Post & Rail
12 the
postman calls
The past week has had many moments which have caused The Postman to shake his head. For instance, there was the case of Amish vs Amish in Jefferson County, USA. Apparently rival gangs of Amish followers have been at odds, with one gang accused of attacking the other, cutting off their beards and cutting their hair. But surely it is a MontyPythonesque touch that has the leader of the ‘Amish hair cutting gang’ called Sam Mullet? Then there was the enlightening research, which has found that well-nourished, welltreated pregnant women generally give birth to healthier children. Well, who would have thought? This must have been research carried out by the University of the Bleeding Obvious. The next project could be into whether childbirth actually causes the mother some discomfort. Then of course, there was the news that Australian passports may be amended so that ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are removed and replaced with ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’, so same-sex couples aren’t discriminated against. Talk about not knowing whether you are Arthur or Martha! Do we have so little of importance to worry about here, that de-gendering our citizens even needs considering? Perhaps another research grant could be found to investigate this dilemma? Okay, a 14-year-old boy has been supposedly busted for drug possession in Bali. Now, that’s a 14 year old. A minor. A kid. So, the question must be asked, where were his parents? Also, now he claims he has been smoking dope for two years. Again the question – where were his parents? Here’s another question. Why did the Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services, together with the Capital Region BEC hold a workshop for small business owners at lunchtime on Monday? Do they understand so little about small business that they think business owner can just down tools at their busiest part of the day to attend a workshop which could be held before or after trading hours? Lunchtimes might suit the public service, but not retail, food or general small business. Seriously, what were they thinking?
Wednesday October 12, 2011
Community website grant Editor, Cooma Unlimited (CU) have just received a NSW Government grant to construct a community website. We have let a contract for its construction. You may know that Tourism Snowy Mountains believes that well over 80 percent of tourists plan their trip from the internet. Cooma and the Cooma Monaro Shire have many attractions, CU has a list of more than 20, that the tourist may like to visit if they were described on a suitable website. This does not mean that we are going to reinvent the wheel, rather we may as well be able to link the proposed website to many of the existing local websites, many of which are of very high quality.
Riposte Lisa Ashurst
The only negative I can find about all the rain we’ve been having lately is the carpets. This is not as weird as it sounds and having spent a lot of time on hands and knees getting muddy splodges out of the carpet in the entry hall I know what I’m talking about. The idea with coming inside after being out in the wet is to NOT walk inside with shoes on even if you have wiped them really, really, incredibly well on the mat outside because there will still be a residue that will come off as easy as pie as soon as those shoes hit the carpet. Dirt on shoes loves carpet and if it’s muddy dirt it will happily transfer to same and then cling like a limpet to the fibres. Once there, you have only one choice; pick up any clumps, let the rest dry and then brush it off, which leaves the shadow of where it was so you grab the spot stain remover and spray it on with a prayer that it’ll do its job. The thing is, the walker-inner is usually a witness to all this drama but for some reason they either don’t connect the dots or just figure you have nothing better to do or that you actually like crawling around with dustpan, brush and spray stuff. I
The first thing for this proposed website was to appoint a person to keep it up to date. We have done this. The purpose of this letter is to ask the local community if • There are people out there in the local community who might like to participate and • To ask the local community for ideas for the proposed website. We would ask you to contact any member of the CU team, or contact me on 6452 3424 or at dugald@ coomatown.com.au Dugald Mitchell OAM Chairman Cooma Unlimited.
EDITOR 02 6452 0312 Gail Eastaway - 0408 930 180
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS 02 6452 0316 Narelle Allen - 0403 352 867 Mark Salvestro - 0408 589 020 Lisa Ashurst
ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTIONS Tracy Frazer - 0429 321 869 Louise Platts - Bombala/Jindabyne - 0428 586 688
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Libby Goggin Jessica Plumridge
PHOTOGRAPHY actually don’t but over this rainy period I’ve been doing a lot if it anyway. As an incentive I’ve been leaving my own shoes outside the door and have even issued a few verbal reminders about mud, carpet and their strange and almost inseparable attraction to each other but unless the shoes in question are more mud than shoe (they do get left outside then, I must admit) it is still assumed that a vigorous shuffle around the door mat will suffice. It doesn’t! I’ve got to hand it to the spot remover though as it really does live up to its blurb and as a result I’ll always keep some in the cupboard. I’ve also decided that carpet is not the best option when it comes to floor coverings because if something really tragic happens to it, you’re stuck with it. A rug on the other hand can be removed and replaced a lot more easily which makes them a lot friendlier. I’m a big rug fan. Anyway, as it’s dry today and the offending feet are not at home I’m on a mission again with the spot spray and am seriously considering one of those shoe shelf things for the front porch which will hopefully act as a reminder in wet weather. And regardless of what it’s made from it would have to be easier to clean.
Gail Eastaway Narelle Allen Mark Salvestro
PUBLISHER Monaro Media Group Pty. Ltd.
Accounts: 02 6452 0318
Sport: editor@monaropost.com.au
IGA