Posts by JLM
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But I'd endorse what Steve said upthread. You don't really know a class system until you've experienced it in Britain. It's no mere measure of income. Sometimes it felt like these people were from different races.
The scary thing is how it lingers for decades. My husband left England at the age of 18, and fell with huge enjoyment into the New Zealand way of life, but four decades later, when we went back for family visits, he became hypervigilant about what one did and wore at certain times. Not just in front of the family, and for unenculterated me, more than for him. "You don't do that here" was a phrase that crossed his lips more than once - in a camping ground, too! (I think one episode was about hanging knickers out to dry... )
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Fascinating discussion about class. Does anyone remember the old Elley-Irving scale we used in research to designate people's socio-economic status by their occupation? It seemed to triangulate income, education and standing in the community, with the last very much the weak leg. Farmers were only 4 on the 1-6 scale, and so were ministers of the church, while lawyers and doctors and the usual suspects were 1. Teachers were 2, clerks were 3, plumbers were 4 (funny how the income/status equation worked in the opposite direction there) drivers were 5, and cleaners and fish-filleters were 6. We classed a lot of middle-class ladies who were cleaning for pin money as 6.
I remember getting a questionnaire back, occupation=prostitute, which of course wasn't included in the approved list of jobs. I think we went for 5 in the end.
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Back when I was researching in the abuse field, it used to piss me off how everyone had to be a "survivor", and how being a "victim" was somehow weak. If someone's done something horrible to you, why shouldn't you be a victim?
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I thought that piece was terrible, Sacha. Highlighting and directing reader's reactions in a concern trollish sort of way, making a big thing of supporters who were having doubts - wonder how many he talked to who were still staunch? It seems a nasty knife job designed to keep these trivial aspects forefront of people's minds to me
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Not the Christchurch I knew, but fabulous. I didn't LOL till "Of course, who's to say that Jacqueline has always been a woman -- there's something rather masculine about her, don't you think?"
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Great cycle safety thread it's turned into, and don't give up your new day job, Dave. Counter-intuitive science is a welcome mid-morning shake-up. I think the differences in opinion here aren't so much about pragmatism vs idealism, as individuals vs population, as you've been trying to get across.
My husband's been active in Dunedin cycling advocacy, and knows of the stick-wielder of whom Kyle speaks. He preferred the approach of an anti-helmet friend who got a letter from a doctor testifying that helmets gave her claustrophobia (or something). It occurred to me that if someone wanted to mount a serious campaign to get the helmet law repealed, the best way could be to do it through doctor's letters - find a brave medic who was willing to write a form letter about the lack of major protection afforded by helmets and/or public health benefits for repeal of shifting car drivers to cycling (under-estimated by the NZTA's Economic Evaluation Manual v2 as $1.42 per km) as a form letter that could be shown to the ptb as required. At least it would get publicity.
I would be in favour of compulsory helmets for kids, not sure to what age, but they're more likely to have those falling impacts and if helmets are normalised when they're young they're more likely to keep wearing them (not wanting to get into George's arguments re helmet badness at this stage)
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/economic-evaluation-manual/volume-2/
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My daughter told me about the chimney-sweeper=dandelion hypothesis from her Otago English Lit classes a decade ago, and her lecturer, Shef ??? claimed some sort of credit, either personal or as part of a team. I'll ask her. Like David, I was absolutely entranced, and, unlike him, I'm still a believer. It made that song perfect for me, and it's too good to let go.
And if you want near perfection, try and find a copy of Cleo Laine singing it - it was on a record called Shakespeare and all that jazz.
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Thanks for this, DR. I had the surreal experience of looking on the Sunday Times business pages for Rod's take on the budget, and reading the highlighted opinion piece with a growing sense that Rod was losing his touch. It took two paragraphs before I looked at the byline to see it was written by that other well-known "Ro" - Roger Kerr.
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Because she thought there were too many jobs in the government!
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Just bumping this to say I liked both Matt Smith and Amelia/Amy. Not being a Dr Who fan till the last couple of years, I won't dare say more.