Honest John

John Amenta

“Did you kill your 70-year-old mother, put her in a barrel and throw her into a creek?”

“Of course not.”

“I love my mum.”

“I’d do anything for my mum,” he said …. 

…. adding (that) police believed he had used his mum’s money after she disappeared to buy a $300,000 Ferrari.

Well, I believe him.

Source: HeraldSun

And he also hates the Hot Rods

"We will decide who comes to this town ..."

This post expressing hatred for the forthcoming Bright Rod Run event, is from an anonymously authored anti-Ray Dixon website that I stumbled across recently.

I know who runs this piece of garbage because some time ago he expressed almost identical sentiments about the hot rod event in a private email that he sent me under his own name (for a change). Obviously he’s forgotten about that but I still have the email and it is surely written by the same person. I only publish this in the hope that he deletes his hateful blog – I’d rather not name him because he tends to throw a hissy fit when exposed.

I won’t give the web address of this fairly new hate site, as I don’t want to send it any traffic, but just be aware that we have in this town an anonymous nutjob who sees nothing wrong with slandering those he does not like by using the anonymity of the internet to stalk and harass them. His hatred knows no boundaries. My response to his crap about the hot rods follows the quoted pieces:

Melbourne Cup Sweep

UPDATE: I have now registered at http://mycupsweep.com.au, which is run by the TAB, but no details are available yet ~ maybe that’s a way it can be done.

Back the horse and get drunk too.

Sorry, I no can do

With apologies to Stuart, Rox, Baldrick et al, I have made a decision that it is just not practical for A.O. to conduct a sweepstakes on the Melbourne Cup, to be run next Tuesday. The reasons are: (a) How do I collect the $10 or $20 ticket fees? (b) How do I conduct an online draw that is not only fair & above-board , but also seen to be that way? And (c) how do I distribute the winnings?

Sorry folks, but instead of giving your $20 to me, put it on THE WINNER,  which I still say will be ALCOPOP. Tally ho.

Stop work now, says Wal

"Hey! Woolies! Leave my town alone" ~ Lee's memo.

Exclusive:

Wally’s memo (in song) to the Alpine councillors

For the second week in a row the so-called controversy surrounding the wall height of the Woolworths supermarket presently under construction in Bright dominates the front page of the Bright Observer. And once again the only concerned resident appears to be local musician & ‘former’ Save Bright spokesperson Lee ‘Wally’ Rosser. Yeah, right. Anyway, according to the report, Lee and his fellow former Save Brighters have even sent a memo to the Alpine councillors calling for construction to cease. Wal even claims that Woolworths misrepresented its plans:

Bright Rod Run barriers

The Alpine Council has been good enough to drop off a map of the:

 New ‘road management plan’ for the Bright Hot Rod Event from 6 – 8 Nov.

Contrary to the way the original notice read, the rods will not be banned from the CBD, however, access will be severely limited and they will no longer be able to go around the clock tower. The following map shows where the barricades will be placed and how the traffic will flow. I’m not sure if this will work:

Blogs are burning

Make yourself useful, Garrett.

Twitter sucks

So let’s take the Internet back!

It seems everyone is too busy on Twitter to write on their blogs these days.

Well I’ve had enough.

I’m calling on all bloggers to unite and rid us of the pest known as Twitter.

And what better way to get the message across than in song?

To the tune of Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning.

I give you:

Holding to say thank you …

What about GG, Tim?

… with a sausage sizzle !

I’ve just read in today’s Herald-Sun that State Minister for Water, Tourism and just about everything else, Tim Holding, is putting on a free barbecue in Bright today to say thank you to those involved in his rescue from the icy slopes of Mt Feathertop about two months ago.

Unfortunately we didn’t get an invite, even though Mr Holding’s family stayed here at GG during the ordeal and we helped shield them from the media. I’m not really upset though because, according to the report, the invitees* are the 100 volunteers who were directly involved in the search & rescue operation, and that’s fair enough. But who knows, maybe Tim will drop in with a free sausage? I’ll get the camera ready just in case.

(* Although I bet a few freeloaders from the Alpine Council turn up!)

Rods banned from Bright CBD?

UPDATE Monday 26 October: I’ve spoken to Peter @ the council and it’s a partial blockade in that the rodders will not be able to do laps around the clock tower. I’m not sure if it’s going to work though. Peter is dropping off a map later today and I’ll put it up here.

Sure they block the CBD, but it's only for one weekend.

Huh? This doesn’t make any sense.

