect when one considers that Fordham had a minor spot of bother last year under the Listening Devices Act; there but for the grace of God . . .) We asked Abbott's office if the Monk denied the veracity of the tweets and they assured us this was the case. The restaurant in question was the pollie-favoured Kingston eatery Portia's Place, which Abbott went out of his way to plug on the radio yesterday. Owner Portia Lowery is coy about whether the Iron Monk's wireless endorsement of her noshery qualifies him for a free feed, but she is effusive in her praise: "He's a regular, he's our No. 1 favourite customer; we liked him from the beginning," Lowery tells Strewth, adding that she sometimes has to persuade her more left-leaning customers that "if you get to know him, he's very nice". That said, Lowery describes herself as "a Labor girl" and loves Gillard, too: "When she first came in 1998, we thought she was a journalist." High praise, indeed. For the record, Hong Kong-born Lowery says she's broadly supportive of both sides' immigration policies.

Pedants' corner

PEDANTS across the nation have been grinding their teeth over the signage at the National Press Club that declared, "Leaders Debate", though it's possible the lack of a possessive apostrophe was just a subtle prediction that neither Gillard nor Abbott would end up "owning" the debate. Nevertheless, our special agent brought it up with the PM and education revolution builder-in-chief and, for the record, she pronounced herself "shocked".

Only one choice

ONE of Strewth's small but important rules in life is to never automatically equate private schools with the Liberal Party; after all, where can that road take you if not down the route of class warfare and, eventually, to the glowering form of Mark Latham? So we're a little surprised to discover the Libs are failing to take similar precautions. Visit their website, click on policies, and then click on education. This will bring you to three choices: schools, tertiary, and training & apprentices. Click on schools, though, and that sense of choice evaporates as you're confronted with a banner that reads, EDUCATION/PRIVATE. We gather there were plans to have more pages than that, but it appears EDUCATION/PUBLIC evaporated in mysterious circumstances along the way. On the plus side, this page does feature a large photo of Christopher Pyne wearing his most winning smile.

Victorian ecstasy

ONE of Strewth's other small but important rules in life had been to never to think of Victoria's Premier and the faking of orgasms in the same breath, so it is with heavy heart we report that for its June 2010 Business Outlook, Access Economics has appropriated that celebrated cinematic moment with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal thus: "With apologies to the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally, we can only imagine that other state premiers must look at John Brumby, sigh, and say, 'I'll have what he's having.' Victoria continues to chalk up enviable outcomes on key indicators." Sigh. If they had only imagined it, as promised, and not shared this image with us then everything would have been just dandy.

Joe's on hellfire

WITH the credit for the Coalition's most interesting utterances generally being handed to Barnaby Joyce, we can't help but wonder whether Joe Hockey is being unjustly overlooked. Sure, he won widespread acclaim for his Paris Hilton zinger last week, but Kilimanjaro Joe is no one-hit wonder. Try this one from yesterday: "We know that you cannot get a surplus by sitting on the front porch, sucking on a blade of grass and watching God do the hard work. You actually have to do it by making hard decisions." We're sure this had nothing to do with Hockey's period working alongside Barnaby.

Man of mystery

WHEN press releases strive for mystery: "An Australian Icon and International Star to join the cast of Ben Hur: The Stadium Spectacular. Meet the star on Tuesday 27 July at Blue Hotel, Cowper Wharf Road, Woolloomooloo." Given that Gladiator star Russell Crowe lives just across the street, we're willing to punt a few bucks it will be him.