Tin rattlers dig deep
For those who like their fundraising to come with targets, a little bit of perceived hardship and teaspoon of humiliation, there are a growing number of options that do not require a week's bike riding or trekking up a mountain.
On the coldest night of the year, for instance, we had the CEO Sleepout, which required leading corporate types to sleep under the stars, roughing it... sort of.
Next week, there’s Convicts for a Cause, organised by the Rotary clubs of Perth and Mount Lawley, Cystic Fibrosis WA and The Liver Foundation of WA. Participants are presumably required to do a bit of cell time until donors bail them out.
No doubt, it will be somewhat less than a real experience of incarceration, even at the historic Fremantle Prison, which was never known for its creature comforts. Nevertheless, it is all for good.
We were glad to note a 40under40 finalist is leading the fund-raising field. Child-care entrepreneur Rory Vassallo had $5,680 tallied so far to bail him out. Leading commercial interior designer Kathy Kusinski was challenging him with $4,800 and construction services company GCS was next in the stakes at $4,355, although The Note remains unsure as to how a whole company gets jailed - even Enron did not manage that feat.
Patersons broker Jarrad Brown was more than half way to his $5,000 target with $2,770. We liked the comment by one of those helping to bail him out, Paul Magiatis, who said Mr Brown was “not the first stockbroker to end up in jail”. Touche.
Internationale
From criminals to rabble rousers, left-wing activist and singer-songwriter Billy Bragg played recently at the Astor Theatre, to what was an enthusiastic crowd by all reports. The Note refrains from such risky activity but associates in attendance noted the irony of the largely well-to-do crowd, many of whom had ventured from the western suburbs to join Bragg in his chorus of pro-union and anticorporate rhetoric.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth managing partner and industrial relations lawyer Nick Ellery confirmed our spy’s nomination of his attendance. We gave him a chance to cop out but he admitted he was there for Bragg’s lyrics as much as the music. He categorically denied, though, being a western suburbs resident - giving us an inkling into the sort of independent breed that is attracted to the Bragg verse.
We have yet to fully test speculation that Defence Minister and senior Labor politician Stephen Smith was also seen at the venue.
Ship shape
While we are naming names, this time we could not resist the opportunity to highlight a recent aptronym (a name matching a person’s occupation) that came to our attention.
A couple of weeks ago we observed that a retired US Navy rear admiral had been piped aboard as chairman of shipbuilder Austal’s US subsidiary. Not only a high-ranking naval officer, this highly credentialled individual had also been president of US shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works until a few years ago.
His name is John “Dugan” Shipway.
