January 19, 2004

NOMINATE THE ANTI-TREASURES

Imre Salusinszky -- or Imre Salusinsinszky, as he’s referred to by his own newspaper -- proposes a counter to the Australian National Trust’s list of “Living National Treasures”:

Here is your brief: nominate up to 15 Living National Shockers, giving your reasons for each choice. Please note that, although I may quote from your entries in this column, I will not quote any reader by name.

But what, you ask, is a Shocker? I think we instinctively recognise a true Shocker when we see one. The Macquarie defines a shocker as "an unpleasant or disagreeable person".

But it goes deeper than that. The National Trust defines a Living National Treasure as someone who is "valued and precious, attracting warmth". Since much the same is true of a Shocker - especially the precious bit - it is no surprise that there was a significant overlap between the 100 official Treasures and the parallel list of Shockers in 1997.

Imre’s 1997 Shocker collection contained many individuals subsequently mentioned at this site. Send your 2004 Shocker nominations here.

Posted by Tim Blair at January 19, 2004 02:14 AM
Comments

In the US, a SHOCKER is when you're pleasuring a woman with your hand and slip an unexpected finger into another region.

Posted by: aaron at January 19, 2004 at 03:27 AM

You mean her purse?

Posted by: Cheap Bastard at January 19, 2004 at 05:53 AM

Comments disabled on the post below. Hurry up and fix it as I a sage and pithy observation I wish to share with youse.

Posted by: Fidens at January 19, 2004 at 07:37 AM

the real shocker is the prize. a 'book' by greg sheridan? gak!

Posted by: roscoe. at January 19, 2004 at 10:25 AM

Fidens: comments are working just fine on the post, I suggest you try again. (Note: if you use an url with "link dot net" in it, you might get your submission rejected by the anti-spam script I have running. It also rejects "your" and any word with "com" in it, even the word "comment.")

Posted by: Andrea Harris at January 19, 2004 at 11:14 AM

My early list:- Phillip Adams, Margo Kingston, Kylie Moon (Books Not Bombs), Peter Carnley, Bob Brown, Mike Carlton, George Negus, Andrew Denton, Henry Reynolds, Phil Noyce, Toni Collette, Alan Ramsay- I could go on (and often do), but these will do for starters.

Posted by: Habib at January 19, 2004 at 12:21 PM

I thought "Shocker" was an alternate word for the situation which occurs when a finger, thumb or other digit(s) (depending on technique), punching through the toilet paper while wiping one's rear!!

Posted by: James at January 19, 2004 at 01:12 PM

That's the time when Dawn breaks.

Posted by: Habib at January 19, 2004 at 01:29 PM

As long as you don't experience Red DAWN, you are probably OK. ;-)

Posted by: James at January 19, 2004 at 02:13 PM

Phillip Adams, Margo Kingston, Kylie Moon (Books Not Bombs), Peter Carnley, Bob Brown, Mike Carlton, George Negus, Andrew Denton, Henry Reynolds, Phil Noyce, Toni Collette, Alan Ramsay- I could go on (and often do), but these will do for starters.


Habib, add to that:

Robert Manne, Eva Cox, Anne Summers, Bob Ellis, Geoff Clark, Peter Garrett, The letters editor at the SMH, Anyone at the AFI awards, etc

Posted by: nic at January 19, 2004 at 02:47 PM

Don't forget Terry Lane himself.

We've got enough here for a First Eleven of Great Australian Bores, not to mention several Reserve teams as well. I nominate Bob Brown as captain; Terry Lane for orange boy.

Posted by: freddyboy at January 19, 2004 at 04:02 PM