Yesterday it was 44.2 degrees in Sydney, the second-hottest day in recorded history. Today it's in the low twenties, very dark outside, and drizzling. No real complaints about that, they've had some hideous bushfires near Gosford over the past couple of days, but there's a Test match due to start at the SCG in a couple of hours.
The webcam at the SCG doesn't appear to be operating at the moment. I'll be blogging about the Test this week as time permits. Feel free to comment.
Happy new year.
I've done a three-part obit on Kerry Packer on my cricket blog. Go here, here and here.
There's been a lot of inaccurate twaddle written in the overseas media about the late Kerry Packer over the past week. I could get nasty and single out some exceedingly bad pieces of near-fiction that I have seen in some of the Indian newspapers, but I would have expected better of CricInfo than to describe him as "one-day cricket's inventor".
"There is a problem with gambling in this country, but the problem doesn’t lie with people who can afford to gamble and afford to lose."
- John Howard, talking to 3AW's Neil Mitchell about Kerry Packer after he reportedly lost $32 million in a night at the casino, 1.9.00
If Kerry Packer had not organised a breakaway cricket tournament, someone else would have. Not as well, and probably not for another ten or twenty years.
"I've been to the other side son, and there's f#$king nothing there."
- Kerry Packer, on his heart attack in 1990, during which he was clinically dead.
Kerry Packer, who died on Monday night, was one of the most remarkable characters of modern-day Australia. His career, his lifestyle, his personality made for a capitalist's wet dream. But he wasn't so much a captain of industry as he was the overlord of a feudal empire.
Kerry O'Keeffe used to call him the "Oswald" in the Australian one-day team alongside (Shane) Lee and (Ian) Harvey. But Andrew "Roy" Symonds has suddenly decided to snap into gear as a wannabe born-again dreadlocked Andrew "Fred" Flintoff. Or maybe, even more ambitiously, a Jacques "Jacques" Kallis with personality.
"The fence prevented tourists from walking into town on the biblical-era route likely used by Jesus and Mary. Instead, they were forced to enter through an Israeli checkpoint. Shops, restaurants and businesses that once thrived remained shuttered, split off from the rest of the town by the barrier."
- 30,000 pilgrims flock back to Bethlehem for Christmas, Ha'aretz, 25.12.05
Coverage of some of this year's celebrations of the birth of Christ:
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like eskimos"
- from The Christmas Song, Mel Torme and Bob Wells, 1944
There are three things about Christmas that irritate me:
One, of course, is the obscene commercial exploitation as we indulge in the December 25 orgy of Xboxes, bad ties, and "The 30 Greatest Beer-Drinking Songs on CD, Volume 9".
A Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the birth of Jesus today. To everyone, I wish peace, happiness and harmony for the festive season and beyond.
And to the Australian and South African teams, don't work too hard in the MCG nets today :-)
