Where There's Smoke, There's Ire

The big rush on work is over for now (it all begins again in a couple of weeks - you have been warned) so normal service has been resumed on the blog, for a while at least.

Got to say it feels strange but not unpleasant to work a nine-to-five shift - even if it is from home - and then clock off for the weekend. Makes a change from the usual 'nibbling' at jobs I do, seven days a week. Big hello to Brooke, meanwhile, who's been holding my hand through various celebrity scandals and who was tempted to check out the Tyranny when she really should have been doing something more exciting.

So anything, really.

Obviously my having been chained to my desk means that there's not a great deal for me to report personally, so here's something that caught my eye in the paper today. One of my many mini-jobs is to scan the local rag and report to my higher-ups in Sydney, in case there's a story they'd like to go national. This one didn't make the cut, but it made me smile, if only for proving that smoking really can damage your health ...

Two very thirsty chaps got into an argument at River Vale's High Road Hotel on Tuesday, with one accusing the other of pinching a cigarette.

The cops were called about 8pm after the drinker who claimed to be the victim of the theft left the hotel and came back looking for the alleged thief, with a chainsaw in his hands - and it was running.

The fag fiend bolted. The tired and emotional chainsaw operator was charged with disorderly conduct.

The West Australian, 16/03

Please direct all jokes along the lines of 'What a tool!' or indeed anything to do with chain smoking to anyone other than me.