News on Toast: Kylie’s our newest treasure

Whitney Houston outed as a home wrecker, Kylie Minogue named a national treasure and schoolkids apparently think yoghurt grows on trees: All the morning’s hot topics in bite-sized pieces just right for dunking.

———

Whitney’s secret love affair revealed in a song

Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine Jackson, with whom Whitney Houston allegedly had an affair in the 1980s.

Have you ever listened to the lyrics of Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You”? I mean, REALLY listened to them?

I never had, which is why I assumed it was just a nice song about love instead of what it really is – a song about a home wrecking man thief.

In the song Houston pines for a married man with “a family”, with whom she shares “stolen moments”, who continually tells her they’ll “run away together”, presumably as soon as he’s gotten rid of the old ball and chain. While her sensible friends tell her to get ”a man of my own” she’s saving all her love for him, and the song concludes with Houston crowing about how they’ll be “making love the whole night through”.

Not so romantic NOW, is it?

Today the “Saving All My Love for You” video clip is rocketing up the charts on YouTube after English paper The Sun revealed Houston had a passionate, year long affair with married man and Michael Jackson’s brother Jermaine Jackson, allegedly the subject of the song.

The paper alleges Houston even cast a Jackson lookalike in the video, who flirts with Houston as his “wife” keeps a stern eye on the action:

The full Sun report isn’t available online so I don’t know if Jackson’s ex wife, Hazel Gordy, who he divorced in 1988, was interviewed about the revelations. I can only imagine what it must be like to know that not only was your husband fooling around with the world’s most beautiful and famous pop star, but that the affair was immortalised in one of history’s biggest pop songs. Talk about a kick in the teeth.

>> Did you know what “Saving All My Love for You” was about? Am I the only one who didn’t get it? Who do you side with here – Whitney or the wife?

———

 OMG! ONJ and Kylie are our newest national treasures

Kylie Minogue has been named a National Living Treasure by the National Trust.

For decades they’ve been the ones that we want, now it’s official: singers Olivia Newton John and Kylie Minogue have been named Australia’s newest National Living Treasures by the National Trust.

The two pop stars were among a group of seven Australians to be awarded the title, which also included science buff Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, mining magnate Clive Palmer, Formula One driver Sir Jack Brabham, conservationist Dr Harry Butler and cervical vaccine creator Professor Ian Fraser.

They all join previously inducted Treasures Russell Crowe, John Farnham, Colleen McCullough, Gai Waterhouse, Les Murray, Ernie Dingo, Margaret Fulton and Rolf Harris on the 100-strong list.

Obviously Newton John and Minogue, who was a star attraction at Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday night, are the ones stealing the headlines for this story today because they’re celebrities and they take pretty pictures. But it’s good to see Prof Fraser getting more recognition for his crucial work on cervical cancer, even if it’s not quite as sexy.

>> Do you agree with the new inductees? Who do you think is an Australian National Treasure?

———

Aussie kids completely confused about food

Many Australian schoolkids think yoghurt comes from a plant.

Speaking of Whitney Houston: If it’s true that “the children are our future”, Australians should be a tad worried about our food and farming industries as a new national study of school kids shows many of them think yoghurt grows on trees.

A survey by the Australian Council for Educational Research found that almost a third of Year 6 students thought yoghurt came from a plant, and a further three quarters identified cotton as coming from an animal.

The story wasn’t much better in older students – almost 40 per cent of Year 10 kids agreed that cotton came from an animal (the cottontail rabbit, perhaps?), and 13 per cent thought yoghurt was some sort of vegetable.

Cotton coming from an animal I guess I can understand – if you’ve never been taught that it comes from a bush it’s kind of weird to think about. But yoghurt from a plant? The mind boggles.

What sort of plant are these children imagining? And how does one harvest it? Is the yoghurt like sap, that oozes out when you cut the stem? Or does it just steadily drip from giant flowers into buckets below?

Sigh. Now I’ve started thinking about it, I’m really depressed yoghurt DOESN’T come from a plant. That’d be such a cool thing to have in the fridge.

>> Are you shocked by these survey results? What food items do you wish grew on trees? I’d like a beer bush, please.

———

And that concludes today’s News on Toast. Hope it’s got your Monday off to a good start! Got something to say? Share it in the comments below.

Main pic: Kylie Minogue at the 2012 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras