Monthly Archives: February 2022

PUNE During the winter of 2005, when the Grape Growers Association held its annual general meeting at Gultekdi in Pune, none in the media had expected that they will get a big story out of the event. The National Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar was delivering the speech, and by five minutes he was to finish it, not much had transpired.

Finally, before he concluded the speech, Pawar said if the grape growers have to raise their income, they should grow the variety that can be sent to wineries. His next comment: And the wine made of it should be allowed to be sold in grocery shop Let wine flow like cola. When the news appeared in media, it stirred up a storm as opposition including Shiv Sena, which was then the main position party with Ramdas Kadam being the leader of the opposition, launched a caustic attack against Pawar and his party. It was a different matter that Kadam owned a bar at Kandivali in Mumbai, and, after latest government decision, allegations are made by BJPs Kirit Somaiya that the new policy will benefit Shiv Sena leaders like Sanjay Raut as his family has stakes in the wine business owned by prominent industrialist. Raut has refuted the charges though.

More than 15 years later when the state government has allowed the wine to be sold in supermarkets and walk-in stores across Maharashtra, we know that its seeds were sown in 2005.

These shops, once the new policy is implemented, will be able to sell wine at a flat annual licensing fee of 5,000. The decision has predictably invited criticism from opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has called the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) governments move to turn Maharashtra into a liquor capital.

Whether one supports the government decision or not, wine has always been close to those in power. Its formal introduction into government policy was made 21 years ago when the Congress-NCP government was then headed by Vilasrao Deshmukh who introduced the Maharashtra State Grape Processing Policy 2001. Wary of being politically incorrect, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government at that time avoided using wine into its title and instead restricted it to grapes, which the farmers related with more.

The policy was introduced to give a fillip to the nascent industry growing around the Pune-Nashik belt. The policy offered a tax holiday for the wine produced in Maharashtra for two decades that ended this month. It also offered a slew of other concessions to the wine sector, including no stamp duty and registration and land at concessional rates. While the policy helped wine production in Maharashtra from 712 kL in 2002-03 to over 20 million litres in 2008-09, with the number of wineries jumping to over 75 in the same period.

Those were the heydays of wine production in Maharashtra as many among those connected to political leaders saw wine as a vehicle to add value to their crop. After all, the reasoning went that wine grapes fetched only 25 a kilogram, while wine was selling for 300 per bottle, and if there was no excise duty involved, one would be able to make a tidy profit.

If Vijay Mallyas father Vittal Mallya collaborated with Dr Rossi to start producing Cinzano vermouths at Baramati, his son as the chairman of UB Group, too saw the same logic when he strived to launch wine tourism in Baramati, Pawars pocket borough, through Four Season winery in 2007-08. The winery had a 51 per cent stake of United Spirits and 49 per cent of local grape growers backed by Pawar.

In neighbouring Akluj village in Solapur district, the two Mohite-Patil brothers NCP leader Vijaysinh Mohite Patils sons Ranjitsinh and Arjunsinh who are currently with BJP - joined hands with Delhis Sekhri brothers and an Italian family to produce Fratelli. But it was Sham Chougule of Indage who pioneered the first genuine wine and set up a winery at Narayangaon although Sula wine from Nashik became the countrys top brand as the founder Rajeev Samant understood the Indian market better.

However, the falling demand due to global recession and higher taxes in key markets played havoc in 2009-10 and 2010-11 as it led to a glut in the wine market, eventually resulting in Maharashtras big bang wine story going sour. The market flooded with an oversupply of wine amid demand not picking up forced many wineries to stop producing wine in 2009-10. Another reason that adversely affected the market was farmers were encouraged to cultivate wine grapes like table grapes which increased their yield. However, wine requires the opposite approach, with relentless pruning and discarding of grapes to focus only on the best. Most of the vineyards ended up producing poor wine, which would have no chance in the export market and even falls short in the developing domestic.

Today, if the country has over 110 wineries, around 75 of them are in Maharashtra although only 40 to 45 are operational currently. Of these, just around 15 to 20 units are into direct marketing, while the rest are involved in contract manufacturing.

If the MVA wants to promote wine to help grape cultivators, the BJP too has its share in it even as it is opposing the latest decision currently.

In a bid to promote wines made in the 40-odd vineyards and wineries in Nashik district in north Maharashtra, the Maharashtra government, then headed by Devendra Fadnavis, had organised its first wine festival India Grape Harvest, Wine Festival during February 2018. The festival, aimed at promoting agro and wine tourism, was an initiative of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), a government subsidiary that works for tourism development in the state.

