Author Archive
Making things happen
I’m reading a book of John F. Kennedy quotes with a foreword by Desmond Tutu and good biographical introduction which touches on Kennedy’s life. It highlights how his struggles with health and his father’s ambition were part of what led to his aspirational speeches and his call to work for ‘peace’ with ‘courage’ — real […]
Cameron Brewer — a fresh face
I had the pleasure of Cameron Brewer‘s company at a looong lunch at the Auckland Club a while back — a gaggle organised by David McEwen. (Thanks again, David.) He’s an ebullient, engaging guy — and pretty clean-cut, it seemed to me. Just like his well-designed billboards, one of which I spotted yesterday. I may […]
Blimey! Lucky.
University of Canterbury, Christchurch — earthquake damage. Just two of the shots … Imagine if it had struck at 4.35 PM instead of 4.35 AM. Imagine if that was your workstation. So lucky. Photos: University of Canterbury, via NZ Herald (click for more).
Take 4 minutes …
This is so good… … just take the 4 minutes and 8 seconds to watch and listen to this. What a great use of bandwidth. Thank you Rhian Sheehan. Thank you for giving your gift. Watch the video below the fold …
New blossom springs from old tree
I just wanted to share this pic from a walk yesterday. The sight of new blossoms springing from an old, severely-pruned (hacked?) tree near Macleans Reserve spoke to me. Not in a melancholy way — although it was my second Father’s Day without one, which I felt — but in an encouraging way. That gnarled […]
A gift
To quote Robbie Burns: Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel’s as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion. With appreciation to Steve Goodey for offering me a gift this week. I mean it. Thanks for the feedback. Steve still hasn’t published my 31 […]
The truth can be harsh
Respected business journalist/commentator Rod Oram’s assessment of the collapse of the HUGE South Canterbury Finance and supremo Allan Hubbard’s role in the demise is less confrontational than Bernard Hickey’s Please say sorry and thanks ‘open letter’ piece — but in its way, just as scathing. Failing to respond to criticism has become one of the […]
Te Radar’s Eating the Dog — well done
Last night I was packed into a school hall with a bunch of my neighbours — not because we’d been evacuated from earthquake-damaged homes like the afflicted of Canterbury, although they were on our minds — as part of the audience of a very clever, well-written and well-delivered ‘romp through the pages of our history’. […]
Celebrating quirkiness
I’ve just set up an album on The Paepae’s Facebook page to collect and display those quirky error messages etc. Feel free to contribute any more!
The worst stuff isn’t even in there?
Wow, I thought the ‘It came from Wasilia’ profile on Sarah Palin by Todd Purdue was eye-opening. She also came off pretty badly in that book I hoovered up over a wet weekend Race of a Lifetime … but read this piece from the current Vanity Fair – ‘Sarah Palin: the Sound and the Fury’. […]
A denial and a clarification … well, not really
Just as well some people have such a GREAT sense of humour! It all relates to my ‘A little backlash?‘ post here on www.thePaepae.com … where I suggested a possible interpretation of some innuendo-laden bloggings by property spruiker Dean Letfus about holding back dirt on a ‘white knight’ was that they referred to me. [Or […]
The future?
I saw Andrew Kirtzman’s book BETRAYAL at Wellington airport recently. Striking cover. We’d already discussed Harry Markopolos’s frustrating experience in Tall poppy syndrome: last refuge of the scoundrel? Gee, I thought, what has Madoff had to build inside himself to handle this level of opprobrium? (Assuming he IS ‘handling’ the ignominy OK.) I wonder if […]
Please say sorry, and thanks …
I don’t know enough to make a judgement about Allan Hubbard, and I point to this only as an example of a journalist, in this case, publishing his (strong) personal opinions … I find that refreshing and encouraging because it’s clear he’s based them on his own considerable research and experience. Good on you Bernard. […]
And then a bug flew in the window(s)…
ATM: ‘Welcome’. Card in. PIN typed in. Oops, instant BLANK SCREEN. Keypad doing nuttin’. Hmmm. Looking, looking, then up came the NCR logo white on black. For a loooooong time. ‘Have I broken it? I muttered. I went into the bank and explained my plight. A teller went and had a look: ‘Oh it’s just […]
