saron

[Dave]

This one appears in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as well as in Webster.  Initially I thought it might be some kind of poison gas like soman (invented by German chemists in the Second World War), but it's considerably more benign.  Quite a melodious word, really...

saron /sɑ:rɒn/ noun. E19.
[ORIGIN Javanese.]

An Indonesian musical instrument, normally having seven bronze bars which are struck with a mallet.

[Binkie]

Now I shall have to spend more time researching musical instruments.....particularly Eastern ones!  Thanks a bunch, Dave. As if I haven't enough to do without you posting tantalizing bits of information. You're only doing it to tease, aren't you? Or is there a deeper, darker motive ? Methinks you're hoping we'll all be distracted from the puzzles, thus allowing you to sneak up the board while we're away. I've got your number, mate!

[Dave]

Verily, I am cut to the quick, Binks.  More like an agonising crawl these days than sneaking anywhere, thank you!

The fact is that I'm doing my usual trick of trying to get on with an overdue poetry assignment that is giving me hell, while slipping back to Chi for light relief far more often I should.  And not doing terribly well at either :-(.

Ironically, we are supposed to be doing more or less comic verse, although it is not a very apt description for the main task of creating four epigrams.  My best effort so far, and it really is not saying much at all, I know, is

On the PM's Harbourside Residence

John Howard's keen to please his spouse;
he clings to power to keep the house!


Desperation time... really need to get it done this afternoon but they don't come when I want them.  Any ideas for topics will be gratefully accepted!

[Binkie]

I rather like that one!  Kevin Rudd should be good for a satirical dig or two, shouldn't he?  As to rhymes....Elmer Fudd is the only thing that springs to mind...........

[Dave]

Kevin Rudd, though Mr Clean,
enjoys the Sydney strip-club scene!

??

[Binkie]

YESSSSSSS !

[Dave]

Trouble is, my American audience won't get it without a bunch of footnotes.  What do you reckon about these, Binkie?  (Am pleased to say that they are starting to come now, although I'm not too sure about the quality...)

On Today's Public Service

Providing fearless, frank advice
is something you should think on twice!


The Redback Spider

A pretty thing, she's quite petite:
don't greet her on the toilet seat.


Tourist Trap

Koalas seem like cuddly creatures,
sharp claws, undocumented features!

[biggerbirdbrain]

Hoy, Dave! An American here .... requesting footnotes ... 

[Alan W]

Getting back to saron: What made you think of poison gases, Dave, was possibly sarin, the nerve gas used in the 1995 terror attack on the Tokyo subway.

Anyhow, the far more pleasant saron qualifies for our list.

[Binkie]

Sorry, Dave. I meant to get back to you about the above, but was somehow waylaid. Like them all.....but I see why Threeb needed footnotes! The accepted truth here in Australia, Threeb, is that the red-backed spider (a striking- looking but nasty, venomous creature) is invariably to be found hiding under the seats of outside toilets or dunnies.
Koalas may look docile and sleepy, but they have extremely sharp claws (how else could they climb trees ?) and are pretty ferocious if you try to handle them in the wild.
There. That's destroyed the succinct and punchy epigrams, hasn't it ?

[Dave]

I'm glad you provided the footnotes for the epigrams, Binks, even though it's rather like trying to explain a joke to the humourless.

An additional note might be in order to clarify the first of my efforts: the Australian Prime Minister normally resides in Canberra while in office, at a nice place called The Lodge, which has been quite good enough for all of them up to the present reptilian incumbent, known in some circles (totally apolitical, of course) as The Turd That Won't Flush.  He chose instead to live in another splendid government property called Kirribilli House in Sydney, in a prime harbourside location, at a very considerable cost to the Australian taxpayer -- and rumour has it that this was at the insistence of his unbelievably boring spouse.

As a former career public servant I am, of course, totally without political bias!

Cheers,

Dave

[technomc]

I think you are telling us all a fib or 2 there Dave....
However, i will give you the benefit of the doubt....just this once..

[biggerbirdbrain]

It sounds like the royal toilet needs a good rootering, Dave! 

Thanks for the background to you, and to Binks, of course! I had a sneaking suspicion about it all, but the clarification was clear as the water in a newly-flushed toilet! 

[technomc]

Unless you have BLULOO in it.....