Despite all promotional measures, wine consumption in the state during the financial year for 2020-21 was just around 70 lakh litres. The beer consumption on the other hand stood at 30 crore litres, country liquor 32 crore litres and Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) at 20 crore litres. The wineries hope that with the government allowing the sale of wine at departmental stores, its consumption will increase.

Yogesh Joshi is Assistant Editor at Hindustan Times. He covers politics, security, development and human rights from Western Maharashtra....view detail

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Monday Musings: The politics of wine in Maharashtra - Hindustan Times

Murtagh is the only person to have been charged in WA with publication of material to incite racial hatred, which carries a five-year maximum jail term.

He also is the first to test Australias powers to police racist social media posts.

Jason Murtagh, now clean-shaven, outside court. Credit:Aja Styles

WA introduced racial vilification laws, under which Mr Murtagh was charged, in 2004.

While other states have comparable laws, WA is the only state to detail conduct likely to incite racial animosity or racist harassment which in this case was the publication of online material.

New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania have recorded no convictions for inciting racial hatred, so far, with two cases currently before NSW courts. Queensland legislation that covers racial vilification is currently being examined by a Parliamentary inquiry.

The Australian National University College of Law senior lecturer Dr Faith Gordon said cyber-racism was incredibly difficult to prosecute but had become more prevalent with the rise of social media.

More people are looking into its effects and how it relates to the law because right now it is challenging to advocate on behalf of victims when the perpetrators are anonymous online, she said.

It is extremely difficult to provide victims with adequate redress after the damage is already done.

Murtagh was found guilty, with the court accepting he didnt have to be racist or intend to racially vilify to have committed a crime that was utterly deplorable. But he did not have to serve jail time.

In light of the unusualness of the case and Murtagh not being in the league of an entrenched Nazi sympathiser or white supremacist, with no prior record of such behaviour, Fremantle Magistrate Adam Hills-Wright last Monday deemed a $4000 fine appropriate.

Jason Murtagh said he created the Gab profile as research for a novel. Credit:Gab

After losing his job, the 51-year-old bar manager admitted to spending COVID-19 lockdown in early 2020 posing online as a white supremacist.

He created Woden the Bogan, a man of a similar age to himself but an ex-con, living rurally, who had supposedly served in the military and married three times, with five sons and two daughters.

However, Murtagh told his arresting officers that he was gay and he created the Woden profile to do research for a fantasy novel or game about an extremist father who goes on a journey of redemption upon discovering his son is homosexual.

Murtaghs defence lawyer Ken Robson told the court that while ill-advised, his clients posts were designed to engage with and get into the minds of racists for a genuine artistic purpose.

There is a loophole in the law regarding artistic purposes.

Senior Constable Day said Murtaghs writings after posting on Gab were bizarre.

For 17 years Murtagh worked at the Fly By Night, but his indecision over his lifes direction after failing to complete a fine arts degree at university, a spiralling prescription drug addiction and alcoholism meant his shifts dwindled.

Mr Murtaghs online persona posted to Gab.Credit:Gab

He told the court late last year that he felt incredibly stupid and ashamed over the racist social media posts but denied he was a racist.

To my shame I became fascinated by the amount of followers it accrued, he said.

Murtagh also described being brought up with appreciation for other cultures.

His 43-year-old sister, Niomi Rebecca Hunt, said he got along with the Indigenous boys she dated from the age of 14 to 17.

Jasons definitely not a racist, she said.

Ms Hunt admitted she hadnt seen her brothers posts but said they didnt change her opinion of her brother.

Witness Kelvin Blundell, whose wife is Filipino, didnt believe his friend of 25 years was racist despite the posts because he was one of the most accepting, non-judgemental and caring people he knew.

Mr Robson said his client wasnt a racist but someone who struggled with opiates and alcohol while living a lonely and solitary existence since losing his job.

Magistrate Hills-Wright said the multitude of references from people who knew Murtagh not to hold racist views made his behaviour all the more curious.

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Mr Hills-Wright noted creative storytelling and not telling the truth as factors to your offending and called Murtagh an unusual accused.

He was also sentenced for making 34 false reports to police about non-existent violent crimes, while drunk, in the years leading up to his online posts.

Murtagh was ordered to undergo alcohol and substance abuse programs, while checking in with police, for two years to avoid his 15-month jail sentence.

