From Annying to Not Annoying

What's Annoying Me Today:
The lawsuit Emma Husar vs Buzzfeed, currently being heard in the Federal Court of Australia. If you haven't heard, it's a defamation case, and Ms Husar, a Labor MP, is suing the online publication for reports made about her behaviour, which is alleged to have been of a lewd nature. The publication is pushing the Truth is Defence line for their article. My question is this: why should someone's libidinous inclinations or sex life be considered something worthy of shaming and criticism, and why should a person be considered defamed because they have libidinous feelings and a sex life? When I checked my work roster today, the date said 22 February, 2019, so going off that I draw the conclusion we're no longer in the 1950s. But some people seem to think a woman should have a cloth, whereon a big scarlet capital letter has been stencilled, pinned to her chest if she so much as THINKS about raising her skirts and dropping her drawers. You know what? I don't give a shit if Emma Husar, who is the member for Lindsay, has banged another consenting adult. I care that she, and any other person in this situation, is denounced for partaking in what is, after all, a perfect legal activity.

What Has Not Annoyed Me Today:
The news that Michael Murphy, one of five men convicted of the vicious, foul gangrape and murder of Anita Cobby in 1986, died overnight from liver cancer. The quote: 'I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure' (apocryphally, but incorrectly, attributed to Mark Twain) really struck a chord with me today. If there is an afterlife, I have no doubt this beast is being issued his pitchfork for furnace shift in Hell as I type.

What Has Saddened Me Today:
Peter Tork of The Monkees died. It's like some macabre yin/yang thing: Michael Murphy dies, and so does Peter Tork. I will admit I don't know what Peter Tork was like personally, but I'm sure he was a better scrap of humanity than Michael Murphy. At least Peter Tork helped contribute to some good in the world. I know some of you don't take the music of The Monkees all that seriously, given their prefabricated origins, but the songs were fun pop. It seemed bizarre to hear Tork was seventy-seven years of age; I tend to think of that geeky-looking bloke with the bowl haircut playing keyboards in the Daydream Believer film clip.

What Has Neither Annoyed Nor Saddened Me Today:
Today I purchased a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald. A few times a week, I purchase the actual paper because I enjoy the cryptic crossword. The puzzle set in the Friday edition is always a true brain teaser, and I haven't attempted it yet (I will when I finish typing this post). As I got out my wallet, I remembered I had a Powerball ticket from last week tucked away in there. I had thought about throwing it away; there was no major winner from the Upper Hunter Valley announced, so what was the point? Anyway, I handed it to the newsagent, and said, 'Any good news for me?' She did whatever it is newsagents do with lottery tickets (I don't know if they're scanned on the machine, or what), and said, 'Yes. $73.00. Want me to just subtract the cost of the paper from that?' Every now and then, things aren't all that bad.

Time for my cup of tea, and a go at Friday's cryptic crossword.