Chancellor’s toilet humour | No alcohol, no point? | CBD nuclear happy snaps
This week, InSider finds a uni leader sitting down on the job, a chief wine judge uncorks over “Frankenstein” producers, and a city councillor floats a bold new tourism plan.
Vice Chancellor sits down on the job
In a dynamic demonstration of how to write a gripping opening sentence, UniSA Chancellor John Hill this week gained the undivided attention of staff (and InSider) with this pearler:
You don’t say! Do go on, Chancellor Hill.
Unfortunately, he then explains that the toilet was a space shuttle variety and the photo was taken during a 2015 exhibition in Perth.
Apparently, VC Lloyd “looks ecstatic” in the picture, while staff were assured that “yes, he still has his trousers on”.
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To our disappointment, the Chancellor’s zinger intro was all about telling staff that the photo will be included with others in an online scrapbook of UniSA history as it approaches its merger with the UoA. But after our letdown we can’t say we’re flushed with excitement.
When no low is no go
InSider looks forward to the Royal Adelaide Wine Show each year for the obvious reasons. A show hall filled with wine to sample? Tick. A delicious lunch accompanied by award-winning wines? Tick. The company of winemakers who are letting their hair down after a tough season? Tick. The always delightful and controversial comments by the Chair of Judges PJ Charteris? Tick.
And the outgoing chair didn’t disappoint.
First tackling the overabundance of tannins some winemakers insist on bottling, he begged them to pull back a little so his judges didn’t go home sick each night. But it was for the inclusion of low and no-alcohol wine that PJ let loose on near the end of his review at the lunch last week.
“The judges really struggle with these ‘no low’, low alcohol wines,” he said.
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“In many cases, they are Frankenstein kind of wine. So, wines that have been pulled apart and the producers have tried to push them back together again.
“When you’re judging wine, it’s very hard to judge something that doesn’t look very wine-like. To me, they are beverages as opposed to wine.”
PJ recommended that they be taken out of the show and judged someplace else. He then moved on to his joy of judging fortifieds, which InSider wholeheartedly supports through the InDaily award for the “Best Australian Vintage, Tawny or Ruby in Show” that went to Seppeltsfield’s Para Rare Tawny.
Council’s nuclear tourist attraction
Adelaide City Council discussed Adelaide being a nuclear-free zone at its meeting this week, as the council looked at adopting a nuclear weapons and power policy. Note, this adoption would just reaffirm a previous policy saying as such, which has already been in place for some time.
Councillor Henry Davis then stood up to argue that while the council should not be discussing nuclear issues at all, he had received interesting community feedback.
“Following this policy I’ve had the opportunity to talk to some of my constituents, and many of them do believe that the City of Adelaide should purchase, acquire and store nuclear weapons so that we may better be protected against perhaps any invasion from, even Sydney or Melbourne, or any other capital city,” he said.
“This is a significant loss to the council as a potential tourist attraction. In addition, people may want to take photos with our nuclear weapons, and I just don’t think that the council, if it should ever get involved in this type of policy-making, should come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t acquire nuclear weapons.
“You’ve got to advocate for your community members, and really bring all of their issues to the table, and I wanted to put that to the chamber tonight, that we should actively seek to acquire nuclear weapons, and I just wanted to advocate on behalf of some members of my community.”
Davis was joking, we think (his delivery could really use some work), but he was trying to make the point that by adopting the policy, the Adelaide City Council was labelling itself anti-AUKUS.
Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape said such a policy “does not affect AUKUS”, but he did “welcome Davis’ entry into the stand-up realm”.
