No, not the mayor – his job is historically one of the least secure in town. Parade means council general manager, or town clerk as the job used to be known.

While covering Bathurst Regional Council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday night, Parade’s mind – and eyes – started wandering during one of the less engaging debates and settled on one of the many honour boards hanging around the council chamber walls.

The honour boards list Bathurst’s mayors, deputy mayors and town clerks/general managers dating back to 1863.

And in those 155 years, while mayors and deputies have come and gone, just 11 people have been the town clerk or general manager.

Current general manager David Sherley has continued the tradition of longevity, holding the role since 2004. In that time he has worked with six mayors and one administrator during the amalgamation of Bathurst and Evans councils.

But he must be doing something right. As has been shown on several occasions elsewhere in the state in recent years, it only takes a vote of council to put any GM on the dole queue.

HAND up if you’re left-handed … no, the other hand.

History has not always been kind to lefties but a new study from the Western Sydney University suggests they tend to out-perform right-handers.

Admittedly the study had a fairly narrow focus, looking at the skills of experienced pianists and testing how easily they could adapt to playing a reversed keyboard.

But it found the left-handers – as a group – were better able to cope with the change than their right-handed counterparts.

The study supports the casual observation that left-handed people are regularly forced to learn to play right-handed instruments so are well used to adapting their skills.

Left-handers make up around 10 per cent of the world’s population.