Proverbs Chapter 22 Verse 1

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches"

This bunch are called 'Young Amphibians' which, while it is better than 'The Standard Lamps', still leaves a lot to be desired as the name of a band if you ask me (*). As it happens the younger Miss Epictetus - newly returned from the Australian outback (**) - is currently walking out with the chap singing and I am therefore pretty much the last person on Earth whose advice will be sought. The song is catchy enough though.

* Before anyone bothers to remind me, I fully acknowledge having been in a band called 'Or Is It?' and if you follow the link above you will see that I have previously suggested that it is precisely that fact which makes me such an expert on crap band names.

** Where she learned useful lessons in how to cope without sanitation which have subsequently proved invaluable when passed on to her aged parent.

Pot22pouri

It has been observed that I neglected to give you the benefit of learning my film of the year. Apologies. I am going to plump for 'Django Unchained', not perfect, too long, but containing some excellent performances and some laugh out loud moments.

"Why is I'm scarin' you?"

My occasional correspondent Dunny Highway recently posted an erudite comment on the blog about the value of NCOs to armies. I haven't replied before simply because I know nothing whatsoever about the subject. I did, forty odd years ago, reach the level of my incompetence by becoming a flight sergeant in the Air Training Corps, but believe me there wasn't much competition. I once had a boss who operated a very delegated command and control structure in an environment that, in my opinion, was unsuited to it. When challenged he gave me a load of tosh about the German army in WWI having the best NCOs. I pointed out that a) they lost and b) what we were embarked upon (a multi billion dollar project) seemed to me to have rather more in common with D-Day than a trench raid and NCO quality was quite a way down the list of why that was a success. For the record neither he nor I are there any more and the project has continued to burn money with no concrete results.

The dunny hits the highway