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Canberra Today 25°/28° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra Confidential: Queer Femme is?

CHIEF Minister Katy Gallagher recently awarded five fine young women Great Ydeas Grants at the YWCA of Canberra’s “Round the World Breakfast”.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher presents the Great Ydeas grant to Hannah McCann.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher presents the Great Ydeas grant to Hannah McCann.
Reassuringly, the Chief said: “Women often have unique ideas but sometimes don’t have the means to make these ideas come to life. This program enables them to do just that.”

Amid the not unexpected worthiness of grants for training to support women in the not-for-profit sector, developing new online resources for aid workers, giving rural girls the chance to visit Canberra to meet powerful female community leaders and leveraging digital communication to share cooking tips with Timorese women came one that left CC lost in translation.

Winning recipient Hannah McCann is off to the Femme Conference 2014 in the US, which will “explore, discuss, dissect, and support Queer Femme as a transgressive, gender-queer, stand-alone, and empowered identity”. The conference also promises to “provide a space for organising and activism within queer communities”.

A Queer Femme, we’re told, is a gal who likes hanging around with lesbians but prefers the closer company of a boyfriend. But a trawl through the internet couldn’t confirm that and left us totally confused. Good luck, Hannah.

How Gai slips away

“THE things politicians will do to draw attention to themselves,” sniffs our local snout just back from the Weston Creek Community Council’s latest monthly meeting.

The well liked and very effective Tom Anderson was in the midst of chairing the meeting in the Weston Community Hub Hall when the member for Canberra Gai Brodtmann decided, oh, it was time to go.

“So, does she quietly excuse herself and depart? No, she rushes up to the front, gets Tom out of his seat, and kisses him goodbye,” we’re told.

“It looked totally out of place, and Tom seemed rather embarrassed.”

 Macho(nochie) man

OH, Joe Prevedello, on behalf of the Scottish nation, we’re obliged to out you.

Alexander Maconochie
Alexander Maconochie

Journalist Joe is the Canberra Liberals’ media flack responsible for this howler when castigating the profligate Labor Government for “mismanagement of the Alexander Machonochie Centre”.

It may not sound Scottish to the fast typing fingers of someone with a proud Italian surname, but the prison is named in honour of penal reformer Alexander Maconochie, pictured, who worked in Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island from 1836 to 1844 manfully without an extra “h” in his name.

Less usefully, it is also the name of a stew of sliced turnips, carrots and potatoes in a thin soup, named for the Aberdeen Maconochie Company that produced it. So now you know, Joe.

Looking for lurve

THE indefatigable Kevin Rudd, in his quest to succeed Ban Ki-moon as UN Secretary-General is leaving no stone unturned. He needs the support of Australia so is trying to make peace with the top public servants and policy makers he crossed during his prime ministerial tenure.

And where better than at their favourite watering-hole, the Commonwealth Club.

Some of those he offended are appalled at the thought and are running a campaign against his membership. But being K Rudd, he’s enlisted some of the most influential men in town to sponsor him – notably Defence Department Secretary Dennis Richardson and retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. They don’t come more influential than that; mark up another small triumph for the lad from Queensland; he is, after all, only trying to help.

Lost, found and sold

PICKLES Auctions in Sydney has just run (on time) the “Trains Lost Property Auction” with a bevy of more than 700 items going under the hammer.

The list of stuff people leave on public transport (and don’t seem to bother trying to recover) makes lost umbrellas look very passe: up for grabs were more than 500 mobile phones; 150 iPods and 100 laptops; 100 tablets and e-book readers; a large quantity of jewellery; and close to 400 bicycles (that’s, like, eight a week!).

Your move – smack!

HERE’S a new twist from London on fundraising for tired old winter-ball charities… chessboxing!

It’s a game of speed-chess, split into six four-minute rounds. The players sit at a chessboard in the middle of a boxing ring wearing noise-cancelling headphones as a chess master appraises the audience of the prospective pugilists’ moves.

After four minutes of chess, the board is moved out and it’s time for three minutes of gloved biffo. The competitors continue to alternate between chess and boxing until there’s a checkmate or a knockout.

Tween here and there

HERE’S some depressing reading: Australia’s tweens (8 to 14-year-olds) are spending on average $20 of their own pocket money plus influencing their parents to spend hundreds more a week on the latest trends.

It all adds up to a $4+ billion tween market, with ACT tweens alone estimated to be spending about $24.2 million a year.

“Tweens are a powerful demographic, propelling the likes of Miley Cyrus, One Direction and Justin Bieber to stardom,” enthuses tween expert Andrea Dowling.

 

 

 

 

 

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2 Responses to Canberra Confidential: Queer Femme is?

Joanna Allebone says: 14 May 2014 at 10:13 am

Hi guys,

Thanks for covering the YWCA of Canberra’s Great Ydeas small grants program in City News. I can see that your writer is somewhat confused by recipient Hannah McCann’s grant proposal, and the Femme Conference 2014 in general.

You can find out more about the Conference on their website here, as well as more information about the Queer Femme identity: http://femmeconference.tumblr.com/post/80085457423/our-mission

We’re more than happy to answer any questions anyone might have about the Great Ydeas grant program, and the selection process for recipients. You can read more about the grants and other recipients on our website here: http://www.ywca-canberra.org.au/womens_leadership/great_ydeas

Best,

Joanna Allebone
Director, Corporate Relations and Communications
YWCA of Canberra

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