Author Archive
ANZACs
Two people I care very deeply about are serving in Afghanistan this ANZAC Day and, like their parents, I am holding on, hoping, expecting, ‘praying’ for their safe return from dangerous duty a long way from us. They seem to me, as they did two years ago, implausibly young, impossibly young to be caught up […]
I think my cat must read my blog
I took this photo (above) this morning: my cat, looking for company, reaching under a door … which was what a recent You Tube video I posted six days ago showed. Just a coincidence? Hmm. – P
America, Land of Dreams
A shorter version of this Rosanne Cash song and video is being used as a US tourism advertising campaign. It does it for me. via Jeff Bercovici at Forbes.
Chuck Colson RIP
I’ve just seen the news that Charles Colson has died. He was most famous as one of President Richard Nixon’s henchmen but spent more of his life building a Christian evangelical ministry — which, long ago, was my only contact with him. From Slate: Watergate Figure Charles Colson Dies at 80… Charles Colson, often described […]
Young ACTOIDS are revolting.
(‘Civil war’ or simple Generation Gap?) (1) Is ACT entering a Winter of Discontent? (2) Does anyone care? (Zero percent, remember.) Joan of Arc oops, Cactus Kate seems to think so … apparently exasperated that John Banks isn’t adhering to the ‘principles’ of the ACT Party. (Well, we sort of agree about that, then. But […]
ACT: ‘Zero backing. Zilch, nil, nothing at all.’
John Armstrong attended the ACT Party conference over the weekend, with “80 or so party members present” … introducing his wrap up piece in the NZ Herald this morning like this: Act kicked off its annual conference on Saturday having just been kicked in the teeth. Delegates woke up to the news that the previous […]
An obituary for Facts
Read and enjoy: Rex Huppke’s Facts, 360 B.C. – A.D. 2012 – an obituary. To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official […]
Ouch
Negative attack is one way to diminish your rivals, but it’s not building a vision … “You have to campaign to govern, not just to win,” [Gov. Mitch] Daniels told Matthew Tully of The Indianapolis Star. “Spend the precious time and dollars explaining what’s at stake and a constructive program to make life better. And […]
Parody of the ‘booty shot’
Classic: Revised: Artist Kevin Bolk: This is a parody of this promo art for the Avengers movie. I couldn’t help but notice that in most of the ad material, the guys are all in heroic stances but Black Widow is almost always in an impractical, curved-spine “booty shot” pose. Figured I’d flip it around for […]
Leonard Cohen’s manager sentenced. He wishes her peace.
Leonard Cohen’s former manager Kelley Lynch whose [alleged] theft of his retirement funds while he was, for years, in a Buddhist retreat has been jailed — not for the theft, but for her harassment of the singer after he fired her. Here’s a sentence from his statement to the court: “I want to thank the […]
Crafar farms decision déja vu
Rubber stamped for a second time … Overseas Investment Office docs (hat tip: NZ Herald): Recommendation | Decision summary Sir Graeme Harrison on Radio NZ National’s Morning Report (before the decision was announced). [Audio clip: view full post to listen] MP3 file for non flash users Updated with audio links
OTT?
The NZ Herald gave a bucketload of real estate to their story about a grieving family’s claims that too much Coca Cola killed their mum. Don’t you think? – P Slight purple tint is intentional. Irony. (cf: ‘Purple prose’.)
Slow motion mayhem
Wow. (via Jolisa Gracewood)
Origin of the word ‘deadline’
I visited my pal and fellow publisher Roger briefly in Wellington last week. One of the many things we share in common is a quirky interest in words — old or new, interesting words and unusual derivations. Roger mentioned the word deadline which we live and die by (ahem, not literally, keep reading) in publishing […]
