farmdoc's blog post number 254

My first date with Sweetheart Vivienne was in August 1961, when I was 14-years-old and she 13. We saw the Pirates of Penzance at Melbourne High School. In that operetta Gilbert & Sullivan portray the police as buffoons. How perspicacious of G&S. I’ve previously written of my aversion to authority figures generally and police in particular. Our society rates police highly – they’re ranked number 10 on the Reader’s Digest’s ‘Australia’s Most Trusted Professions 2008’ survey. Not me. I don’t reckon they’re called ‘plod’ for nothing. Though I concede exceptions probably exist (including of course my dear friend Maya in Ottawa), in general they’re not society’s brightest sparks. And apparently this holds true not only in Australia but elsewhere. For example they clearly have a penchant for shooting dead men: in 2001 in Britain, in 2003 in Queensland, in 2005 in Britain, in 2007 in Hong Kong and Spain, and in 2008 in China, Queensland, China (again), Florida, Sri Lanka and Singapore. I can’t tell you why they keep doing it. You’d think, wouldn’t you, that shooting dead men is a waste of bullets. After all, you can’t be more dead than dead. But judging by this list, the frequency’s increasing, with 2008 being a particularly bad year for it. My advice is: if you’re dead, don’t go to Britain, China or Queensland. And if you’re alive, the Pirates of Penzance is a great show.