Posts by Rob Stowell
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Better not to ever open The Tale of Tom Kitten, then. As a 4-year-old it scared me witless- I wouldn't let mum read it. I still have dreams about hidden passages and secret byways in old houses.
Second kids are entirely intruiging tho- number one, you tend to think: that's what kids are like. Number two, and you realise that's not it at all. Time to look into Frank Sulloway, maybe? -
Russell Hoban's The Mouse and his Child is good to read aloud. Also quite a few Dahl's are good: we've got a tape of Fantastic Mr Fox the kids have listened to again and again. But there are many others.
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Hard News: Public health: the new terror…,
I'm more worried about how good they are. Any fifteen year old with internet access should be able to make a bomb. Boy scouts would do it. A wacko like McVeigh could do it.
These guys dump some petrol and gas cannisters in- yeah, two mercedes, just to prove they're really doctors- well, with planning and executions skills that slip-shod, I'm glad they're not looking after my health! -
Southerly: A Slow Journey and a Quick Arrival,
Congratulations Jen and David. What a lovely wee boy!
Seems every birth has a story: the human prologue. Hope things settle down for a while! ;-) -
Hard News: TVNZ: The Sub's Pencil Strikes,
MMmmm might just be me missing it, but seems Extras is even better this series (so far!)
Wot I want to know is- why isn't Prime on Freeview? (Sky own it, of course, but still!) and why can't we harvest a digital bounty on it, with, eg a feed of BBC World, SBS etc etc... -
Island Life: This just in: incumbent…,
There are of course a few that do involve oil.... but Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and, oh, Saudia Arabia are playing the oil-game with the Texans and have "protection".
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Curses, foiled, this will put back our evil plan for the chch symphonic stormtroopers to conquer the world by- decades!
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Random Play: A missive from an ancient mariner,
Who hasn't looked at the chose sport of recreation of others and thought- "Why?"
Riding horses, shooting ducks, scragging the first-five: maybe I don't have the talent, the knack; maybe you just didn't get hooked at that right time of life. We just gotta accept it, take what we can enjoy.
We do have a maritime history (fast disappearing in the international market for lowest-wage mariners) and many of us still enjoy mucking about in boats.
Are we a "nation of great sailors"? It's like "are we a nation of great rugby-players"? Most of us don't sail or play rugby. But some of us do both as well as they are done competitatively. And many more of us enjoy watching them!
PS- Butterworth IS one of the great kiwi sportsmen, and it would seem he prefers golf. (Mind you, it might just be relaxation he's after- put him on the PGA for a year and he'd be longing for a relaxing sail...) -
Hard News: Not such as to engender confidence,
Maori at the time of first contact, and well past the treaty, were strong. And very good at organised warfare. The first contact with Europeans ended in bloodshed, pakeha blood. And there are plenty of other examples of maori strength.
I'm a cycnic on this. (tho' there were undoubtably some with good intentions on all sides throughout). If Europeans had overwhelming military/violent superiority in 1840 (as the colonists did in Australia), they'd never have waltzed about here signing a treaty.
Similarly, if Europeans hadn't significantly out-numbered maori at the time of franchise, maori probably would have had to fight for the vote; and for some period we may well have had out won variety of apartheid.
I don't think we're better- I think we're luckier. Luckier because it's worked out better for NZ, and given us, however slow and unsatisfactory, a range of ways and means and skills for getting on. But most of the gains for maori have been hard-won, over a very long period. Harry Evison's "Te Waipounamu" tells the story from a Southern perspective very well. -
Michael's notion of citizenship is wildly wackly; lets not imagine anyone else subscribes to it. For that matter, there's a continual call for able-bodied types to crew on racing yachts in Lyttelton every weekend. Won't cost you more than the bus-fare over (heck odds on they'll give you a ride!)