FROM MY CORNER ... with Ann Brunswick
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before, but the editor of this esteemed journal and I have a fairly strained and uneasy relationship at the best of times. And, no, it’s not because he’s ever made any sexual approaches to me or anything sordid like that – although I suppose the man would only be human if he did.
No, over the years, it’s largely been a jealousy thing on his part for, you see, your favourite newspaper columnist has for many many years now dominated outside communications with this newspaper’s Fortitude Valley headquarters.
Just about every phone call that comes into the editorial suites of this newspaper seeks an audio audience with moi! It’s readers either wanting to give me the legs up, so to speak, on a breaking news story or to fill me in on some hot local gossip that they foolishly think I won’t know about let alone be the subject of. Often it’s simply to thank me for my wise words of wisdom in my columns and that’s understandable enough.
I’ve been in the office on many occasions and when the phone rings, the editor will jump out of his chair and scream: “Someone get that for Christ’s sake; it might be a potential advertiser!”
It never is of course: just one of my countless adorers wanting to have an old-fashioned chinwag.
And the editor’s chagrin about that state of affairs is often made worse by the way I also dominate the mail that comes into the newsroom about 10am daily.
“Someone get that, for Christ’s sake,” the editor always yells as he jumps out of his chair. “It might be last issue’s advertiser paying their bill!”
It never is, of course. There are letters with bills in them – ones to be paid – and then the rest are usually addressed to yours truly. And that really gets up my editor’s nose, I can tell you.
A case in point was just last week, when on one day alone I had two letters lob for me saying how spot on I was with my comments last issue about two issues - Brisbane Airport and the fact that the Bowen Hills railway station needs to be blown up and the whole thing rebuilt to 21st Century standards – or words to that effect.
One of the writers was a good old friend of mine, Graham Larkin, of Greenslopes, who used to work in Rocky’s newsagency in McWhirters and is a serial contestant in our popular “Where am I” competitions. Won it a few times too.
“I read you column every time I read The Independent. You certainly say what you think which I think is very good.
“I recently read your column and I fully agree with your comments about Bowen Hills railway station. It is a disgrace.
“I wrote a letter to the Minister for Transport Mr Scott Emerson on 15 May and as of the above date (29 June) I have not had a reply to the comments I made about Bowen Hills station.
“Keep up the good work.”
Isn’t Graham a dearheart? And spot on, too. About me and my column, and of course, about the station.
Then a few days later I got another letter that was equally scathing about the station, and I’ll leave the writer’s name off this for reasons I’ll explain anon.
“Gidday, Ann,” this person began, rather informally. “Loved your column re. the airport, etc, but was great to see you bag Bowen Hills station.
“I noticed that the old tiles were removed (what was left of them!) and a whitewash or undercoat has been painted over the grouting since your article. Coincidence?”
It turns out this letter writer is an employee of Queensland Rail, so it’s best to preserve his anonymity, me think, seeing he also made some unsavoury comments – “Not pretty! –- about the state of the interior of the meal room at the station.
But should anyone in authority try to track down this straight-shooting and honest employee, here’s a clue: while he’s seen the inside of that staff room at Bowen Hills station – and it sounds like a place you’d not want to eat a meal in – he is not based there.
