Clever Lever

From a NY Times article about young Yanks choosing to work abroad to gain experience:

"It's not a money-making move," she said. "It puts you in a position to leverage yourself."

Right off a cliff, perhaps?

Khartoum strip

My latest mission.

Hi all,
The car for this weekend is booked in Paula's name, to be collected on
Friday ...(email body) ...I have booked a sudan.
All for now,
(insert supervisor's name here)


I'll be steering Africa's largest country this weekend - put your seatbelts on!

A traffic sign?

The SMH today quotes the Chief Executive of Leighton Contractors, who are currently building (&/or rerouting) the Lane Cove Tunnel. His name?:

Wal King

Nothing particularly funny there, unless you remove the space between his names. A touch ironic for someone wor king (ba-boom!) in the transport infrastructure industry.

Position well and truly vacant

My admin assistant noticed the following from that bastion of news, current affairs and unbiased reporting - The Manly Daily - in the jobs section:

"Administartion Assistant

Required for local finical planning firm..."

The sooner they get someone who knows that "F7" is a shortcut for the spellchecker the better. In case you're wondering, finical is a real word, and means "effectively or excessively precise in an unimportant matter". What, like a job advert?

Clashing (s)words

Adam Spencer started on ABC 702 breakfast this morning, and in referring to a co-worker who had interviewed Peter Costello said:

"You and he have locked swords before haven't you?"

I wonder if they've clashed horns as well?

But of course the question on everyones' lips is will Adam bring back his signature in giving out the time once each morning with the hour wrong (i.e. saying its a quarter to eight when its really a quarter to seven) - did anyone else ever notice this on JJJ?

aah those commentators

I am expecting numerous precious gems via the commentators for the Winter Olympics as they struggle with their own excitement/boredom to say something... anything.

RE: The skeleton (downhill louge(?) on your stomach facing forwards)

"...it looks harder than it looks.."

so does commentating!

Synapses not quite connecting

In a meeting this morning when someone was asked about future plans they said:

"I wasn't thinking that far apart"

Obviously they weren't using ahead - either theirs, or anyone elses.

Triple mixed metaphor!

Julia was in such a hurry to get the words out that she mixed three metaphors in one sentence!

"... I just didn't want to rock the egg cart."

To give her some credit, she immediately recognised the mistake and suggested I blog it! Could this be a record? I might contact Guinness and find out.

Excessive adjective use - its just not cricket

Last night during the ABC's cricket coverage, Kerrie O'Keefe (is he a better commentator than he was a cricketer?) said:

"Sri Lanka may be chasing a total in excess of over 300 here."

Imagine if Australia had got closer to 400 - Sri Lanka may have been chasing a total in well excess of greater than past and more than over 300.

the regal interim, and a new cult?

The man responsible for security at the Sydney Olympic Games and the Paralympics declared

"in the inter-regium between the Olympic and the Paralympic games the redeclaration of the holy war by some terrorist groups caused some problems. But in the end Olympi-ism won the day."

Or maybe it was just securi-ism, a recent international trend that's catching on like a Bush fire.

It's all internal anyway

yeah, ebay again...

Looking for the perfect dress for that occasion that has co-insided with your pregnancy?

I'm not sure who is supposed to be wearing the dress, you or the baby, mabybe both of you simultaneously?

Well it's theoretically if not grammatically possible.

sparkles, bad spelling, sparkles, bad spelling...

Seriously, I don't mind a typo or two but Ebay makes me cringe sometimes which I suppose is the snobb(!) in me...

Beautiful Green sequence and lace top

and No clever dix, there wasn't a pattern of green shading, followed by lace, followed by green ...

Its basic, its practical

"Its basical"

Or so said our new (Dutch) MD at a meeting today.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the MD of a large company that depends on intellectual property rights, copyright and patent protection spoke about his $10 Chinese Rolex? I don't know if it was a basical Rolex though...

Not one of mine...

Sorry not mine, stolen from the SMH care of a more avid sports fan than I :

Commentator getting clever with metaphors described Ian Thorpe at the end of a race as "dismounting from the pool".

aah.. no actually.

sorry meester fawlty

Looking for a post-able pres for Brother Gaz:

Getting Handsome – A Makeover Manuel for Men

I really hope he won't like it.

who's the free-est of them all?

I have a kindred spirit out there! I mustn't be the only one to get funny looks from the Toby's Estate crew. From the adbusters email digest today:

does anybody else stumble, saying 'free' where they mean 'fair' trade?
As in, "we bought some free trade coffee last week.
Damn, I mean..."
I seem to do it ALL the time.
Fortunately no capitalists have been in the room to pick me up on it,yet.

If a tree falls in a forest and you've seen it happen, is it still a language funny?

An innovative innovation

In an email my boss received this morning, a service was described as being:

"...a new innovation..."

As opposed to a new, novel, modern, forward-stepping, imaginative, advanced, innovative innovation perhaps?

testing the wind

hiya all.

as a new invitee (courtesy of paula) allow me to present some humble offerings from a rather large report by a very hardworking colleague...

"UNDP and DMWG organized a bribing meeting on 3rd October to share the report, ongoing activities and mechanism for coordination of ongoing activities."

"...poverty irradiation through microfinance ..."

and in the annual review of emergency relief activities:
"... a joint assessment of draughts in two provinces..."

from a completely different source (a different continent in fact) I could also mention a recent joint effort by contributors to this very blog in the vicinity of some well-decanted wine. something about about how people in glass ceilings shouldn't throw stones?

Sick people are waiting

An email from our warehouse this morning, advising they were now right to start receiving goods again after getting a touch too full:

"You may now continuing with receipts. Thank you for
your patients in this matter."

Hmm, I thought that working for a pharma company we made the drugs, not the people who take them?

sieve for meaning

For those of you who fondly remember the 15th August, 2005 entry, you'll be glad to hear that the phrase featured is gaining momentum.

I was at the World Famous Queenscliff Boxing class last night and our favourite swinger (you choose how many senses of the word) came out with:

...for all intensive purposes...

I can assure you it was a very rigorous workout.