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Woden the Bogan tests Australian power to police online racism - WAtoday

Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.

When Ron Watkins announced he was running for Congress in Arizona in the middle of October, he was full of hope and bravado.

I am going to raise at least a million dollars, and Im going to win so that the people have a real voice in Washington, D.C., he told VICE News at the time.

Three months later, however, Watkins campaign appears dead in the water after his first campaign finance report reveals the former administrator of 8kun, the fringe message board where QAnon flourished, has raised just over $30,000 in donations.

Watkins filed his first campaign finance report just before the deadline passed at midnight on Monday, revealing that in the three months to the end of December, he raised just $30,588.22 in small donations from supporters.

His campaign received an additional cash injection of $2,354 in the form of a loan from his father Jim Watkins, who owns 8kun.

Watkins opponents had a substantial fundraising lead on him coming into the final three months of 2021, and that has now increased dramatically. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Tom OHalleran raised over $435,000 in the last quarter of 2021, meaning he has raised $1.8 million to date.

The leading candidate for the GOP nomination is former Navy SEAL Eli Crane, who has raised over $800,000 to date, half of which was raised in the final three months of 2021 alone.

Watkins paltry fundraising efforts show how difficult it will be to translate his QAnon fame into votes. Add the lack of funds to an unorthodox campaigning approach conducted primarily on Telegram, the absence of a much sought-after Trump endorsement, and a campaign manager who sees UFOs wherever he goes, and its clear that Watkins is facing an uphill climb to make any impact on the Congressional race in Arizonas second district.

The campaign

Watkins announced in November 2020, on the day of the presidential election, that he was quitting as administrator of 8kun. Within days he had transformed himself into a self-declared election security expert, and within weeks hed been boosted by right-wing outlets like OAN, to the point where former President Donald Trump was retweeting him.

Over the course of the next year, his star within the election truther movement and the wider MAGA community continued to rise, and he was among the firstand loudestvoices promoting the bogus recount that took place over the course of six months in Maricopa County, Arizona, last year.

Despite the fact the recount showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud, Watkins believed he had established enough of a profile to move to the state in early October and declare his intention to run.

Watkins is also having no luck getting support from the Republican Party. He has so far failed to get Trumps endorsement, and told VICE News that the local GOP party in Arizona didnt respond when he contacted them about this campaign.

Without any network of allies in Arizona, Watkins has tried to drum up interest by staging increasingly unhinged stunts. Last month he traveled to Trumps border wall in the middle of the night, trying to find immigrants crossing the border.

I am out here at Trump's big beautiful wall on the southern border of the United States. I am driving up and down the wall looking to see if there is any human trafficking going on, he said in a video posted to his 400,000 Telegram followers.

A week later, Watkins attended a meeting of the Scottsdale Unified School District board. During his two-minute speech, he was told to stop speaking because he was electioneering, but he persisted, shouting over officials to spread a new conspiracy theory that the board members could be removed simply by serving them with some bogus documents.

Watkins also visited the Trump rally in Florence, Arizona last month, handing out merchandise and glad-handing with the QAnon cult members who believe that John F. Kennedy is about to be resurrected.

Watkins told VICE News that while at the rally he had tried to speak to Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, who has promoted QAnon conspiracies, and who is seeking election in November as secretary of state.

Watkins said that when he met Finchem, the lawmaker wasn't so friendly to me and told Watkins he should step aside because other candidates, like Crane, with whom Finchem has shared a stage at Stop the Steal events, are better suited to the role.

I told him Im running and he, like, said, Why are you running when this other guys better? Watkins told VICE News.

Fundraising

A fundraising haul of just $30,000 wont go very far toward mounting a credible congressional campaign, but Watkins campaign manager Tony Teora told VICE News that the reason for the shortfall is a delay in accepting donations.

We really only started fundraising in Decemberwe had a lot of challenges getting funding solutions online, we built two solutions internally, Teora said, claiming that mainstream platforms had refused to allow Watkins use their services.

Of the $32,000 raised, less than half remains in the coffers after expenses. The vast majority of those expenses are Teoras salary, which amounts to $13,500 over the three-month period.

The one other major expense Watkins incurred was a $1,000 charge for a booth he rented at the conspiracy-laden Health and Freedom conference that took place in Phoenix last month.

When asked about the small sums Watkins campaign had raised so far, Teora was bullish, claiming the QAnon influencer would be able to suddenly and radically increase his fundraising power when neededthough he didnt say how.

