Put down of the day has to be from the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who savaged the Alliance leader after David Ford criticised the Executive's programme for government. Mr McGuinness claimed the Alliance's effort to portray itself as an opposition was "rather futile" as his party was "trying to punch above its weight".
He went on to describe Mr Ford making serious speeches then sitting down smiling to himself "as if involved in a pantomime", an analogy which appeared calculated to stir up all those memories of "pantomime horses". Finally the DFM said he wasn't interested in "playing wee games" with the Alliance.
Mr Ford may console himself that his barbs must be hurting if they have provoked such a furious response.
It made me wonder what Mr McGuinness has been listening to during his weekend in Rome at the Consistory when Sean Brady became a Cardinal. I'm sure there were plenty of prayers and readings, but "blessed are the meek" doesn't seem to have made much of an impact on the DFM.
The Pensions Bill is a very important measure which I'm told will bring the number of women getting full pensions on retirement up from about 40% to 75%. It's one of those bills which are referred to as a "parity measure" because it is essentially bringing benefits here into line with the rest of the UK.
But the truth is that the details are very technical and it must have been the dry nature of the subject matter which got to the Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie at about ten minutes past one this afternoon when she appeared to be fighting a fit of the giggles. I couldn't tell what set it off but she was documenting various actuarial practices at the time.
Her Committee Chair Gregory Campbell appeared to sympathise with her when he referred to the details as "glaze over" material.
As a complete non sequitur, who out there knows what a gabion is? I must confess I had never heard of the word and if faced with it in a version of "Call My Bluff" I would probably have assumed it to be a small South American rodent.
However the Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew has told the West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty that she has no plans to build gabions on Killyclogher Burn at the rear of Knockmore bungalows, to prevent the erosion of properties there.
For those who like me were blissfully unaware of the existence of the gabion, here's a Wikipedia link to explain what Ms Gildernew is talking about.
Sometimes I think the Causewaygate scenario has been running since neolithic times, but then I remember it was only September when Arlene Foster said she was "minded" to approve a private visitor centre.
Alliance's Trevor Lunn wants to set this in context, though, so he has checked with the Environment Minister just how old the Giants' Causeway is.
Mrs Foster replies that "geologists generally agree that the Giant's Causeway is some 60 million years old. As you will be aware, however, there are alternative views in relation to the age of the Giant's Causeway."
I presume the element of doubt the Minister has in mind concerns those Christians like her colleague Mervyn Storey who reckon the Causeway dates to the time of Noah's flood. I suppose another alternative view might be the popular one which dates the Causeway's origins to the legendary fight between Finn McCool and the Scottish giant.
When Ministers meet at Stormont Castle the hacks normally rely on the drivers starting up their engines as a clue to when the Executive discussions are drawing to a close. But we might not be able to rely on that if the SDLP's John Dallat gets his way. Mr Dallat has asked the Finance Minister to tell him if government drivers are instructed to switch off their engines when their vehicles aren't in use in order to reduce pollution and cut fuel consumption. Peter Robinson replies that the need to switch off engines whilst waiting for a long time is covered in the drivers' handbooks.
I'm 