Cotton Ward » Ruddspeak

Was at work today

cottonward — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:42:48 +0000

And I wrote this headline, was pleased it got in: It’s a jump to the Left, then a step to the Right.

And Backbenchers feign shock over PM’s F-word. I liked my caption but it was changed, so here was my original version: Fair shake of the sauce bottle … Rudd hopes this latest outburst will be consigned to the “forgettery”.

I also wrote this one on Fri night: Magnanimous Rudd ignores tribal rules for centrist choices. It gave me a frisson, getting a chance to use “magnanimous”.

I’d like to get “frisson” in a headline someday, but despite having this goal in mind for about eight months, no openings so far.

Ruddyard No-kipping’s Gunga Din

cottonward — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:14:43 +0000

Mr Rudd (who sleeps 3hrs/night) spoke to journalists about his wife, Therese’s, condition after she recovered from a bad stomach ache: ”She’s made of sterner stuff than you or I, Gunga Din, and she is in good spirits.”

Cobbled from wiki: Gunga Din poem by Rudyard Kipling. The last line:

“Tho’ I’ve belted you and flayed you,

By the livin’ Gawd that made you,

You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!”

“The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer who saves the soldier’s life but dies himself. It celebrates the virtues of a non-European while revealing the racism of a colonial infantryman who views such people as being of a lower order.”

So that means Therese is made of sterner stuff than a water bearer who died for his master? Or that she’s treated like a slave? Lucky he didn’t quote the “belted you and flayed you” bit.

Rudd at Pacific Islands Forum

cottonward — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:35:28 +0000

Rudd says: ‘‘Let’s be blunt about the order of priorities here. One is a set of actions agreed to by the international community which minimise the impact of coastal inundation as we minimise the impact of climate change but taking the mitigation measures that are outlined in the possible contents of a new framework agreement and the various national actions to be undertaken here in Australia.’’

I can’t make any sense of it. I don’t know how the Pacific leaders could understand it either. His reason for being confusing is…?