I had a go at Rugby myself the other day. I thought I was doing pretty well, but all everybody kept saying was "nice try". Condescending bastards.
... that valley where suffering is always real and joy very often false, and the everyday turmoil so grim that it is difficult to imagine any catastrophe producing more than a momentary sensation there."
No! not referring to the Canberra Press Gallery. Honoré de Balzac (Pere Goriot, 1835). But wait! It continues: "Nevertheless, affliction is sometimes so densely attended by vice and virtue that it takes on an aspect of grandeur and solemnity; ordinary selfishness and self-absorption are suspended for a moment in pity."