>Sometimes the cruel tides of history can be so unkind to our greatest literary heroes. Like you, I had never heard of Rupert “Bluey” McDowell, until, almost like magic, a chance encounter in a dusty old bookstore led to a surprisingly lengthy sexual harassment suit and during one those long appeals, I had to read something. Luckily, a piece of old parchment was steadying a wobbly table in a cafe across the road where I would spend hours being coached by the defense attorney on what to say. I pulled out the parchment, and it just happened to be one of those old maze-hunts from the trays they used to have at Hungry Jack’s. After spending five fruitless hours trying to complete the maze, I happened to look up, just in time to see a prophetic message on a nearby idling bus: “National Nine News : Still the One”. Later that night, as I watched the news, one particular item caught my eye. It seemed that someone had trained a duck to ride a skateboard. Also, some days later, I was Googling the address of a nearby podiatrist and and a typo led me to a page mentioning Bluey McDowell. I got stuck with a whole lot of pop-ups. The rest, as they say, is History!
>I saw Bluey Mcdowell wandering down Boundary St myself today. He had a shopping trolley, an overcoat and, strangely a briefcase. I should have shaken the man’s hand.