Is Christianity like cricket?

When you're a saint in 'bad form' and stuck on a sticky wicket; when the ball's not coming onto the bat; when you manage to hit it but you don't quite time it right or hit it straight to a fielder every time; when you're footwork is not smooth; when the ball looks more like a golf ball than a beachball; when the opposition crowd is giving you heaps; when all of this makes you doubt everything you know...what do you do?

Do you just try and bat yourself back into form; do you try and give as much strike away as possible; do you let more than usual go through to the keeper; do you come out of your crease and take a risk?

Howzat!

News to hand

A panel of expert judges has declared the University of Newcastle (UNCLE) to be the most avuncular in Australia.

The announcement came after a gruelling 18 month testing period which saw the country's top tertiary institutions being put through their paces.

"In the end, we just thought it was the uni that you'd most want to kick a footy around the backyard with. It also had some great yarns and the best range of fart jokes!" said senior researcher, Uncle Bob.

In response, a spokesperson for the University of Sydney suggested no-one behind the Sandstone Curtain really cares.

"Some people are interested in which uni shares the most characteristics with their favourite uncle. Others aren't," she said.

Text or be hexed?

Proving that the last will at least be penultimate, The Shadow casts itself once again, and this time with one of the great dilemmas of our mobile age:

What degree of lateness requires an explanatory text message?

If you're five minutes late for an appointment do you have to say "sry im l8"? What about two minutes? Half a minute? Where do you draw the line?

So far I've looked at the time factor but does the type of appointment make a difference or not? Do you send an SMS when you're ten minutes late for a casual coffee, but also when you're ten seconds late for an important meeting?

What about who you're meeting up with? What about how you're getting there - surely if the other person knows you're on a city rail train you don't need to explain!

I think this is one for the great mathematicians of our time. Who can come up with the formula that reflects the relationship between all these factors.

But they'd better hurry. The solution to this problem is long overdue!