Obiter dicta by Professor Gavin Brown AO

True Believer

1 April 2000

Outside the strict confines of one’s academic discipline it is possible to be a little cavalier. In particular when one comes upon an arresting explanation or a notable fragment of information it can be profitable to believe it without going through the tedious process if independent verification. In that spirit let me announce that Cinderella won her prince by easing her foot into shaped animal skin.

Somewhere I once read that the old French for ‘fur’ was mistranscribed as ‘verre’ and the legend of the glass slipper was born. If only I had publicised this sooner, John Singleton might have been persuaded to don lion-pelt bootees at the weekend when his filly Belle du Jour won the Golden Slipper.

If only…! Just over a month ago, at our Olympians’ dinner in the Great Hall, Bob Hawke told me about his 70th birthday last December and how Singo had come up with an original present - a quarter share in the horse. From the moment the ex-P.M. steered me in its direction, the animal kept winning races, and, of course, I found some ingenious way to avoid backing it. Perversely I insisted upon rigorous independent verification of his optimistic advice. Indeed it would be possible to create a modest company rendering to owners the service of betting against their pets in order to ensure their success. Connoisseurs of footy tipping contests will be aware that I could extend the business into that sport also.

Our rugby team had a good excuse on Saturday with five players engaged in Super 12 and the captain gaining fitness in reserve grade. The resulting 40-10 win over Randwick at Coogee Oval must surely be a good omen for the season - but who am I to make predictions?

I have just come back from another event in the Great Hall, a celebration of 125 entrance scholarship winners attended by the successful students, their parents, school principals and scholarship sponsors. It is a feature of our scholarship program that the major awards demand more than mere UAI (the HSC mark scheduled by the combined universities’ scaling procedure) success. We look for evidence leadership and of wider participation in school activities.

Being an occasion for congratulations and good will, the evening was yet another time for me to suspend analytical appraisal and accept at face value what I was being told. That was encouraging because these high-achieving students had lost none of their enthusiasm over the first weeks of their University of Sydney program. Indeed they were celebrating the wisdom of their choice in coming here.