Posts by Deborah
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Years ago, when I was doing a degree, as what is euphemistically called a 'mature age student', I met Kathy the nun. Kathy was a nun (there's a surprise) and she was about the same age as a group of us mature age students. Given that we had gotten over the need to shock people and gratuitously give offence, we were always somewhat restrained in our behaviour and language around Kathy, until the day when one of my friends said, "Yadda yadda yadda yadda but...", and Kathy leapt in very promptly and said:
Everything before but is bullshit.
She was right. Listen carefully to how often people say 'but'.
"I'm sorry that I upset you, but..."
"I know I was wrong but..."
"I really like so-and-so but..."
Any apology with the word 'but' isn't an apology.
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Dr Che said:
but in all seriousness, i'm amazed i wrote a PhD without ever actually reading or using teh words,
lexiphanic
thoroughgoing
peripatetic
or Gammy.Bugger. I used one of those in mine.
And I used another of them in ordinary old conversation last night. I didn't realise it would put me in the same category as Anton Oliver.
Personally, I'm quite fond of eggcorns. My daughters sometimes say that they have gotten 'miggled up' about something, and to my delight, some poster somewhere (Kiwiblog perhaps? And that would be a person posting on a blog, not a large sheet of paper with a picture on it tacked to a wall somewhere) talked about what should and should not be part of 'the public square'. Said poster was referring to Dr Brash, so perhaps 'square' was the right word after all.
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Toot toot chugga chugga
Big red car
We travel near and we travel fa-a-ar
Toot toot chugga chugga
Big red car
We're gonna drive the whole night through.An excellent suggestion for the Dr's next job.
But will he really get into a red car?
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Nick Kearney said:
I actually think National could have succeeded if Brash hadn't backed down so much.
Que?!!
I thought the evidence (or at very least the urban myth - can somone shed some light on this?) was that just a few too many people (urban mums, mostly) got scared off Brash in the last week or two before the election, because they were worried about the cuts to health and education that might have followed on from significant tax cuts.
He didn't back down nearly enough, and I'm not sure he could have. The damage had been done by then.
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that "self-sufficiency in the burbs" show whose name eludes me...
The Good Life
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Since when did getting to be leader of the National Party become defined as "making good"?
He's not leader yet. And it wasn't what I was thinking of.
I think getting to the stage of owning a comfortable home, being able to support your children and other members of your family, and possibly the wider community in which you live, and being in a position to support yourself in your old age counts as making good.
Mr Key has probably overachieved on these criteria.
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The Scoop report is being frequently updated. This bit's fascinating:
"Press Gallery journalists tend to regard themselves as a fairly cynical and skeptical bunch, but I doubt that many considered for a more than a micro-second that the apparent gaff – a few short days before the election - when Dr Brash told BFm's Noelle McCarthy that he had indeed met with the Brethren and been told about their pamphlets was not a slip of the tongue but a carefully rehearsed line written for the National Party leader by his chief media minder Richard Long!"Yes, it is fascinating, not least because all the negatives are giving me a headache trying to sort out what the hell the writer is trying to say. So was it an innocent slip of the tongue, or a deliberate tactic?
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I'm a bit tired of this 'state house boy made good' meme too.
John Key may have grown up in a state house, but from all accounts, his mother scrimped, saved, worked hard and made damn sure that her children grew up with a determination to acheive.
Losers are made in rich homes too - what counts is parental attitude, and access to education.
The stunning achievements are from the people who grow up in poverty, and despair.
Having said that, although Mr Key may not have been surrounded by despair, he did grow up in material poverty, and without having a rich mummy and daddy to help him out, he is now living quite well, thank you very much. So he is certainly entitled to claim credit for 'poor boy made good'.
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Excellent. I have just been watching Campbell Live, which played the entire 'impromptu press conference' with Dr Brash (on the day of the Nicky Hager non-book launch), who said, so kindly, that as a politician, he would talk to anyone with a legitimate interest in talking with politicians: "...even criminals, even atheists, even agnostics."
So nice to be grouped with criminals (and agnostics, for that matter).
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BTW, this is ok to view at work.
Hmmm... now that I think about it some more, it might just be a bit marginal for work viewing, but only if your boss or organisation is quite sensitive.