MORE bacon?!!

Everyone knows (though they might like to tell themselves otherwise) that junk-food is bad for us. Of course the massive rise in obesity in Australia and around the world has meant that fast-food restaurants have had to change their tactics somewhat. For example McDonald's has healthy choice options and Subway of course is touted to be the "healthy" fast-food *couph couph*.

You can even find inspiring images like this on the McDonald's website;


But what I really love is that whilst all the other fast-foodies are rushing to become the healthiest and the leanest and the most fat-free - good old KFC is just adding more bacon. The latest treats from KFC include a "pocket" that has a piece of chicken, a hash brown, some bacon, maybe some cheese, perhaps some whipped cream ... - I digress.

Basically, I think it's honourable (-as honourable as a mass corporation that has no social concience can get) that they aren't even bothering with the healthy option. They should just have an ad where a fat man or woman stops hoovering from that famous bucket for one moment to tell the viewer "Hey - I really like KFC - and so do you - because it tastes shit-loads better than a piece of lettuce".

* And no, the irony of having changed their name from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC because they didn't want the word "fried" in the name is not lost on me ... but it does make me hungry.

CHANNEL NINE movers and shakers

Word has it that Tracy Grimshaw will be moving on up to the channel 9 elite club that is 60 Minutes after her supposed 'hard hitting' interview with Matthew Johns. I found it interesting that Nicole Brady in the Green Guide today lauded Grimshaw and suggested that she single-handedly gave the channel 9 news and current affairs division "a much needed shot in the arm".

She may have asked the 'tough' questions with Johns but as an interviewer Grimshaw's holier-than-though attitude and botox-affected emotionless face make it very difficult for her to be taken seriously in any circumstance.

And really, isn't the sign of a good interview ultimately getting the interviewee to reveal something unexpected of themselves? John's performance last week could be likened to the infamous Wayne Carey interview on Denton - in that both Johns and Carey said nothing more than what their advisors had recommended they say and displayed just the right amount of crocodile tears and 'respectful regret'.

Also, Karl Stephanovic, after his hung-over antics on Today, will supposedly be hosting A Current Affair. Rather than injuring his career the boozy post-logies rants have given him a leg-up.

The Herald Sun website suggests that Nine execs aren't happy with the imbalance of power due to Lisa Wilkinson being the dominant character of the two - god forbid that a woman have the spotlight on a supposed-news program! They are pitting Karl against Today Tonight host Matthew White (the Herald Sun called it "Bloke on Bloke" but I doubt that would get clearance for 7pm).

So poor Lisa is looking to get a 'serious older man' as her co-host ... how old's Eddie McGuire these days?

SBS TWO: coming soon

SBS will launch its second channel SBS TWO on June 1st.

The new channel will feature more world cinema and drama, doco's, news and sport and is said to have a clearer image with most programming in widescreen format. You'll need a digital set-top box or in-built tuner to receive the new channel as with all of the digital channels.

SBS TWO's main draw-card for cycling fanatics (of which there are surprisingly many) is that it will be showing the entire Tour de France 2009 - live - every single stage.

Scarygirl Game

Australian, Nathan Jurevicius is an amazing artist, illustrator, toy designer and storyteller, who created "Scarygirl" - the cute but slightly deformed little girl who was abandoned one night and found by a friendly octopus and guided by a mystic rabbit.

Nathan's designer vinyl toys are much sought after and his artworks are becoming more and more exclusive.

The Age's Green Guide supplement last week reminded me about the scarygirl website and the game that I have been anticipating for a while now!

Needless to say - it's amazing - the artwork alone is worth a look-in. I've been playing it for ages now!!

Here's the link - but don't get started if you only mean to play for a short time!

Sex and Football

The Matthew Johns story last week was bigger than the Budget when it came to headline news. A story of an event that happened 7 years ago was again thrust into the spotlight after the anonymous woman involved in a group-sex incident with Matthew Johns and other NRL players appeared on the ABC's Four Corners in a story about sex and sport - link to the website here.

Tracy Grimshaw then interviewed Matthew Johns and his wife Trish on A Current Affair which you can see here. (Beware: Tracy does her usual useless job of being a 'hard hitting journo' and has so much botox in her face that it's difficult for her to react with human facial expressions).

SO - since the story broke a former colleague of the woman involved has appeared in the news saying that the girl was bragging about the group sex the next day and has basically said that she was a 'slut' anyway and just wants attention.

As of today the "Support Matthew Johns" facebook group has around 150,000 members and a lot of the comments are saying things like "she was a willing participant" and "she was bragging about it" - so seemingly the word of a former-colleague was happily accepted above the girls version of the event.

