Didja hear what happened to…

Yes folks, it’s nearly Christmas, with all the usual fun and festivities associated therein.
While some like to think of Christmas as a time of sharing and caring, it’s rather more like a time of loose lips and hot tips. As people enjoy some Christmas spirits (and anyone in Cooma would know I’ve enjoyed plenty of those so far this month), they’re also enjoying the spread of these nasty things called rumours and gossip.
These are rather unfortunately unavoidable. You can sit in your corner, say nothing, and still have some slack-jawed gossip make stuff up about you.
Indeed, one place I’ve worked at had the local gum-chewers working overtime before they’d even got a chance to figure out what my failings were.
It’s rather easy to start a rumour.
All you have to do is to make a comment about someone - framing it like a hypothetical or rhetorical question - to the right person. If you talk to the right person, they’ll take it as a statement of fact, spreading it like warm butter along the whole loaf of bread that is their community.
Among my personal favourites are that I’m gay (straight as a ruler), my parents are in some way related (only because at one stage they were married), and that I hated rugby league (please note any number of previous posts).
But they’re not too bad. If nothing else, you learn who your friends are - they tend to ask first, whereas others just like to snigger behind your back.
Actually, it’s the whole behind-the-back thing that really gives me the runs (not just in cricket either).
Granted, there are always going to be times where you need to blow off steam about someone to someone else. This can be rather beneficial, as person number 3 may be able to offer some kind of alternate insight into what’s bothering you.
But going around telling everyone that someone is incompetent/an arsehole/a right royal prick because of one thing or another - while still being "nice" to their face - is just plain wrong.
We’re all guilty of this - including myself on more than five occasions - but I still see no real reason for it.
In a business it can cut down morale quicker than timber workers in the Amazon, in a family it can break up a group of people you should really try to get along with anyway, and in a volunteer group it can really f^%k it right up for everybody and everything.
Anyways, that’s my rant for the time being. Here’s hoping you all have a safe and fun Christmas and New Year, without getting hit by a bus. That hurts apparently.