Sir Les-Patterson

Diplomatic Notebook

Sir Les Patterson writes from Australia

issue 18 October 2008

I am an elder statesman, but I’m a versatile old bugger. In about a month’s time I’m hitting the boards in Austin, Texas as a support act for Dame Edna. She’s not a happy lady about it because we’ve never hit it off, or got it off for that matter, and she’s got this bee in her bonnet that the Seppos (Septic Tanks — Yanks) might find me a bit too forthright in the language department and I could end up as popular as a bastard on Father’s Day. I beg to differ. She can stick her opinions as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve got a gut feeling I’m going to turn up in America when they need a man with my positive outlook more than at any other time in their history.

I’ve just been in San Francisco on a recce and boy, did I cop a strong whiff of the déjà-vus! That’s where I wanted to be when I was a kid, hanging out at Woodstock with Dylan Thomas and Billy Hendrix.

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