The Bassett family site
Maxwell Edgar Fatchen, AM (3 August 1920 – 14 October 2012) was an Australian children’s writer and journalist and a cousin; see https://www.bassetts.com.au/tree/index.php?route=%2Ftree%2Ftree%2Fbassett-sandry%2Findividual%2FX8271%2FMaxwell-Edgar-Fatchen
INCOMPLETE An insidious pest is creeping into our house and taking it over. It has been there under everybody’s nose while we have been worrying about other things. It is a simple affair and its very simplicity makes it seemingly innocuous. I refer to the dry-cleaner’s delight, the wire coathanger. Once we had a household …
MAX FATCHEN’S FINAL VIEW NOT QUITE THE END This is my last regular verse for The Advertiser. So rip off a bundle of tissues and join our play at that moody manor to our north. The scene is a garden shed where the old jester is putting away his cap and bells under the scrutiny …
People who play video games to unwind may be better off watching a horror film on television instead, say research scientists of Birmingham University. I couldn’t agree more. The terrible tempers, tantrums and twitchings of young people playing video games have indeed made me turn with a screech of relief to the friendly devilry in …
My country cousins, who are fairly expert at turning a furrow, are now learning to turn a phrase. They are on the editorial committee of the local history book which the. district is producing as its Jubilee 150 project. It’s one of a number of books that are being enthusiastically compiled and launched around the …
Continue reading “Experts at turning a furrow now learn to turn a phrase”
It is a beautiful transformation; a scenery of greenery. I am speaking of the office plants, those succulent and sappy soothers of our dizzy day. There have been varying methods of keeping workers happy. Piped music which helps you to face the other kind. Lunchtime jogging to calcify your calves. At one stage we went …
British bed manufacturers say that a sagging, flagging mattress could be the answer to marital problems. A new one could be like a “second honeymoon.” Only this morning my wife complained about a great lump on the mattress. It took her and the rest of the family to remove me. Yet the mattress problem is …
I’ve just read about a study of the effectiveness of music in public places and the way it aims to fill in the empty noise spaces. I must here say that every noise space in our house is filled and that I’ll have to put you on the waiting list. I’ll go further and say …
I’m always worried by people who are slaves to road maps; who go directly from A to B without the slightest diversion. I’m a misreader of maps, a wanderer down tracks and along quiet roads and I appear suddenly in people’s drives and farmers private lanes, stuttering my apologies as people race to lock up …
Continue reading “Don’t shoot me, I’m only the poor driver..”
A computer will be able to diagnose our medical condition by using a single hair, so I read. This has rather upset me. I enjoy the interrogation and examination at the doctor’s; the reporting to the nice, understanding receptionist who listens to my symptoms, how it came on me suddenly and I’m not sure where …
An Anglican vicar in NSW has a work-related repetitive strain Injury In his feet which, it is believed, comes from kneeling while conducting church services. The thought will then arise afresh That we are only bone and flesh. That, working on salvation’s fringe, Our conscience often gives a hinge. Thus faith must learn to take …