I’ll have to check this out further on Monday but this notice released by the Alpine Council  late on Friday afternoon seems to be saying:

The main Bright CBD area of Ireland & Anderson Streets (including the clock tower area) will be closed to all vehicles for most of the annual Bright Hot Rod event from 6-8 November.

Barricades are to be placed from 7am on the Friday until early Sunday morning meaning neither the rodders or locals will be able to take their cars into town. What is going on here?

I think I’ll give “Mr Anderson” a call on Monday but, in the meantime, if anyone knows more about this extraordinary development please say so in the comments or email me on ray@grevilleagardens.com. Here is the council press release in its entirety (it’s more than a bit contradictory):

Strange search terms

The world is full of weirdos … 

… who go searching @ Google looking for all manner of things. Somehow these search term enquiries have brought people to this blog over the past 7 days. My o-so-witty responses are in italics:

Infrastructure builds tourism

Believe it or not, the reinvigoration of Bright's CBD, and especially the clock tower area, would do more for tourism in the Alpine Shire than spending $millions on advertising would.

So why aren’t we improving Bright’s CBD?

This news story from ABC Online  highlights the very issue that I have been raising for many years. 

At long last someone else is making the right calls.

I have been saying for years that the best way for established tourist destinations in regional areas – like Bright - to attract more tourists is to enhance the appeal of the town itself, to make it more attractive, functional and tourist friendly.

We need to implement the improvements as per the long forgotten and much maligned Bright Future Project if we are to just maintain our tourist-based economy, let alone make it grow.

My further comments appear after the ABC news article:

Wal’s Wailing Wall

Hmm, it looks okay from this angle - i.e. the main view that most people will have of it from Gavan Street . It's certainly not "too high" and there are still plenty of hills & trees to see in the background. And it's a hell of a lot better vista than what we had before ~ just what the hell is 'Wal' talking about? (click on photo to enlarge)

The front page of today’s Bright Observer features what is arguably the biggest beat up and non-news-story of the year. Titled ‘Walls of Concern’, the article claims, “Controversy over the height of walls at the Woolworths construction site in Bright has led to calls for the builders to prove they are adhering to planning conditions.” The article claims that “residents” (i.e. more than one person) have raised concerns over a number of walls that “they” (i.e. more than one person) say are “some two metres higher than what was agreed”.

However, the only “resident” quoted in the article – and the one who seems to be doing all the bleating – is local musician Lee Rosser, who the paper describes as “Former Save Bright spokesman”. Former? Anyway, it’s worth having a look at exactly what Lee (aka “Sally B”, “Ruth K”, “Torressaxxon”, “Gaye Vixen”, “Wal” … and a host of other aliases he has used to post under here & elsewhere) has to say. My comments are in italics:

Springtime @ GG in Bright

Yes, this is part of the garden @ GG. So why are you still sitting at home?

Now that we’ve finally got some good weather the azaleas, dogwoods & rhododendrons can do their usual stunning stuff. They’re a bit later than normal this year, which means there’s still time to catch the blooms before they fade away later in the month. Of course the Melbourne Cup weekend from Oct 30 – Nov 3 is booked out but there are plenty of vacancies until then. Here’s an idea, why not come up this weekend? More photos available on the Grevillea Gardens website, click here.

(Okay, you’re right. This is a blatant ‘Advertorial’, but so what? It’s my blog)

Are we doomed?

The WordPress stats page displays the search terms people use to find this blog via search engines like Google. You get some real beauties, like today’s gem:

is the world going to end by a tsunami

Um, not around where I live, about 250 kms from the sea. Of course this raises the obvious questions:

1. Is the world going to end?

2. When?

3. How?

Lock up the owners …

If you own one of these, you are a moron.

… for attempted murder

Barely a week goes by without news of  another vicious dog attack, the latest being (surprise, surprise) by an American pit bull terrier roaming the streets of Melbourne.  I agree with RSPCA President Hugh Worth’s comments that this breed should never have been introduced on to Australian shores and should be “wiped out”, but what I don’t understand is why anyone would want to own one of these dogs in the first place – what does it say about the owners? 

Talkback blogging #2

The lines are open !

As last Sunday’s open thread was such a raging success, I’ll do it again. Raise whatever issue you like.

What about Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens deliberately forecasting a series of interest rate rises this week? How economically responsible (or reckless) was that? And what was the real purpose of his statement, to drive the $AUS up even higher? Well that’s what it did. So whose interests is Stevens working for, the interests of the Australian general population or to line the pockets of those who play the international currency markets? I really don’t like that bloke. Over to you.