Each year on the Roman calendar there are four holidays of pain and torment - Xmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and my birthday. When we add the anniversary of mother's death in January, and Jewish Tisha B'Av in July, we see that pain and torment is never far from me. Aside from July, September is one of the worst months of the year. Two such holidays of pain falling during that month. In Australia Fathers Day falls the 1st Sunday of September.

It is said that Mothers Day and Fathers Day are Hallmark holidays in reference to the largest greetings card company on the planet. While in Kansas City I did actually visit the headquarters of Hallmark and it is immediately obvious that it is a company that is doing very well for themselves thankyou very much!! Even if the rest of America goes bankrupt Hallmark will not, there will always be a market for greeting cards. And for as far back as I can remember near to every card I have ever received carried the familiar "Hallmark" logo on the back. These days there are a few more card companies represented at newsagencies nevertheless Hallmark remains the overwhelming majority.

So the story goes like this in America..... starting in Spring we first have Halloween, or it could even be argued that due to the large Jewish population we have Rosh HaShanah in September. Then we have Thanksgiving in November, Xmas, then Easter. So from perhaps September, at least October through to April the following year Hallmark enjoys a profitable period. But since there were no holidays between April and September/October this leaves a period of 4 to 5 months of low sales. How to counter this. Some bright spark at the company hatched a brilliant idea, let's invent some holidays!! And since 99% of us have or had a mother and a father, a day in honor of each seems a perfect solution. Hence we have Mothers Day in May and Fathers Day in June. Here in Australia we didn't celebrate Halloween (until recently), there's not enough Jews around to register any significant sales in September, and we obviously don't have Thanksgiving Day. This leaves a longer period of low card sales, hence Fathers Day being shifted to September to help during the extended quiet period. So don't believe Google when it comes up with a certain woman called Sonora as being credited with originating the idea of Father's Day early in the 20th century, it is just a story to justify a purely commercial decision. Nevertheless after two to three decades of living a lie I now at least have a real Father to honor on Father's Day. However nothing can make up for the pain of those decades. Pain of the soul never goes away, it stays with you forever, haunting you for as long as you have breath.

Now the football and nearly everyone is picking the Weevils against the Magpies!! But this is the west coast and they are all biased anyway, they always pick the Weevils. I refuse to tip them, I am going for the Magpies. There are only two rounds left and there is no prospect of me winning any prizes, so logic goes out the window. It looks like the Weevils will win but it will be an utter catastrophe if they do so. Therefore its Magpies all the way for me!!