"I've seen his doodles, Jocelyn"

Congratulations to Geoffrey McSkimming, a colleague from my "Scan" days - he is still one of the assistant editors on "School Magazine" - and the prolific author of the "Cairo Jim & Jocelyn Osgood" novels for young readers. A copy of "Xylophones Above Zarundi: A Chaotic Tale of Melody", was used tonight on ABC-TV's Spicks and Specks music-themed gameshow!

Jazz musician Paul Grabowsky had to sing extracts from "Xylophones Above Zarundi" to the tunes of three different songs, one of which included the marvelously typical McSkimming quote, "I have seen his doodles, Jocelyn".

Somehow, during the ensuing hilarity, several people misheard Paul sing the line as "I've seen his doodles jostling", which only made it all the funnier when they misquoted it in their own jokes. Twice.

Thanks to Geoffrey, I once featured in one of his "School Magazine" plays ("Touchdown", Vol 87, No 10, Nov 2002, pp 341-346). The character of "Ian, the lost librarian", a Tarzan memorabilia fanatic (instead of "Star Trek", of course), appears in "Mr A at the Floor of Heaven, or, Not Quite Yeti".

"The misguided librarians are lost in the snow,
Dewey's their system, but snowy they go..."

Ian wears a spotted loincloth over his snow-pants, of course. He was joined by my real life workmates, Anne (aka "Mrs Dowling"), Wendy and Deirdre.


Art by Tohby Riddle

But I digress. It was such fun hearing Cairo Jim get some TV attention. "Spicks and Specks" continues to be a highlight on my TV viewing week.

Captain's Log: Supplemental. Ah, I see that Geoffrey was watching tonight. He made his own blog entry on the topic as the show ended!

Writers blogging

I just discovered that a writer/reviewer/editor friend, Judith Ridge, who works on the editorial staff of the long-running "School Magazine" (NSW Department of Education & Training), has a very slick and erudite webblog, The New Misrule Blog. Judith focuses on children's literature, of course, and her blog was recently reviewed in the latest issue of the professional journal, "Scan", my own old editorial stamping ground. A "Scan" reviewing colleague, Carol Thomas, praised Judith's work in the review, suggesting ways teachers might use it for both information, and as a weblog model of excellence. Carol also provided some pithy comments on blogging and the Internet in general; I absolutely love Carol's incisive observation that "the electronic world is choked with egocentric ramblings".

Egocentric ramblings? Mmmmm, sounds a lot like my blog?!

If you follow the link above to Judith's site, you'll see she links to blogs from other colleagues and contacts from my days at State Office, including former editor of "School Magazine", Jonathan Shaw, and the zany novelist, poet, globetrotter and film buff, Geoffrey McSkimming, creator of Cairo Jim!