The race that stops the nation raised its annual equine head for 2021 this week with the Melbourne Cup diverting the country’s attentions away from its business and other non-horsey activities and instead placing hopeful bets on hopeful horses and then down tools when the big race hits the big TV screens.
But in a rare difference between Melbourne and the rest of the nation, the good burghers of the Victorian capital seem to have invented a new privilege, unavailable in other places around the nation.
According to Victoria Police, traffic officers were out in numbers in the days leading up to the big race, making sure the State’s long locked-down motorists remember the rules of the road even though they haven’t been driving to them for months.
But what caught PS-sssst’s eye is the new holiday-first the race apparently brings with it and which can only make the rest of Australia envious.
According to the Victorian police they are to: “Patrol Victoria’s major roads and highways across the Melbourne Cup weekend as travel restrictions continue to ease.”
Bearing in mind the race that stops the nation stops it on a Tuesday, creating the police’s ‘Melbourne Cup weekend’ spans a four-day holiday when the rest of the nation’s special weekend events fold up after three.
Discrimination? Other than Easter, how about a few more 4-day weekends to balance the out-of Melbourne holiday books?
PS-sssst! would be unlikely to bet on it!
Young and old in WA
A special mention of Mishkaa G of Western Australia’s Department of Justice now for picking up something the decrepit old eyes of PS-sssst! missed.
Reporting under the headline ‘Justice Department in market for young officers’, PS News explained how the Department was on the lookout for new staff members to help young people find their way around the justice system when caught up in the law.
“I would like to express our appreciation for the feature of our Youth Justice Officers recruitment campaign,” a very polite Mishkaa wrote politely. “It’s a great article!”
BUT: “I wonder if the heading meant to say Youth Officers?”
Yep, there’s an obvious difference between ‘young officers’ and ‘youth officers’ and the far-from-youth PS News picked the wrong one!
“While we welcome applications from younger people, we are looking at employing people of any age as long as they have suitable skills” Mishkaa explained gently.
PS-sssst! wonders if it’s not time to launch a new ‘youthless’ service to come up with skills for the chronically ageing!
Thanks for the correction Mishkaa, a Popular PS-sssst! Pack of Paraphernalia is on its way as a token of our embarrassment!
The grating of greater
To NSW now where the geographical title ‘Greater Sydney’ has been in the news recently with COVID lock-downs imposed in ‘Greater Sydney’ and the hospitals also in ‘Greater Sydney” now beginning to take on elective surgery after a year-long suspension.
While PS-sssst! is marginally familiar with the City of Sydney, it is intrigued to learn there is a ‘Greater Sydney’ although the identity of the less-great city it is greater than has yet to be disclosed.
Any thoughts?
Ordinary great (as opposed to greater) prizes for the most interesting explanations!
Book winners win books
Meanwhile at the winning circle we know as Rama’s weekly giveaway, two lucky readers face the chance to take home a copy each of Glen James’s money management masterpiece Sort Your Money Out & Get Invested where they will learn all the secrets of developing a money mindset and solving financial problems.
To be one of the lucky winners all we had to do was read Rama’s review of the book and then answer the question: ‘What was it set out to do?’
The answer is that ‘will give us the tools to win in all areas of our finances’, and the first two correct readers who managed to emerge first from the PS News Barrel of Booty were Janelle R from the Federal Department of Home Affairs and Karlena L from the Australian Taxation Office.
Congratulations to Janelle and Karlena and thanks to everyone who took part. The books will be on their way to their new homes very soon.
In the meantime, for yet more chances to reach the Rama riches simply read her reviews of the Book Brave: Courageously Live Your Truth at this PS News link and/or its colleague the DVD Senior Moment at this link and give your good luck the fresh air of enrolling in the giveaway.
Follow the instructions and your entry could be among the winners too.
Good luck to everyone who gives it a go!
Readership rises again
And finally, another month another surge of new readers for PS News with five (not one, two, three or four) but five States breaking through their biggest numbers of subscribers to break even those records at a time most newsy organisations like PS News are frantically pedalling backwards.
Big congratulations go out to the APS, NSW, Victorian, WA and Queensland public services for striding over old records and helping take Australia’s national total to a delightfully new 173,570 subscribers lining up to dive into their weekly PS News.
And just so we know who’s who, APS can now boast 60,854 signed up readers, Victoria 22,341, NSW 22,061, Western Australia 17,263 and Queensland 14,688.
And, as we say at the end of every month, if you keep reading PS News, we’ll keep writing it out.
Till next week…..
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