Keep digging

Written By: - Date published: 2:31 pm, August 17th, 2009 - 23 comments
Categories: humour - Tags:

Just noticed the interview with Garrett in the Sunday-Star Times:

shovelspade“Garrett, who “wore overalls and not a suit” while working as a roughneck on oil rigs as a young man, makes no apologies for being a politician that calls a spade “a bloody shovel”.”

A spade isn’t a shovel. A spade is made for digging. A shovel is made for moving loose material. A real working man would know that. Plonker.

23 comments on “Keep digging ”

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  1. Ianmac 1
    17 August 2009 at 2:39 pm

    Shades of that National exMP chap from Tauranga? Except his was a ballsy hammer.

  2. So Bored 2
    17 August 2009 at 2:39 pm

    Ask him to take his pick.

  3. sweetd 3
    17 August 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Zetetic, let it go. Objecting to everything the govt may say is clearly not helping labour win the hearts and minds of the populus.

    • Armchair Critic 3.1
      17 August 2009 at 4:13 pm

      Agreed, Garrett seems to be doing a good enough job of digging his own political grave, without anyone else’s help. It makes no difference whether he is using a spade or a shovel.

    • Pete 3.2
      17 August 2009 at 4:15 pm

      Populus is a genus of 2535 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood.

      Word.

      • sweetd 3.2.1
        17 August 2009 at 4:32 pm

        Pete, I did not know that definition. Google is a many splendid thing. I was just going for the Latin word for people.

        Also a video game as well.

  4. Rex Widerstrom 4
    17 August 2009 at 4:19 pm

    First of all I was going to post a comment along the lines of “why are you focused on this trivia Zetetic, there must be plenty of meat in that interview to get your teeth into?!”.

    Then I read the article.

    “Puff piece” hardly does it justice. If it were a sycophantic hagiography it would at least be serving some purpose. Instead it is a waste of newsprint, ink, electrons and… in the final analysis… neurons.

    Thank various dieties that I can wander down to the deli (dairy) and buy the Weekend Australian.

    • Adolf Fiinkensein 4.1
      17 August 2009 at 6:05 pm

      Rex, come now, old chap. Don’t you mean a waste of morons?

    • Mac1 4.2
      17 August 2009 at 6:37 pm

      Rex, serendipitous misspelling. If you go to a dairy thanking the dieties and buy the Weekend Australian, that indeed would be non-fattening. Certainly, not much meat there.
      Adolf, you raise the whole subject of collective nouns with your ‘waste of morons’, which I quite like (oops, sorry, you don’t like collectives, do you?) How about a noodle of neurons, or a dingbat of wingnuts?

      • Pascal's bookie 4.2.1
        17 August 2009 at 6:44 pm

        Ms bookie came up with ‘A frustration of fuckwits’ on a road trip once; which works quite nicely I think.

      • Rex Widerstrom 4.2.2
        17 August 2009 at 7:23 pm

        Bah, bother! Well spotted Mac1… though if KRudd doesn’t do something to kick-start the economy beyond doling out $900 to bogans to spend on neon under-cabin lights for their “sick rides”, the daily rag may become not just a food staple but also end up doubling as bedding :-/ Still, I have half a bottle of HP sauce left, so can’t complain…

    • BLiP 4.3
      17 August 2009 at 7:16 pm

      Absolutely agree with you – what was the point of the article if not to slobber all over the Alf Garnett of the Beehive? I note that the article was written by someone Armstrong – no relative to John, is he?

  5. vto 5
    17 August 2009 at 4:21 pm

    for once zet I agree 100%. It made me laugh that statement – he is a sitter for some cartoonist as he sums himself up perfectly… picture it…

    When he needs a spade he says “wheres that bloody shovel?”, and then tootles off and picks up a shovel. He then proceeds to use a shovel for a job that needs a spade thereby making an absolute mess of things and doing all sorts of unnecessary damage, followed shortly after by loud rantings at the frustration of it all, whereupon he looks up to find everyone else looking at him in bemusement.. and he wonders why..

    • Swampy 5.1
      22 August 2009 at 6:26 pm

      You guys really love the sound of your own voices, don’t you? What a pathetic excuse of a thread this is.

  6. The Voice of Reason 6
    17 August 2009 at 5:35 pm

    Jeez, never thought i’d be backing Garrett in anything, but the phrase “call a spade a bloody shovel’ has been around for yonks and usually in a less polite version. I’d certainly believe he would have heard it on the rigs and probably in parliament too.

    However, right call on plonker.

  7. lprent 7
    17 August 2009 at 6:36 pm

    My god. Adolf made a funny. I was so astonished I let out out into the world

  8. Doug 8
    17 August 2009 at 7:18 pm

    Dover Samuels knows the difference?

    A spade isn’t a shovel. A spade is made for digging. A shovel is made for moving loose material. A real working man would know that.

  9. Murray 9
    17 August 2009 at 7:36 pm

    The more vulgar “call a spade a fucking shovel” means to state one’s opinion with brutal honesty, sparing nobody’s feelings, and without any regard whatsoever to the consequences. A real working man would know this

  10. Brett Dale 10
    17 August 2009 at 7:56 pm

    Well that was a weird post.

  11. felix 11
    17 August 2009 at 8:02 pm

    Interesting parallel:

    The eccentric right-wing British Tory politician Sir Gerald Nabarro was fond of emphasizing his direct ‘man of the people’ image by saying ‘I call a spade a shovel’. In fact, despite being from an immigrant family himself, Nabarro loudly supported the repatriation of Caribbean immigrants to the UK. How he referred in private to the people who would have undoubtedly have been called ‘spades’ in Nabarro’s social circle isn’t recorded.

    As that other cockhole named David might say, “indeed”.

  12. QoT 12
    17 August 2009 at 8:43 pm

    After thirty seconds of this, Goodmountain came back and stood foursquare in front of the Patrician, with his thumbs in his belt.
    ‘I speak as I find, me,’ he said. ‘Always have done, always will-‘
    ‘And what is you call a spade?’ said Lord Vetinari.
    ‘What? Never use spades,’ said the glowering dwarf,’ farmers use spades. But I call a shovel a shovel.’

    Terry Pratchett, The Truth

  13. Tigger 13
    17 August 2009 at 9:50 pm

    “Garrett, who “wore overalls and not a suit’ while working as a roughneck on oil rigs…”

    So other roughnecks wore suits while working?

    And if Garrett is so good at calling things as they are (or should be seen which I suspect is the message here) then I have a long list of words that he should call himself…none of which I will print here because they may be defamatory…or rhyme with bunt.

  14. millsy 14
    18 August 2009 at 9:26 am

    Garrett is just a buffoon. Im not worried about him. There are people way more nastier than him.