On the news today, there was a story about a marvellous new contraption which is helping profoundly disabled children to walk. The kids are firmly strapped in to the miracle machine, which has wheels and which looked kind of large and complicated with a kid in the middle.

The newsreader was talking away as the images played out, about the miracle of walking going on, and some person (doctor, nurse, parent - I forget) gushed away about children walking.

But - they pushed them! The profoundly disabled children didn't actually move anywhere until someone reached out and pushed a foot forward. I saw only two forward movements and both times there was a hand moving the foot along.

In my cranky - yet lovable - way, I started bitching at the television about this pushing. It reminded me of Monty Python's Parrot Sketch