We are confident we can mount a credible campaign because all our donors are small donors, the average donation was around I think $53, Teora told VICE News on Tuesday.It shows Ron has real support from working class people (voters), not rich lobbyist donors.

Teora also said he plans on ramping up the fundraising effort. So far, however, theres just a single event on Watkins diary, and its not even taking place in Arizona.

Called Digital Disclosure, the fundraiser is a $750-a-plate event featuring Watkins in conversation with NSA whistleblower Kirk Weibe at the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas, the location of a major QAnon conference last October.

Numbers are limited to 25, but it doesnt appear that the event is sold out, despite it being advertised for almost a month already.

The campaign manager

Watkins brought Teora on as campaign manager soon after announcing his decision to run.

Teora, who lived and worked in Japan for years and is also a science fiction author, does have some election experience: In 2014, and again in 2016, he ran for State Assembly in California. On both occasions he lost, but it was slightly more embarrassing in 2016 as he came in third in what was effectively a two-horse race.

During the 2016 campaign, Teora outed one of his opponents, Leo Hamels, as a Scientologist. As a result Hamels withdrew from the race, but because the ballots had already been printed, Hamels name still appeared and he came in second, with more than twice as many votes as Teora.

Teora first collaborated with Watkins on the latters AlienLeaks project, which was set up as a sort of WikiLeaks for top-secret UFO information.

That project went nowhereeven when Watkins luckily captured a UFO flying over his apartment in Hokkaido, Japan, weeks after the project launchedbut the pair have continued to work together on a podcast, initially called Alien Agenda but now called NerveCenter-Pulse of the Nation.

The podcast began life as a UFO-focused project, but as Watkins campaign for Congress began, it switched to a more all-encompassing space to air grievances and conspiracy theories about pretty much all aspects of U.S. society.

Recent guests have included the conspiracy-peddling doctor Vladimir Zelenko, and director of the Plandemic films, Mikki Willis.

The blurb for the podcast claims Watkins and Teora aren't afraid to ask politically incorrect questions or investigate what the MSM might want to label as conspiracy theories.

One person who has known Teora for years, and who spoke to VICE News on the condition of anonymity because they fear backlash for speaking openly, summed him up like this:

On a personal level, the man is deeply paranoid and a raging narcissist. He sees UFOs everywhere, all the time. He truly believes he has special powers such as telepathy and remote viewing. He has long believed that vaccines cause autism. He's a 911 truther. He sees chem spray every time he looks up at the sky. It was scary being around him at times, given his volatile temper and bizarre beliefs.

In an email statement responding to these allegations about his beliefs, Teora confirmed the claims made by his acquaintance.

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QAnon Thought Leader Ron Watkins Is Running for Congress. Its Going Terribly. - VICE

The American Museum of Natural History, a wonderful institution founded in pursuit of science and truth, has been fulfilling a lifesaving mission for the past nine months, administering COVID-19 vaccines seven days a week. Under the great blue whale, more than 85,000 shots have been given to New Yorkers (including us). President Ellen Futter and Board of Trustees Chairman Lewis Bernard should be proud on behalf of the entire museum.

But Futter and Bernard should be ashamed at the way they exiled a true giant of history, Teddy Roosevelt, with a dead-of-night removal of his equestrian statue to be carted off to the godforsaken North Dakota Badlands for a future TR library that may never materialize.

His sin was to be portrayed in the 1939 bronze work on horseback next to armed native guides of the American West and Africa on foot. If the trio were all mounted or all standing, they would have had no racial hierarchy that the museum found upsetting. Add in a cowardly Bill de Blasio, and one of our greatest New Yorkers has been banished. Hes good enough for Mount Rushmore, but not for Central Park West.

TR was no saint; not even saints are saints. But in 60 years, he was governor, president, Medal of Honor recipient, Nobel Peace Laureate and much more. Now the words of his New York state memorial at the museum Ranchman, Scholar, Explorer, Scientist, Conservationist, Naturalist, Statesman, Author, Historian, Humanitarian, Soldier and Patriot frame an empty plaza.

Meantime, at the top of the structure remain statues of Daniel Boone, John James Audubon, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis, slaveholders among them. They stay and TR gets hauled away? What would be fitting is a new heroic statue to the man in the arena.2022 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Tim Dwyer, Managing Editor Izaskun E. Larraeta, staff writer Erica Moser and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.

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The unceremonious removal of its Theodore Roosevelt statue - theday.com

By the mid-1990s, Al Pacino had completed his transformation from the restrained, internalized young thespian who rocketed to fame in The Godfather to the loud, scenery-chewing showstopper of films like Scent of a Woman and Scarface. So it only made sense for Pacino to eventually portray the most brazen showman of all, the Devil himself, in director Taylor Hackfords film version of Andrew Neidermans 1990 novel.

Pacinos Satan, under the name John Milton (look it up), heads a New York City law firm that specializes in defending distasteful clients. He recruits hotshot Florida attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves, stiff as always) to join the firm, moving Lomax and his wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) to the Big Apple and immediately setting about corrupting Kevins soul.

The idea of a powerful legal firm run by Satan is almost begging for satire, but the film plays it remarkably straight, resulting in a few genuine chills. Even Pacino is relatively laid back until the bonkers third act, which features flames, demons, Theron and Connie Nielsen in the nude, and Pacino bellowing his big monologue like its the last hell ever give. A little long and overripe, The Devils Advocate is nevertheless a fun horror watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

February 1

Donnie Brasco might not be one of the all-time great crime thrillers, but it is one of the most underrated ones. Directed by Mike Newellyes, that Mike Newell from Four Weddings and a FuneralBrasco offers a rollicking account of one of the most extensive FBI undercover operations in its war with the mafia. Johnny Depp plays the man who calls himself Brasco, a streetwise patriot who must live with the fear of being discovered for years, and with the unlikely sense of camaraderie and friendship that can develop between himself and a midlevel guy who never made it far, Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino).

Its a top notch thriller with superb performances in the margins, including from the late great Bruno Kirby.

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Best Movies Coming to Netflix in February 2022 - Den of Geek

Despard, who famously led a disastrous campaign in the Maori Wars, also gave an order that prohibited citizens from walking on any part of the grass-covered area in front of the barracks when listening to the band play. This had been the towns chief entertainment for many years.

The 99th were so annoyed when Despard stopped their grog ration that they forgot their obligations to their Queen and country, by refusing to obey the lawful commands of their Officers, or to perform any further duty, and went on strike.

The barque Tasmania was chartered and 400 men and officers of the 11th Regiment in Hobart embarked for Sydney to disarm the mutineers of the 99th Regiment.

An offshore gale kept the vessel from entering the Harbour for seven days but eventually the 11th Regiment arrived in Sydney on January 8, 1846 and marched four-deep, with fixed bayonets, along George Street with the band playing Paddy Will You Now until they entered the Barrack Square to a hearty welcome and cheers from the 99th Regiment and their families, together with as many citizens as could fit into the barrack grounds.

Thus ended the mutiny of the 99th Regiment. The grog ration was restored and Sydneys citizens were again allowed to walk on the grass in front of Barrack Square, and listen to the band play on Thursday afternoons.

One thing to note here is that the 99th were a British regiment!

Limits on the sale of alcohol created the 6 oclock swill.

One of the most common myths about Australians is that we are great beer drinkers. This is simply not true anymore. Before the advent of refrigeration, rum and other spirits were the popular drinks, along with some styles of beer that are drunk at room temperature, like ale and porter.

After it became possible to refrigerate beer, we became prone to drinking relatively large amounts of cold lager, due to the climate being rather hotter here than in Europe, which is quite understandable.

There was a period when we were quite famous for overindulgence in lager. The soldiers riots that occurred on Valentines Day 1916 in Liverpool and Sydney were the result of trainee soldiers being denied access to alcohol at the overcrowded army training camps in the Liverpool district.

This mutiny was one of the reasons New South Wales adopted the infamous six oclock closing, which led to binge-drinking of cold lager and many social problems. Some other states had similar legislation, and similar social problems such as illegal liquor sales, the development of criminal networks and police corruption.

Today Australia rates a lowly 17th in the list of nations judged on the consumption of beer per head of population. Our figure is 75 litres per head per year, which puts us in the same ballpark as the USA (73 litres) and the UK (70 litres), and way behind European nations like the Czech Republic (189 litres), Austria (108 litres), Romania (100 litres) and Germany (99 litres). In Africa, Namibia (96 litres) beats us hands down, and in Central America we lag a full 3 litres behind Panama (78 litres).

I regret to inform those who take pride in our beer-drinking reputation that we rank higher, 14th place, in the list of wine-drinking nations!

This uniquely Australian term for regurgitation can be easily proven to derive from a hugely popular, long-running series of advertising cartoons that appeared in The Bulletin magazine from 1909 to 1920.

