Obiter dicta by Professor Gavin Brown AO

Alarms and Excursions

19 March 1998

It may have been predictable that, in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day, I would have come face to face with Murphy’s Law. On the only evening in the last ten when it was possible to eat at home, all the house alarms activated during dinner and refused to be shut off. Cowering in the garden with fingers in one’s ears, etymological meditation seemed the only hope of cure.

My fancy has always been that ‘alarm’ comes from the flapping of wings of the Roman watch geese. Fortunately this ‘erudition’ was never paraded, as my faithful Chambers directs me to the Italian all’arme - call to arms.

The excursion at the beginning of last week was to Geelong for a meeting of the Australian Vice-Chancellors, many of whom seem uncomfortable with their traditional title. I am tempted to donate a prize for the best opening gambit at these plenary sessions. On this occasion that would have been the colleague who began a speech by explaining that “I have yet to formulate my opinion on this issue,” but stiff competition was provided by the president (not the President) who tackled one matter in the morning by insisting that it is “vitally important that the AVCC takes action in this case,” and pursued another question in the afternoon by advising that it is “vitally important that the AVCC takes no action in this case”.

For me the highlight was the location, the magnificently developed wool-store which is now a stunningly effective campus of Deakin University.

Back in Sydney I attended two noteworthy events. The first of these was the Cricket Dinner of the Decade at which Rod McGeoch was guest speaker, a pair of Shane Warne’s trousers was auctioned and an Irish comedian delivered a monologue. Importantly the evening celebrated a year of success for our cricket club which a year ago had been threatened with banishment from A-grade.

On Saturday evening the Brandenburg Orchestra presented Derek Lee Ragin in concert at the Great Hall. Unusually for a counter-tenor accompanied by baroque instruments, the occasion was saluted by a racing tipster on 2KY radio - “This is a voice to bring joy to your soul while Jimmy Barnes would make your heart bleed.”

It was a superb performance with a capacity audience and the first program of the season of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra at the University of Sydney. The two organisations have forged an alliance and we look forward to further creative developments of mutual benefit.

This week would have finished on an even higher note if a filly named for Christopher Skase had won in Melbourne - but Bunglung ran second.