Jetty Road Weekly Blog 11/5/25

The White Potus

The Great Pontificator

The promise of early childhood has blossomed beyond his wildest dreams.

Never one to accept responsibility, Papa Don, a North American of course, was quick to embrace the concept of infallibility or as the MAGA branch of Opus Dei like to call it: fake news. In a church famous for its cathedrals and incredible wealth his dealings in real estate have only added to his eminence. His treatment of women as hand maidens subjected to the superiority of men even more so. His taste in blue suits and orange hair has been roundly criticised but as he says: we are all play acting and wearing fancy dress. His intention to replace the eucharist wafer with a chicken nugget has been warmly greeted in the southern states of the US. He has also warned certain migrants from South America that pet cats cannot be eaten on Fridays. Which leads us to the most profound change of all: how news of the newly elected Pope will be delivered from now on. A practice he has implemented and perfected over many decades. Papa Don contrary to centuries of tradition does not mind which colour smoke you blow up his arse.

Grace

The unexpected, the unanticipated and the most welcome

Image: ABC

It was a gracious speech. We did not know he had it in him. We had heard from first hand sources that he could be funny and warm. That he was human. It is a particular black mark on our politics and the right wing hegemony in particular that under no circumstances are you ever allowed to show it.

AFL can be and is at times a brutal sport. Not a place where you expect to find grace other than acts of sublime athleticism and skill. Here are two of my most memorable.

• The Richmond Cheer Squad 25th August 1996. The Fitzroy Football Club, a club that had existed for 113 years, were playing their last ever home game in Melbourne against the Tigers. The Richmond cheer squad stood up and sang the Fitzroy club song at the end of the game.

• Bob Murphy playing for the Bulldogs at the height of the Adam Goodes, competition wide, booing saga, August 2nd 2015. Goodesy has succumbed to the AFL’s shameless inaction and complicity and is not playing for his club. At another ground on the same weekend Bob Murphy takes the field for the coin toss with a different number on his back: 37 the same number as Adam Goodes.

Image: SBS

Alone

Never has a show been so brilliantly named

All of these contestants are remarkable human beings. They are very capable and skilled survivors but that is not the defining characteristic of this show. The absolute star of the show? The landscape, the country, the unfiltered atmospherics of the mercurial west coast. We love it. The villain?  They are alone – and it eats away at the randomly nourished and the malnourished in equal proportions.

Robbo (not his real name) lived alone in a ramshackle dwelling that I drove past every day for work. I would sometimes see him jogging along the road in old fashioned sand shoes, long trousers and a beanie on his head. Once while driving his car he nearly T boned me at an intersection just before joining the highway. Then one day I drove past and on the side of the road there were boxes and crates. Strange as it may seem but that old ramshackle place, unloved with an old car on blocks, long grass, peeling paint and rotting timber now looked empty. It was then I realised it was no longer a home. That Robbo had passed away. That Robbo had gone.

Song: Requiem for Robbo: https://soundcloud.com/user-929430280/requiem-for-robbo