Posts by Lucy Stewart
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The danger here is that people taking these drugs will see only the headlines (and Radio New Zealand seems to have been about little else this morning) and just stop taking the tablets. I can't emphasise enough how dangerous this could be.
Too right. I have a friend who's just started on anti-depressants, and she's struggling enough with the side-effects as it is. When she showed me the BBC article reporting this last night, I wanted to hit someone - this is absolutely the last thing she needs to see. I'm confident she's not going to just stop taking them, but it's hardly helpful.
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We called it tiggy or tigz in Hamilton in the 70s.
According to my partner, tag was the form used in 90s Christchurch and Blenheim, "apart from one kid, but I don't remember what he called it because I knew he was wrong and I told him so."
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I grew up in Wellington btw
Huh, me too - Wellington thing, maybe? I've never had someone comment on my accent, but I do recall that several of my friends who also make those speech distinctions (also Wellington kids) are frequently asked where they come from, because they don't sound like they were born here.
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I'm surprised! Do you also pronounce 'bear' and 'bare' differently?
Nope, those are the same. I can, however, distinguish between a beer and a bear.
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Well, I must be bucking a trend - I'm twenty-one and pronounce near and square quite differently. Here and hear are homonyms, and so are hair and hare, but the two sets are different. "Heir", if anything, is a homonym with "air", and neither rhymes with "ear".
That said, I can see a slide towards sameness in my speech with most of those, and I suspect that my pronunciation would differ depending on who I was talking to - e.g., my uni lecturer or my flatmates. Among other people my age, class seems to be the primary distinguishing factor in pronunciation (as well as, again, situation.)
The whole discussion reminds me of my Maori teacher, who effectively spoke two different dialects of English - the talking-to-parents dialect, with perfect diction, and the talking-to-students dialect, which went something like "Youse guys done well in the last assessment, eh?" It was the first time in my life I really noticed differences in NZ English.
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Indeed. I did wonder if the person who wrote the headline, and put the sarcasm quotes around 'guilty', had actually read the article.
I don't know - people will put quote marks around <i>anything</i> these days. Supermarket signs, airport signs...you name it. (The supermarket signs are my favourite, as it implies strongly that they're not <i>really</i> selling you dairy, meat, or bread products, just sinister substitutes thereof.) They seem to believe that quote marks, rather than implying doubt, are used for emphasis. Or...something.
The person who wrote that headline seems to be marginally better-educated, but they just confused me - before I read the article I couldn't work out how someone could be found sort-of-but-not-really guilty, as they were implying.
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But, isn't Richard Dawkins a refreshingly un-apologetic read?
Damn straight. Yes, every time he opens his mouth he creates ten fundies, etc, etc, but, you know what? As a member of the choir, sometimes I like to be preached to. It's...soothing. And a surprisingly useful source of logical argument, too.
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One of my regrets about the demise of Wayne Mapp from his role as 'Spokesman for the Eradication of Political Correctness' is that I never got around to sending him a copy of Saville's 'The Gay Dolphin Adventure'. I think it would have really spoken to Wayne.
Or possibly not: if I recall correctly, one of the key clues to the mystery was the bible verse which tells us "the love of money is the root of all evil". Not a message many National MPs would take to heart, one feels.
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Skip a few to Winter Holiday - always my favourite. And We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea has a great adventure in it.
Winter Holiday is excellent, but my favourite was always Pigeon Post - pigeon messages! Gold-mining! Science! Missee Lee isn't bad either, although some of the more cringe-worthy stereotyping becomes more obvious when you re-read as an adult.
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And am I the only person who is sick to death of hearing how horribly 'provoked' Mallard was - especially when it's framed as "there's no excuse for what he did but..." If you actually believe the first part of that sentence, then that's the point you STFU. I've heard this crap all too often from thugs and bullies (and their inevitable enablers) all too often to have any sympathy whatsoever.
I will agree that verbal provocation is no excuse for violence, but by most accounts, Henare grabbed Mallard by the tie. That still doesn't make Mallard any less of an idiot for starting a fistfight. It does mean that he wasn't the one who got physical first. I think there are few people who would be able to restrain themselves from some sort of physical reaction if someone grabbed them by the tie.