In praise of Hilary Barry #2

A sequel to a 2011 post. This could become a series.

There has been a brouhaha over the Australian’s obituary for the novelist Colleen McCullough (not online), which began with old-school sexism:

Colleen McCullough, Australia’s best selling author, was a charmer. Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth.

Cue outrage on both social and MSM media. But someone, figuring it is best to fight stupidity with humour, started the hashtag #myozobituary, where people write the opening sentence of their own obit, Australian-style. TV3 newsreader Hilary Barry’s is unbeatable:  

Small of breast and certainly chubby of thigh she was, nevertheless, capable of reading out loud. #myozobituary
— Hilary Barry (@Hilary_Barry) January 30, 2015

On 14 November 2014 the New Zealand Herald ran a story that began:

She might not be Bo Derek but in political terms, John Key rates visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel as high as 10.

Who wrote that sexist sentence? Step forward, Audrey Young, the Herald’s political editor. Oddly, there was no brouhaha about this.

So here is the only song I know of that features the word “brouhaha”: “Elephant Talk” by King Crimson, seen here in 1982. I don’t know which is more surprising: that they performed this live on network television, or that the song was released as a single. Autres temps, les 80s.