SOCIETY’S casual acceptance of “boys will be boys” needs to be trashed and “men need to stop raping women”. That was the blunt message delivered at the Reclaim Haig Park solidarity vigil for murdered Melbourne comedian Eurydice Dixon. Event organiser Blair Williams, a local Phd candidate, says she wanted to highlight an issue “which doesn’t just happen in Melbourne but everywhere in Australia” adding that “a lot of women in Canberra have felt that similar fear when they walk home from work”.

MEANTIME there are fears of a US-style Guardian Angels chapter rising up in Canberra in the wake of Eurydice Dixon’s murder. Shocked by the violent nature of the 22-year-old’s death, local tradie Matthew Perry floated on Facebook the idea of a volunteer walking patrol protecting women in Canberra. While Perry stressed this was not a vigilante response, others including the police have reservations about such a program.

A BRITISH doctor who ate a tapeworm on TV as an experiment has passed through the capital. Gut-health guru and author of the 5:2 intermittent fasting program Dr Michael Mosley entertained a large audience by flinging faecal facts and figures around an ANU auditorium like a frisbee. Mosley, whose TV credits include “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” and “The Story of Science”, also dumped on some of his medical colleagues, whom he says would be out of work if more people took gut health seriously.

STILL on matters medical and blockages of systems, the emergency department at the Canberra Hospital is badly blocked up. Or in the more polite and bureaucratic terminology used in a fax to district general practitioners: “The hospital’s ED is currently experiencing very high levels of service demand and patient acuity”. The letter suggests to GPs “before referring patients to ED you consider other referral options or treatment pathways”.

A LOBBYIST for Canberra’s greyhound racing industry who has spent the past year hammering ACT Labor over its ban of the sport is hoping to represent the party at a Federal level. Kel Watt is already pushing himself for preselection for the federal seat of Canberra currently held by Gai Brodtmann who will stand in the new, central electorate of Bean. A 60-second Youtube video portrays Watt as the “man who will be there to protect you” when “evil comes a knockin’”. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is depicted as the evil in the clip.

MEANTIME, Canberra’s third electorate risks becoming a has-been that never was. Uncertainty surrounds the naming of Bean after many objections were lodged, including one from member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly, over anti-semitic and racist comments attributed to World War I historian Charles Bean after whom the seat is proposed to be named.

A final decision will be made by the AEC in mid July.

IN his “Weekend Australian” column headlined “Tale of Two Cities”, Phillip Adams explains Canberra’s role in the age-old Sydney v Melbourne feud. Adams suggests “Canberra was certainly born from old jealousy that Melburnians felt for Sydney”.

The National Living Treasure says: “We on the banks of our morose and muddy Yarra, them in their Emerald City on that vast bedazzlement of Sydney Harbour. Canberra was no love child born of a torrid affair, just a sorry little bastard born out of wedlock.” Call me a philistine but here, Adams’ well-chosen words simply create an image of a beetroot wearing an Akubra.

A WEATHER-themed headline begged to be used after the Canberra Demons’ 65-point win over Darwin-based NT Thunder in their NEAFL clash at Manuka. It was close to the worst weather the capital could dish out – cold, wet, almost snowing – but no thunder. The victory cemented Kade Klemke’s squad a spot in the national competition’s top five. But at least one Thunder player had experienced Canberra’s harsh winter. NEAFL legend Cameron Ilett spent winter 2008 playing for the Belconnen Magpies.