Last week, Peter Swannell devoted his wise and amusing Wednesday column in The Chronicle to an “Ordinary Man’s” explanation of the Large Hydron Collider, that immense scientific apparatus under the French-Swiss border attempting to define the origins of the universe.
Peter revealed that scientists examining particles hope to spot one called “The Higgs bosom”, named after Peter Higgs, the particle physicist who first postulated its existence in 1964. Peter Higgs, Peter Swannell relates, often refer to “the Higgs bosom” as the “God Particle” not because it will explain God but because scientists have long asked “Oh God, when are we going to find it?”
Now – my friends will tell you – I’m not one to bear a grudge but Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Steve Etwell certainly owes me an explanation over “The Higgs Bosom”.
Why my first political column “Broadly Bingham” in The Chronicle a month or so ago turned out to be the last was because Etwell rejected my intended reminiscences of my time as media adviser with Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen.
Why? Because, so he emailed me, no-one in his newsroom knew who Joh Petersen was and therefore he would not use the reminiscences. I couldn’t believe that possible. So I refused to write again for Etwell
Joh Petersen ran this State for 32 years until quite recently. Young reporters OUGHT to know, or at least be told, about it by someone who was there.
I am framing Etwell’s remarkable email to hang on the wall behind my desk where I will gaze spellbound on it every morning.
So now, Editor-in-Chief Etwell, please explain to us all how many of your newsroom knows about “The Higgs Bosom” or has ever heard of the physicist Peter Higgs?
Let’s be clear! I don’t mind for a moment that my good friend Peter Swannell is allowed to get away with “The Higgs Bosom” while I was vetoed on Joh Petersen. But I don’t think the once self-described “gnome” of The Chronicle should be allowed to get away with a veto like that.
As for “God’s Particle”, in my own elderly muddled way I thought it might refer to the delicate pastel pink of my azaleas in bloom.
Oh, and when I ran the Petersen reminiscences in this newsletter it was very well received indeed. I’m certain I know Toowoomba better than Etwell.
Toowoomba and Darling Downs political and social commentary. Print copies of this newsletter may be ordered from Toowoomba's Office Works, phone 4699-5300
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Hugh Bingham
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About Hugh Bingham
Bingham is a career journalist with experience in State and Federal politics. He has been Editor of the Sunday Truth, the Sydney Sunday Mirror, Associate Editor of the Sydney Daily Mirror, and has reported overseas for The Australian.
In retirement he turned farmer in the Felton Valley, near Toowoomba, breeding Appaloosas and winning best foal and filly at the 1992 State championships.
Now 80, Bingham takes a keen interest in current affairs, especially politics and social issues. Bingham has tutored U3A groups as diverse as poetry, memoir writing, and classical music.
In retirement he turned farmer in the Felton Valley, near Toowoomba, breeding Appaloosas and winning best foal and filly at the 1992 State championships.
Now 80, Bingham takes a keen interest in current affairs, especially politics and social issues. Bingham has tutored U3A groups as diverse as poetry, memoir writing, and classical music.
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