What did he mean? The line had all the polish of being rehearsed — one of the few from Rupert Murdoch last night that did.

The kind of grab that a good PR man works hard at crafting; something that is made for the headlines.

London’s late afternoon Evening Standard duly obliged, as did the late edition of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

Other papers, I note, went for the “humble pie” headline, which I suppose fitted in with the antics of the so-called comedian, but I wonder what the press boss really meant? A bit hard to know really for the most significant part of his words was how he refused personally  to accept any of the blame. Your suggestions please and First Dog tea towel or some such gooodie for the best.

To help with the thought process, here are the definitions from Google’s dictionary geek:

Proof the US is a crumbling nation. It’s as American as apple pie. The lemonade stand for yonks has been a symbol of the national spirit — the embodiment of how to spread the capitalist ethic from one generation to the next.

But soon it may be no more. As NPR reports, the lemonade stand is at risk.

“Just this year, The Associated Press reports: In July, police shut down a lemonade-making operation in Midway, Ga., because law enforcement officials were not sure how the lemonade was being made. In April, a 13-year-old lemonade purveyor was robbed of $130 by dastardly customers in Warner-Robins, Ga., and, in July, kids in Strongsville, Ohio, said a handful of teenagers, including two boys sporting skinny jeans and blue hoodies, stole at least $13.50 from their lemonade stand.

“During the U.S. Open in June, officials in Montgomery County, Md., fined kids $500 for running a fancy lemonade stand — that sold bottled lemonade and other drinks — near the golf tournament. Proceeds, the children said, were going to charity. County officials finally agreed to waive the fine and allow the kids to operate without a permit if they would move the 10-by-10-foot tent down the road a piece.

“As one of the mothers of the children told WUSA news: ‘The message to kids is, there’s no American dream.'”

Thankfully there is still this little ditty that has been played some 50 million times on YouTube:

Something for the arty crafties – more from modern America. MONA — the Museum of Non-Visible Art — has opened its doors.

The what? Pictures you cannot see you fool:

“The Non-Visible Museum is an extravaganza of imagination, a museum that reminds us that we live in two worlds: the physical world of sight and the non-visible world of thought. Composed entirely of ideas, the Non-Visible Museum redefines the concept of what is real. Although the artworks themselves are not visible, the descriptions open our eyes to a parallel world built of images and words. This world is not visible, but it is real, perhaps more real, in many ways, than the world of matter, and it is also for sale.

“Important Note: When you contribute to this Kickstarter project, you are not buying a visible piece of art! You will not receive a painting or a film or a photograph in your mailbox. What you will receive is something even more fascinating: The opportunity to collaborate in an act of artistic creation. You will receive a title card with a description of a piece of art, as well as a letter of authentication. You may mount this card on a blank wall in your home or gallery. What comes next is up to you!

“The artwork comes to life — and takes on full personal meaning — in your imagining and describing of it, both to yourself and to your visitors. You may also choose to sell the non-visible artwork to another collector, to exhibit it elsewhere, or to lend it back to Praxis when we take the Non-Visible Museum on tour.”

Put this ad in the rubbish bin. I’ve had a bit to do over the years with alcohol abuse and one thing I’ve learned is that the only consistently successful method of helping the afflicted comes from Alcoholics Anonymous.

The 12 point program works where much else normally fails which is why the principles have been adapted in efforts to deal with other forms of addiction. But that does not justify using parodies of the AA methods to pretend to fix all kinds of social problems.

Advertisements like that pretending to be from a Litterer’s Anonymous meeting cheapen the serious and worthwhile AA program. Put it in the rubbish bin where it belongs.