WE'VE been messing about with that idea from Canberra this week that there should not be boys’ toys and girls’ toys departments, just one non-gender section.
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If that’s so, we should scrap menswear shops, women’s shops.
Sussan would have to be something like Smith.
Bras and Things would have to be Just Undies. (Certainly not Jocks in case if offended people from Scotland.)
Jacqui E would be just E.
Portmans would need to be Portpersons.
And just don’t mention Dick Smith!
Request fulfilled
Talking about this the other day, it seemed most people (being reasonable sensible) thought the better option was to allow kids to be what they wanted to be and play with what they wanted to play with, not what others might demand.
It raised an almost forgotten memory that in the DTM household, the littlest daughter, around age eight, asked Santa for a geologist’s hammer.
To everyone’s surprise, she got it. Nearly two decades later, she still has it.
Payback arrives
We think DTM needs a bigger circle of friends. The existing ones constantly do weird things and get written about, and they’re starting to get edgy.
But some are just natural column fodder. Such as Rob (whose name regular readers recall might or might not be Rosaia). Last year Rob made a breakthrough discovery: he should never take up bee-keeping after accidentally killing off about 3000 bees.
He turned up at a meeting this week looking like Tony Mokbel after a rough night in Barwon Prison. One eye was swollen shut and the colour of a stormy sky.
What happened?
“Killed another bee,” he said drily. Yep, a solitary bee had carried out a kamikaze mission on Rob’s face, showing that you just don’t mess with Mother Nature.
It's raining thoughts
There’s an over-abundance of Political Correctness in the air right now.
There’s the above issue of gender-specific toys, and further news that a publisher of famous children books is re-doing the series, adjusting it for things such as Postman Pat, who should become Postal Delivery Consultant Pat . (The name’s OK as it could be male or female.)
But the oddest one we came across yesterday was the British local government body which banned the term “brain-storming” and replaced it with “thought-showers.”
The council felt it was upsetting to epileptics.
Don't use the 'E' word
And a school in Seattle banned its community from using the term “Easter eggs” on both religious and natural history grounds. They were re-named Spring Spheres.
Not a new phenomenon
If you’re gob-smacked by the vandalism of public Christmas decorations this year – and who wouldn’t be – at least you’re not on your own, not for a very long time.
The former Melbourne Argus newspaper reported similar upset and cross words from the police about young vandals ripping up Christmas trees across Bendigo … in 1933.
Rather optimistically, the Argus reported that a combined City/Police campaign had ended the rampage.
If you’ve got a quirky, funny or bizarre story to share, email us at addynews@fairfaxmedia.co.au
