God love em… school children gargle to guard themselves against the flu.
It was appended to an announcement of educator and author Stuart Braga’s upcoming Australian National Museum of Education’s annual “Historical Perspectives on Education Lecture” at UC’s Inspire Centre, 5.30pm-7pm, on Friday, May 1.
Titled “Influenza 1919 – How did schools cope with this overwhelming disaster?”, Dr Braga will talk about the year Australia followed in the wake of a worldwide influenza epidemic. In NSW alone almost 40 per cent of Sydney’s total population was laid low with the flu and about 6000 people died from it. And this was before bacterially virulent child-care centres!
RSVPs to ANME@canberra.edu.au will need to be quick.
Curtain down on reviewers
THE “Canberra Times” continues to surrender its local voice to the network joys of Fairfax Sydney and Melbourne. CC hears that the services of local cinema reviewers are about to be terminated and reviews from the “Sydney Morning Herald” and “The Age” will suffice for Canberra. Which leaves “CityNews” with absolutely, inarguably and indubitably the most experienced movie reviewer in Canberra, if not the world! Dougal Macdonald’s latest reviews are published on citynews.com.au every Friday.
Transformative tosh
AN incomprehensible tweet from the overpaid spinners at rail-less Capital Metro: “Today is rail @ruokday! Transform a workmate’s journey by asking #ruok #railruokday2015 @TrackSAFE”
Vale big Victor
CANBERRA’S king of barbecue ribs, Victor Kimble, has died of prostate cancer. The larger-than-life, Alabama-born chef opened his Soul Food Kitchen in Erindale in 2013, serving up southern American dishes. Often, without warning, he would delight diners by marching into his restaurant playing his trombone. The restaurant lives on with Victor’s blessing, repainted and rebranded Rockin’ Ribs, run by former employees Rebecca West and Alissa Whybrow.
Dope through the post
A NICE, little Jiffy bag arrived at CC’s desk purporting to be from the Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury, who has been campaigning over recent months for the introduction of legislatively controlled medical marijuana to help people in terminal or incurable pain.
Labelled “sample for testing and documents”, inside was a sticky, small bottle of what appears to be the stuff, albeit empty.
The giveaway was the two annotated Dilbert cartoons. The point of all this remains a mystery, with the only certainty – it didn’t come from Shane.
Tuggers’ new TAG team
A GINGER group in tram-free and politically unsexy Tuggeranong has been formed with the aim of getting locals “more actively involved in the decisions affecting their community”.
All nicely timed before next year’s Territory election, spokesman Adrian Brown – in calling for volunteers to plan and lead the cause – says TAG will advocate for improvements to services and “ensure that Tuggeranong receives a fair go in decisions affecting the area”.
Brown says TAG is looking forward to working with other local groups, including the Tuggeranong Community Council, though CC fears the Gungahlin horse has already long bolted.
Volunteer TAGGers can line up at tuggactiongroup@gmail.com or call 0418 295698.
Saved by a welcome mat?
COLUMNIST Catherine Carter has been “waxing eloquent regarding the poor appearance of Civic, of which I totally agree,” writes “CityNews” Mr Gardens, Cedric Bryant, who thinks the answer might be in Bendigo.
He sent CC the illustration above and explains: “Bendigo is a real tourist city and goes to great lengths to promote this by making visitors feel welcome.
“Nearly every business in the city has these signs in their entrances. Perhaps an idea to promote here?”
The post Canberra Confidential / Don’t panic, just gargle! appeared first on Canberra CityNews.