Sage, if belated, advice

Mr. Speaker leaves the House of Assembly with these words of wisdom:

Speaker Leaves Suggestions
June 14, 2007

The speaker of the House of Assembly may be leaving politics, but not without some suggestions for the leguslature. Harvey Hodder, known to run a stop-watch on questions and answers in the legislature, offered some advice on House administration. He suggests a maximum of 45 seconds for questions and responses during Question Period.

Very sensible.

But on May 17, Hodder's stopwatch must have been missing or malfunctioning.

Or, in the alternative, it was present and working, but Kelvin Parsons and Danny Williams are both professional auctioneers, capable of delivering 6.8 words per second in their questions, and an astonishing 10.8 words per second in their answers, respectively.

Even by the machine-gun standards of the more rapid-fire of Newfoundland accents, that's fast talkin'.