Posts by dyan campbell
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
<quote>The question is why do 13 year olds need idols/heroes that have to be adulated en masse.<quote>
You know, pre-teen idols are not just in the public eye either. I remember years ago, when I taught gymnastics in Canada, I held up a jacket left behind by a very good-looking, kind and popular little boy who left the gym boarded the bus before his classmates.
"Oh look" I said "David's left his jacket-" and at that I was bowled over by a surging tide of 6 to 10 year old girls shrieking
"I'LL TAKE IT TO HIM!! I'LL TAKE IT TO HIM!!"
and I watched the little jacket being stretched in many, many directions, the screaming gaggle disappeared with the holy garment. I can only assume it was no longer in one piece when it got to David.
-
adulated en masse
and ululated
Heh, yes the wailing can be deafening.
-
This is a deeply insightful observation, Dyan -- comparable, I think, with the work of the great philosophers at the peak of their powers.
Oh, why thank you Prof Haywood, but I must defer to my greater hero, Paula Bennet. When she, as a tiny child was holding her family's outings to ransom until her demands for ice cream were met, I was merely wailing
"I don't feel like it."
My Mum, who was unable to see greatness, would respond with some dreary-horizon limiting thing like
"How we feel is beside the point, as you are not the only creature in the universe with feelings. It's how we behave that matters."
-
He is being educated by tutor
Yeah right
Er, yeah right and he will probably go to college after high school.
In my entire life, I have only met one Canadian who didn't finish high school - and even he was forced (by his appalled girlfriend) to get his GED.
Canadian children are legally not allowed to leave formal schooling at 14 and because of peer pressure, very, very few would leave before 17 or 18 as it would make them just too weird.
The question is why do 13 year olds need idols/heroes that have to be adulated en masse.
13 would be the upper age range of Justin Bieber's fan base. His most ardent, lunchbox-purchasing fans will be around 8 to 10 years old.
It has ever been thus. There are no more ardent fans than tiny girls. Their little hearts beat with a fearsome passion the old, old jaded over-16s just don't get. They bond with their own set by sharing an overwhelming attraction to and adulation for a cute boy that unnerves and irritates anyone older. They cry because despite being tiny, they are old enough to realise they can't have him .
This should be evident to anyone watching the whole frenzied scenes unfold. Jeez, how old are you Bart??
Tiger Beat Magazine and the merchandising of very cute boys to pre-teen girls is a pretty old marketing and/or social phenomenon.
-
Bart, listen to the interview in NZ - the guy keeps saying "Gew-man" in his NZ accent - the interviewer - being a NZer - does not pronounce the "R" sound.
Justin Beiber's family is German. His Opa is German. He's spent time in Germany and speaks a little German.
Where on earth would you get the notion he left school at 14? No Canadian kid is allowed to leave formal education at 14 . He is being educated by tutor, like all squillionaire child stars.
All teen idols are past their use-by date in 3 years because their fans are 5 - 12 years old.
-
Ms Bennett and her horsey may soon be required to trample a few dreams in another hemisphere. All three losers of the British general election are blathering about the need for stable government.
Mr Challinor, I admire you as a poet but I see you are unaware of the nature and status of Paula and Phar Lap.
I refer you to the Way Back When pages of today's Sunday Star Times Magazine, where Paula describes how, unlike the other more tractable members of her family, she was able to ask the hard questions and make the frank statements.
1. "Why are we going?"
2. "Where are we going?"
3. "What shoes shall I wear?"*
4. "I don't want to go."
5. "I'll only go if I can get an ice-cream on the way. I'm not happy about going to visit that aunt."I admire you as a Poet, and Mr. Haywood as a Scientist, but can any of you ask the hard, hard question:
"WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME??"
Have either of you asked that question lately? No, I didn't think so. And that would be why you are neither super-heroes, nor are you friends with the famous Phar Lap. You will never be anything more than Poets, Scientists and other dreary things that don't inspire great things.
Sometimes you people disappoint me and other times I can't be bothered wasting my time, mental energy and trouble thinking how much better Paula and I are that you. Before I think anything, I ask myself the hard questions:
What's in it for me? Ice cream? Air time? A junket? A pony? Shoes?
Nothing? Well, forget it then. I'm not going to waste energy thinking if I don't have to.
-
Not a geography (or languages) major.
To Canadian ears it sounds like "Jewman" as there is no "r" sound in Newzilndish. You could see Bieber was startled by the question, which he mistakenly thought was rude.
The Canadian take on rude questions is often passive non-comprehension which is usually interpreted as stupidity. The first time someone here described my relatives (in a photo) as "chinky-chonky" I made the moron repeat herself 5 or 6 times before she went away frustrated, disgusted and convinced I couldn't understand a word she was saying. It's a technique employed by actors (think Keanu Reeves, Jason Priestley, Michael J Fox) and is the Canadian cultural equivalent of heaving a telephone at someone's head.
This also reminds me of an incident that took place between my sister and my Jewish (Manhattan born, Christmas-celebrating) brother-in-law. Gene (who closely resembles Anthony Bourdain in appearance, voice and vocal delivery). "Gene, you look like a gerbil" she remarked to which he responded "DID YOU CALL ME A JEW-BOY?!?"
Besides, isn't the German word for basketball "korbal" or something?
-
Wait, she has Charisma too?
Silly Emma, of course she has Charisma too, you just don't see that Paula is a superhero now that she's all finished being a beneficiary herself. She was able to to pull herself up by her own bootstraps.
Beneficiaries can straighten up and succeed like she has. Well not that well because she is pretty special. But sort of better than they are now.
Emma, I sometimes I worry you have no romance about you.
-
I think you're giving Paula way too much credit.
No, you just don't recognise a crusader when you see one. If you could all stop mocking Paula and let her get on with crushing beneficiaries and their dependents and stop whining about boring things that aren't about her bonhomie, fun and charisma... maybe if you just let a superhero get on with her job I could get my damn pony.
-
There is Italian, Alnus Cordata (12m) or , Glutinosa native to Europe, Asia or North Africa,(18-20m), Incana,also native of Europe and North America(15m) but no Mexicano.
Mexico is in North America though, Sofie.