However, before we demystify the weird and wonderful (and magnificently politically incorrect) history of Chunder Loo of Akim Foo and Cobra boot polish, we need to dismiss the far more recent attempt to explain the origin of the term, which is a pathetically obvious furphy.

Barry Humphries as Aunty Edna with Barry Crocker in The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.

Since the 1960s, a story has circulated that chunder is an abbreviated version of an old sailing days warning, watch under, that was yelled by sailors who were about to vomit while working aloft in a sailing ships rigging.

Even at first glance this derivation seems highly unlikely to be valid. Firstly, sailors develop their sea legs relatively quickly and, secondly, they would be unlikely to go aloft feeling obviously nauseous. Then there is the fact that regurgitation usually comes on rather suddenly and the victim is highly unlikely to take the time to shout a warning. Opening the mouth to shout anything would, in all likelihood, precipitate involuntary vomiting.

Although I have no definite proof, I suspect that this story is the work of Barry Humphries who, in the 1960s, invented Bazza McKenzie, a cartoon caricature who represented the ultimate extreme example of the crude Aussie ocker.

The cartoon strip, which was suggested to Humphries by Peter Cook and drawn by Nicholas Garland, began in Private Eye magazine in 1964. It was a highly satirical send-up of the uncultured, sex-starved, boozy Australian expat living in Londons Earls Court.

The character became enormously popular, because the idea appealed on so many levels. British readers loved the put down of the stupid Aussie, while many Aussies enjoyed the satire and laughed affectionately, recognising an exaggerated version of people they knew. In many ways Bazza was an assertion of Aussieness over English pomposity. On a completely different level, many young Aussie males identified with the character as a role model and hero!

Two movies, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, were made and there were popular songs, like Chunder in the Old Pacific Sea.

As part of the satire, Humphries invented colourful, pseudo Aussie colloquialisms, such as point percy at the porcelain for urination; technicolour yawn, rainbow laugh and liquid laugh for vomiting; and supposedly common Aussie curses like May your chooks turn into emus and kick your dunny down.

(I had the opportunity recently to ask Barry Crocker, who played the part of Bazza McKenzie in the movies, whether it was true that, when the film was shown in the USA, there were sub-titles to explain the Aussie jargon, and the phrase above was sub-titled May your fowls turn into large Australian native birds and kick down your outhouse. Barry confirmed that it was the case!)

In one adventure from the comic strip, Bazza vomits from an upper deck of a ship over a woman on the deck below, who is holding a chihuahua. He rushes down to apologise, sees the tiny vomit-drenched dog and exclaims, Struth, I dont remember eatin that!

Along with all the newly invented pseudo Aussie terms, Humphries was also responsible for bringing back into popularity genuine Aussie slang words like chunder and phrases like up shit creek without a paddle.

The obviously phony story of the derivation of chunder has a very Humphries-like flavour.

The real derivation is an even better story.

Samuel Rowe was a successful furniture and textile designer of the Arts and Crafts movement who migrated to Australia in 1899 at the age of 29 and became the founder of what is today the National Art School.

Rowe saw opportunities for expanding the family boot polish business into Australia and set up a factory in 1908 in Sydney, to manufacture their Cobra brand boot polish.

In 1909, the company began an advertising campaign in the hugely popular Bulletin magazine, which involved the artist brothers, Lionel and Norman Lindsay, drawing a full-page cartoon each fortnight, with an accompanying rhyming verse, written by the short-story writer and regular Bulletin contributor Ernest OFerrall.

As bizarre as it may seem, in the heyday of the White Australia policy, the hero of the cartoon series was an Indian who worked shining shoes at Circular Quay. His heroic exploits were all due to his use of Cobra boot polish. The heros name was Chunder Loo of Akim Foo. The name sounded vaguely Indian and amusing, and Akim Foo was actually a failed campaign battle in the Ashanti War.

The Chunder Loo cartoons became phenomenally popular and The Bulletin was the most successful magazine in the land (it was known as The Bushmans Bible). By 1912, the cartoons were appearing weekly.

All bushmen, working men and soldiers knew the cartoons and, somewhere along the way, Chunder Loo became universal Aussie rhyming slang for spew and was used by Australian soldiers in World War I. As is usually the case with such colloquialisms, it was soon shortened to just chunder.

This is an edited extract from Great Furphies of Australian History by Jim Haynes (Allen & Unwin)

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Jim Haynes: Australians are lightweight drinkers and other furphies - The Australian Financial Review