Nomenclature

As can be discerned by comparing it with its mother, this is not a spotless giraffe; it's a gaps-between-the-spots-less giraffe.

Ron S. Peno 1955 - 2023 | Louis Tillett 1959 - 2023

As these two giants fall, I am reminded of why I disliked impresario Harry M. Miller. Back in the early 90s, it was announced that the Harold Park Hotel would host a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar including additional songs by Louis Tillett, with the role of Judas being played by Ron S. Peno. This extraordinary cultural artifact was stolen from us by Mr Miller, who had bought the rights to the rock opera in order to stage it as a concert, where various famous Australian performers stood around in a circle for an hour and a half singing the bits, and consequently he insisted the Harold Park Hotel show not go ahead, rendering it only to be enjoyed somewhere in the multiverse.

Memorabilia

Apparently, Paul Tibbetts did not just sign photos of Enola Gay, the crew, and the mushroom cloud but also of the destroyed city. Personable fellow.

Cut

Mr Murray is having a problem with his insurance.

But consider this. I bought my insurance from comparethe market.com, an “insurance intermediary”, who took a cut. They got it from CETA, an “insurance broker”, who took a cut. They got it from Arkel, an “underwriting agent”, who took a cut. They were acting on behalf of Chaucer Insurance, whose frontmen get a cut from China Re, who ultimately get the profit, which goes to the Chinese State.

It is amazing there is anything left from my £450 to be pooled for the payment of claims. Which is perhaps why any claims immediately go to a loss adjuster – who of course gets yet another cut – and we have weeks of messing around, including drone shots of a roof you can walk on.

For me the worst part of this has been that every individual I have spoken to, in all these companies, has seemed a really nice person, genuinely wanting to help, but stuck there wearing a headset, reading limited responses from a screen, operating within their tiny delimited space in this nightmarish corporate jungle.

As absurd as this is, consider how more absurd is the now standard practise in government of contracting out jobs to companies that contract out to companies that contract out... God forbid the money allocated to a task should actually be spent on it, rather than whittled down in a bizarre game of corporate pass the parcel where every player takes a cut of the prize.