Saturday, March 27, 2010

Conversations At The Checkout

I was at the Woolworth's checkout this morning, and somehow the conversation between me and the charming lasses behind the counter ticked over to Malcolm Fraser -- quondam Prime Minister of Australia -- and his best-known quote: "Life wasn't meant to be easy."

Once I mentioned that Fraser was famous for that line, we all started to wonder why he'd said it. Naturally, I decided it must have been a result of the infamous Memphis Trousers Incident.

Well, once you start down a line of speculation like that, it's hard to stop. In short order, we began to discuss what other Australian Prime Ministers might have said, found in the foyer of a seedy hotel in Memphis without either trousers or explanation.

Paul Keating: "When I find the *&@!!$ who @$8@&@ my *&@## trousers I'm %#&$ gonna pretend I'm f^&&#$ Julian O'Neill and his (#@#$ head is one of Schlossie's shoes!"

Kevin Rudd: "Oh no! Someone arrest me before I see my own dick!"

John Howard: "Terrorists threw my trousers overboard!"

Bob Hawke: "Strewth. Wish I could remember the rest of the night. Looks like I had a good time!"

Harold Holt: "No worries. I was just about to take a swim anyway."


....and for the Americans, one of the young ladies offered:

Bill Clinton: "...Monica?"

8 comments:

  1. We have sausage sizzles outside our Woolies. They rule.

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  2. "Life wasn't meant to be easy, my child, but take courage: it can be delightful!"

    George Bernard Shaw, who big Mal was referencing.
    I think he thought we Arsetrailyerns, being a widely read and cultured mob, would get it.


    Quokka

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  3. I always qualify the phrase when it appears with "But it wasn't meant to be Frelling impossible either".

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  4. That's brilliant. As a Souths fan one particularly appreciates the nod to history from PJK...

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  5. I always thought that he had said it to a bunch of newly unemployed loggers up in Ravenshoe but obviously I am wrong.

    Some background here:

    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/01/1093938983711.html

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  6. "Men in trousers of Australia"
    Gough Whitlam

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  7. From the East Side of the Tasman:

    Helen Clark "Well? Do I get the part in the remake of "The Crying Game" or not?"

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