Is anyone wondering why Myer is running full-page ads spruiking the IPO in all dailies (AFR, Age, SMH, Herald Sun, Daily Tele, etc) only days out from the offer close. If, as their CEO keeps telling us, the float is going incredibly well, why the need to drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising this late in the game?

I am a gold Myer One customer and have been bombarded with offer emails, reminders (not to mention a terrifying number of special sales promotions — are things tanking?) over the past few weeks. BTW — will not be taking up the Myer offer to buy $25,000 of shares that should be worth much less when interest rates rise again soon.

Book launch of the year for the Sydney media. Ray Martin’s launching his autobiography at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney next Wednesday at 6.30pm. The launcher is Sir Michael Parkinson. Will John Westacott, front? He’s the former EP of 60 Minutes and head of News and Current Affairs. He gets a serve in the book, from talk around Nine. And will David Gyngell front? He’s another to get a serve, apparently.

No doubt Gyngell’s offsider, David Hurley, will do his best to spin whatever Martin writes about his former bosses. In fact Hurley will no doubt cop a mention or two seeing he was Martin’s boss at A Current Affair. Could be the dummy spit of the year.

Ray’s book is called Ray: Stories of My Life. It’s promised as a warts-and-all autobiography. The phrase “carpet strollers gets a workout (that was directed at then Nine boss David Leckie).

Is a major revamp of the structure and management of ABC TV being contemplated by its boss, Kim Dalton? Talk is that he’s planning big changes for when ABC 3, the kids’ digital channel starts in December.

There are reports that he will change the administrative structure to sort of imitate the BBC, with a controller appointed to oversee each of the three networks, ABC 1, 2 and 3, which will have their own management infrastructure, such as programmers, acquisition people and content overseers.

The position of head of content, occupied by the recently departed Courtney Gibson, won’t be filled. There’s talk Amanda Duthie could be jumped up in responsibility.

You think the mobile phone issue is bad. How about Telstra’s customer service person who set me up for broadband in my new home. First, she told me the kit could fit through my letter box, but wisely I chose to have it delivered to my office. The large box arrived with modem and instructions and was duly lugged home, counting my lucky stars I did not believe her. I should have been wiser.

After a full day on the telephone to countless “service” officers all incredulous that I could not complete what should be a 20-minute installation, one wise young thing cottoned onto the problem. My email address set up for me by the helpful customer service person was spelled incorrectly. That’s right, despite having my name spelled correctly on my mobile phone account, and fixed line account, and delivering the parcel in my correctly spelled name, the “service” officer decided to change the spelling of my name. She didn’t tell me.

Worse, I can’t change it. So I now have a useless email address I will never use just so my 15-year-old can download her music. Even worse, I am locked into a contract I can’t get out of, so I won’t be getting any home emails for at least two years.

Regarding Michael Kiernan. Matilda mined mineral sands, not iron ore on the Tiwi Islands. The iron ore company Michael Kiernan was involved in is called Territory Resources and it has only just managed to climb out of a very deep financial hole. Also of interest was Kiernan’s dealings with India Resources, another company that had to dig itself out of a hole after Kiernan raided its coffers to prop up Monarch Gold.