Editor & Sole Correspondent: Marge Holloway
ROLLS HELD AT SIXTEEN — TWO LEFT STANDING, AND THE TOWN IS NOW DOING ARITHMETIC
Sixteen Monday. Sixteen Tuesday. But Tuesday, two rolls came back.
Lorraine Apps counted both mornings, as she has been doing since this became a thing worth counting, and the figure that matters is not the sixteen — it is the two. "Not all sixteen went" is in circulation now among the people who have appointed themselves custodians of this particular data, and they are not wrong. The question they cannot answer, and that this paper cannot answer on their behalf, is whether two left over means something is changing or someone changed their mind.
The festival calculation hangs over this in a way nobody has yet articulated clearly. When the number was fourteen and then became sixteen, the theory was momentum. What two unsold rolls on a Tuesday in October means for a bicentenary in August is not settled. This paper notes the fact and declines to speculate further, on the grounds that speculation is Lorraine's current occupation and she is closer to the evidence.
VENDOR DEADLINE FRIDAY: DEB FORSYTHE IS COUNTING TWO NAMES SHE WILL NOT SAY
The program deadline for the bicentenary festival was confirmed aloud at Tuesday's planning session — vendor names to Deb Forsythe by close of business Friday the ninth. Two signed letters have not been returned. Deb did not name the vendors. "She wouldn't say which two" is the version circulating from at least one person present, and on this occasion the circulating version appears accurate.
It is understood that Deb Forsythe does not ask twice. What she does instead is proceed with whatever information she has by whatever deadline she has set, and the program gets printed with what it contains. Two blank vendor spaces in a bicentenary program are not the end of the world, but they are the kind of thing that outlasts the day.
Bruce Patterson was seen at the south boundary of the festival site during the second half of Saturday's game, phone out, writing something, while Deb stood nearby. "Festival planning during footy" is the mild editorial being applied around the district. This paper applies it too, without the mildness. The game was in hand by then. But still.
KEITH ORCHARD STANDS STILL, SAYS FORTY WORDS, AND THE TOWN RESETS ITS UNIT OF MEASUREMENT
Wednesday training: Keith Orchard stopped pacing for six minutes and watched Steve-o Mitchell run the corridor drill. This was news in itself. Then Saturday happened.
Redgum Hollow defeated Millowrie 11.8 to 8.11. Steve-o kicked three, two before half and one after. Millowrie brought a zone rather than the double-tag the district had begun anticipating, Keith adjusted at the break, and — according to one account from inside the rooms — Steve-o had already read the field before Keith finished the sentence.
After the siren, Keith spoke to Steve-o for forty seconds. Three people were close enough to hear it. "You would have done it anyway" is the version in circulation, though "you'd have read it regardless" has also been reported, and this paper suspects both are true in the way that slightly different sentences about the same thing are both true. What is not disputed is that Keith Orchard spoke for forty seconds to a single player after a final siren, and those who have watched Keith for any length of time will understand why this is the sentence that matters.
Sixty-four through the Royal Hotel Saturday night. Macca underlined it and said nothing, which those who know Macca understand is its own kind of statement. Four home wins now.
RAY CONNELLY: A DIFFERENT ENVELOPE, A DIFFERENT COUNTER, AND A NAME THAT IS NOW IN SMALL CIRCULATION
Ray Connelly was at Lorraine's store Friday afternoon and handed a letter across the counter — not the box, the counter — addressed to Beaumont & Associates, solicitors, Brisbane. Lorraine saw the address. The distinction from last week's box delivery is being noted by at least one person who was present.
This paper does not know what Ray Connelly is arranging with a Brisbane solicitor. Neither does anyone else. Wednesday morning he and Clarrie Burton were on the bench again at ten-forty — second time — and this paper was on the other side of the street and remained there, which one person has apparently seen fit to report. The paper notes this without comment, except to say that the bench is a public bench and the footpath is a public footpath and some information is better gathered at a distance.
A ute was seen at the east gate of the Henderson place Saturday evening, late. Whoever drove past did not stop. "He's put another stake in" is their reading. It may be right.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To Marge and the Gazette —
My wife says I should not write this letter but I am writing it anyway. About the corridor drill. I have watched Steve Mitchell play since he was fourteen years old kicking at the south post with one boot half on. I am not given to predictions. I am saying this once and I am saying it in print: if the selection panel has not yet noticed what Keith noticed standing still for six minutes on Wednesday, the panel is not paying attention. That is all I intend to say.
D. Hartley, Redgum Hollow
Dear Marge —
Regarding the two rolls on Tuesday — I counted them myself before Lorraine got to them and I want the record to show that they were the sesame ones from the back row, which have always moved slower, and this may mean nothing at all about the festival number or about anything else. I am simply providing the detail. You're welcome to print it.
P. Vickers, Redgum Hollow
Marge —
Two vendors who have not signed. A deadline of Friday the ninth. I am not asking who they are. I am asking whether there is anyone in this district who cannot manage a signature and an envelope before close of business on a Friday when the festival is already in the program. The deadline exists because the printer exists. Marge, please print this.
Name withheld, you know why
AROUND THE DISTRICT
— Spring has arrived in the technical sense. The creek has not received the memo.
— The bench on the main street has now been occupied by two different configurations of local significance in as many weeks. Council is believed to be unaware that the bench has become load-bearing in a reputational sense.
— One Millowrie supporter was heard to say, as they left the ground Saturday, that the corridor problem is worse than they thought. This is being savoured.
— Tash Briggs's café opens six days. Monday's rolls are now simply Monday's rolls.
— Clarrie Burton bought tobacco Thursday and was seen reading something in the car before driving away. Nobody asked what. Some information carries more weight when it moves slowly.