Sunday, March 6, 2016

STEEDMAN VISITOR REVIVES MEMORIES OF PHANTOM PIDDLER

Scholarly  discussions  often  take  place , always sober, fair and balanced , with  Pete Steedman , of  Melbourne , especially when  discussing   Gerard Henderson  of  the  Sydney Institute  and  others  of   his persuasion.
 

The same cannot be said   for  a  recent  exchange on the ABC Insiders  between Henderson  and  mild mannered  journalist  and  author , David Marr, centre ,  who told  Gerard , left , appearing  about to   deliver a  judo /mutton chop,  what he was  saying  was  bullshit , the  kind  of  language you do not expect to hear on the national  broadcaster, no words at all going out  over the airwaves if    goosesteppers  in  the Coalition  and rabid supporters  have their  way.
 
We have  digressed from the main theme . Information  came  through that Steedman had  received a visit from a Kiwi who had been an Auckland  University activist back in the l960s, who had  admired and  copied Pete's fearless  editing  of  Melbourne  uni  publications  around  the  same period.
 
Showing this  blogger still has some of his marbles, he recalled that when he worked  on  the Sunday News  in  Auckland, back in the 1960s , under the one legged  editor , John Canning , there was a    fiend  called the Phantom  Piddler , possibly a university student,  who  left  his painted  name  and splash pattern  on  construction sites .
 
Could this Kiwi visitor have been the infamous,  annoying Phantom Piddler  who dodged about Auckland in his younger days , hunted   like the Scarlet Pimpernel , never  apprehended ?  This implausible  theory will almost certainly  not hold water  on investigation , but why ruin  a good story with  the  facts?
 
Angry  members of  the constabulary indicated that if they got hold of  the Phantom  Piddler  he  would no longer be able to  pass  water and might sing  like  Hinemoa  with  a weta in  her throat . His artwork came to a sudden halt and it was  suggested  by  a  frustrated bounty hunter  that  he  had  pissed off  overseas .