And so what? So what if the girl told her workmates what happened? So what if the girl agreed to have sex with a few NRL players? Does that mean that the footballers involved are innocent and they are morally absolved?

Is a 19 year old girl mature enough to get herself out of a situation that's gone too far? I understand that some women are willing participants in group-sex activities but there are different kinds of group-sex - there is one kind that involves mutual respect and participation on all parts and there is another kind that we hear about in relation to football "end of year trips" where a team groupie is basically treated like an animal and 'run-through' by all the boys in the team.

Is Matthew Johns a hero for cheating on his wife? Seemingly if she is stupid enough to forgive him so then should his fans.

Let's talk about the sex industry. I don't care what anyone says about glass ceilings or about women's rights there is NO equality between men and women on this earth as long as women can be bought and sold as a commodity. Which sex do you see half-naked on late night TV selling phone-porn? Which sex do you see on the billboards advertising 'mens lunch special' at the Men's Gallery? Women in our society are a product - and they might not even have to be bought with cash - maybe it's jewelry or a promise of stardom - maybe it's the wonderful pleasure of being able to say they had sex with Matthew Johns *insert sarcasm here*.

Supposedly there are prostitutes who 'enjoy' their work, but when you look at the psychological make-up of these women they are using sex the same way a lot of teenage girls use sex - to get attention/affection from another member of the human race. Some of them are using it as self-punishment. Someone said to me that some prostitutes find it 'empowering' - well if that's the only way they can have power over a man I feel really sorry for them - us intelligent women just start an argument and win it *wink*.

Many representatives of the NRL have used the 'boys will be boys' defense - in that men will have sex with a women if given the chance - supposedly it's in their genetic make up. I'm sorry, but any man who walks into a room where 10 or 11 other men are lining up to have sex with a young girl and decides that he too will line up is not a man - he is an animal. I don't care if the girl is supposedly a 'willing participant' - lining up to have sex with a girl who has just had sex with 10 other men is wrong. It is treating that woman like a piece of trash. It is taking any human aspect of that woman away and degrading her.

And how about the fact that men should be able to have self-control? Or have football players been knocked in the head so many times that they have an excuse for not evolving? The men at my work were making jokes about the "she wanted it" factor the day after the Tracy Grimshaw interview. Very evolved.

Unfortunately there are women out there who want to have sex with footballers and who have no self-respect and who ultimately make life difficult for the rest of womankind who just want to lead our lives without being called "sweetie" by bus drivers or leered at by old men at the supermarket. Unfortunately because those women are happy to be treated like pieces of meat a lot of men assume ALL women can be treated this way (-except for your mums, daughters and sisters of course).

The problem, ultimately, is that most people are stupid. Men are stupid for thinking women can be treated like shit. Women are stupid for letting men treat them like shit. Unfortunately, the stupid outweigh the intelligent and the majority rules.

* I'm going to stop there because if I continue I won't be able to stop. There is no resolution to this issue.

That's when good Neighbours ...

Alright, alright so Neighbours is going to show a cheeky pash between two girls - here's what the neighbours.com.au site had to say;

In an episode to be shown later this month on Australian television, Donna Freedman (Margot Robbie) and new character Sunny Lee (Hany Lee Choi) will share an "impulse kiss" after a love letter scandal.

In 2004, the show attracted the criticism of conservative groups after showing a kiss between schoolgirls Lana Crawford (Bridget Neval) and Sky Mangel (Stephanie McIntosh).

The thing is, the media is saying Neighbours is 'copying' Home and Away, but that's not likely considering Neighbours film up to six months in advance of air dates. It's more likely that Neighbours writers are trying to reflect gen-y popular culture at the moment - which is full of tweeny Lindsay Lohans and Katy Perrys trying a lil' girl on girl action to spark their careers.

Meanwhile, both shows have featured lesbian kisses in the past with the same 'outraged' reaction so it's really nothing new. More interesting is the fact that there was talk at the start of the year that one of the young male characters in Neighbours was going to "struggle with his sexuality" - until the writers/producers decided that it was too 'risque' for the family timeslot and scrapped it. How unfortunate - a male teen struggling with his sexuality might have actually reflected reality.

Oh well, I'm waiting for the day one of the soaps casts a disabled, Aboriginal homosexual with an adopted Lithuanian child and a transgendered, Jewish, refugee partner.

I might be waiting a while.

Burke's Back ... yard.

Don Burke will be back on the small screen with a segment on A Current Affair. Who can forget his impeccable fashion and that catchy theme tune?



I'm not sure what's more brilliant in that clip - Don's jumpers or the announcement of what's on TV later that night.

Interestingly, Don reckons that channel 9 has always wanted him back on air ... so why has he not been back on air?

Burke's Backyard ran from 1987 to 2004 on channel 9.