Shaggy Dog Comments...

Young fans of Sydney teenager Casey Donovan, who won Australian Idol on Sunday night, had a rude shock the following day when they tried to look up their hero on the internet. Telstra's internet service BigPond was responsible, after placing a congratulatory ad in a Sydney newspaper on Monday morning. It plugged Casey's website, www. caseydonovan.com.au, but left off the .au. Any kiddies typing in the wrong address would have found themselves on a gay porn site for 70s US porn star Casey Donovan, where the man's huge... err... talent was on show for all the world to see. BigPond corporate affairs manager, Craig Middleton, was in full grovel mode, apologising for any embarrassment or offence after "being alerted to the error", as the organisation did its best to try and steer kids away from something that most grownups don't want to see.

Our Euphemism of the Week award goes to NSW Justice Minister John Hatzistergos, whose don't-mention-the-war press release spent two pages extolling the virtues of a "facility" at Tabulam. The headline called it a "new facility" and then it was either called a "property" or "facility" half a dozen times. What he meant was we're building a prison farm for 50 young convicted crims.

After the Aussies thrashed the Kiwis in the first cricket test, the main controversy from the game was the issue of batsmen walking when they think they're out, rather than waiting for the umpire to raise his finger. Lismore's Adam Gilchrist has been central to the drama as someone who does 'walk'. It reminded The Echo's Julian Ryan how far Australian cricket has come - he recalls the days when Ian Chappell was the Australian captain and a young batsmen (we think it was Doug Walters, but let us know if you recall) did a Gilly and walked. On his way back to the pavilion, a furious Chappelli screamed "are you out of petrol?!" The batsmen looked puzzled and once inside, the captain repeated his question. The reply was 'no'. "Well that's the only f*&#ing time we walk in this team," Chappell said.

Keep an eye out for Shaggy's master on the news this Friday night. He's in Sydney, joining celebrity chefs Gabriel Gate, Darren Simpson and Lyndey Milan as they try to cook the world's biggest risotto in a Guinness Book of Records world record attempt. Editor Simon Thomsen is part of a team fundraising for international aid organisation Care Australia and will be cooking more than six tonnes of risotto in a 10x3 metre pan at Circular Quay. The recipe calls for 2 tonnes of Australian rice, 4500 litres of stock, 800kg of peas, 240kg of onion, 160kg of celery, 320kg of butter, 30kg of parmesan and 20kg of garlic. Around midday, he'll be feeding thousands of people lunch.

Remember the cheese sandwich that looks like the Virgin Mary, mentioned in Shaggy last week? It eventually sold on eBay for $36,000. An online casino bought it.

shaggy@echonews.com

The road to happiness

According to Lismore's Lloyd Newton, who celebrated his 60th anniversary with his wife Daphne recently, marriage is a bit like owning a small business - the more you work at it, the better is gets.

The couple were married in Lismore on Armistice Day in 1944 at the Uniting Church, and while Lloyd says it hasn't always been easy, he wouldn't have any other woman by his side.

"With marriage, it's a pretty rough track when you start off, but you finish off on bitumen and it's smooth going from there," said Lloyd. "The last 26 years since I retired have been the best of our lives - we've been free to do the things we've always wanted and spend time together. We are so lucky to have found each other."

Lloyd may not be the type to recite poetry, but when asked why he loved his wife, his simple response said it all.

"She's Daphne, she's my girl."

Spread some joy

Robert McLennan Real Estate is helping the Salvation Army help others this Christmas by providing a drop off point for non-perishable food items and toys, which will be made into hampers for local families.

Staff members Lynda Atkinson (left) and Kahla Jensen have set up a Christmas tree in the office, where people can leave toys or tinned and packaged foods. People donating toys are asked to wrap and tag their gift with the appropriate age and sex of the child, so it can be distributed easily.

"This is a great appeal because it helps people in the local community - people we walk past every single day and might not know are struggling," Lynda said.

The Salvation Army will collect the gifts on December 15, although people can still drop in donations after that date.