Territory and Municipal Services' main media man Geoff Virtue went above and beyond the call of duty at the launch for the Nightrider late-night bus service in Civic yesterday.
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WIN Television sent only a cameraman for the story with the reporter, who was elsewhere, asking questions of the interviewees over a mobile phone. The interviewee would listen to the question over the phone, then put the phone down, look into the camera and answer the question. And who was holding the microphone? None other than Geoff, channelling his best George Negus.
And just for the record, all he did was hold the microphone - he didn't ask the questions. But he did have the nodding reporter bit down pat!
'Dude, what's the joke?'
DESPITE the consternation caused by the lowering of Lake Burley Griffin to allow work to be done on Scrivener Dam, the rowers at least are still keeping a sense of humour.
Yes, they are upset about having to walk through the now exposed broken glass and fish hooks to get their boats on the water, but they did manage to put this pretty funny headline on their press release yesterday: ''Dude, where's our lake?''
But that wasn't the funniest press release that crossed our desks yesterday - that honour was taken out by the office of Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. Though addressing the very serious issue of gay marriage within the ACT, the alert prompted quite a few chuckles after reporters noticed the misspelling of her local colleague's name, the poor ''Shayne'' Rattenbury. Sadly, they did manage to get Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's name right.
What's in Tony's name
BUT if you want to be wrong - very, very wrong - with Abbott's name, why not visit http://www.buy.xxx/? The site allows buyers to purchase domain names with the new ''adults only'' xxx suffix. Fans of the Opposition Leader still have a chance to buy www.tonyabbott.xxx but www.juliagillard.xxx has already been snapped up. The team at Today had far too much fun searching the site for local identities - apparently www.canberratimes.xxx is already taken, but www.jonstanhope.xxx is still available ...
Gotta love this one
OF course, it's more than just smut online - there is also a lot of love, so much so that one web developer has decided to track it. ES Corporation recently launched ''Love Counter'', a website which collects the word love on Twitter. Only four days after the December 1 opening of the site, it had already collected 500,000 ''loves'' across seven languages - ai (Japanese), love (English), amour (French), liebe (German), amore (Italian), amor (Spanish) and sarang (Korean). It's enough to make even the most cynical blogger all warm and fuzzy.
A bit down in the face
UNFORTUNATELY, we haven't been so loving with our Facebook accounts. The top 10 Facebook posts of the year list is almost devoid of the sentiment, the closest coming in at No6 with the Royal Wedding. The top trend list was far more interested in the gory side of 2011, with the death of Osama Bin Laden garnering the top position as the most posted about subject of the year. On May 1, almost 10 per cent of all status updates in English mentioned news of his death. The macabre trend continued with two additional famous deaths - Steve Jobs and Amy Winehouse at No5 and No7 respectively - as well as the not guilty verdict of murder accused Casey Anthony at No3. Video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 made an appearance at No8, with the more active sport of Superbowl placing second. Thankfully, some news managed to scrape into the list with military operations in Libya and Hurricane Irene placing nine and 10. Of course, we shouldn't feel too proud of our intellect online - Charlie Sheen ranked No4.
Good news for Perrin
AND finally, let's finish the week on some good news. Monday's edition brought the story of Perrin Tucker, the disabled 21-year-old who was left with no means of communicating after thieves stole thousands of dollars worth of equipment last month. Her mother Katrina contacted the Today team yesterday with news that two local community groups had stepped forward to cover the costs of the missing devices, including the essential text-to-speech Lightwriter. ''Perrin's Lightwriter has not turned up yet, but we are now in a position to buy a new one,'' she said. ''I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Canberra community very much indeed for their past and recent support and sympathy.''
