Posts by Rob Hosking
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werewolves ever were the ones in Harry Potter (followed by the Nazis in American Werewolf in London)
I only recall being totally freaked out by a fillum once as a kid - a TV movie called 'Satan's Triangle'.
It showed on NZ tv in about 1977. Kim Novak had an evil smile and turned into the Devil at the end. It was freaky.
American Werewolf in London didn't scare me because it had what seemed at the time to be a really hot sex scene in it. (Come on, I was 16...). That's all I remember about it. I haven't seen it since.
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When I started watching AB matches in the mid 70s TV were not allowed to let on whether they were broadcasting the game live.
This was because the Rugby Union was worried attendance at the games would drop off.
So the TV schedules in the Listener etc would have something like an old Carry On movie or a re-run of that film about the Titanic where they all sang 'Abide With Me' as the ship went down.
Then suddenly at 2.30, the teev would go live to Carisbrook (or wherever).
The odd thing was nobody believed the charade. Everyone knew the games would be televised. It was all kind of bizarre.
I was at the 1977 AGricultural Field day the day of the first test against the Lions. A couple of stalls had brought in TVs and rigged them up. They were over-run with people at 2.30pm. I managed to squeeze my way to the front of one of them (I was a skinny 12 year old at the time) in time to see Grant Batty's intercept try.
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Excellent.
Hope they also dig out that old Glyn Tucker/Ernie Leonard vehicle from the same era, 'The Club Show'.
That was beaut.
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Oook! (Orangutan)
Nice Monkey o shit...
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'I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.' - Stephen Colbert
'Books are a load of crap.' - Philip Larkin (poet and librarian)
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The simple fact is, on balance if you will, we really have no idea, once you leave belief driven by faith behind, whether he existed or not.
The point has been made - and not only by committed Christians, although they certainly have done so - that the writings which mention Jesus are no more distant from his time than those of a number of other historical people and events.
Robin Lane Fox touches on this in his The Unauthorised Version a book I recommend to anyone interesting in these questions.
Fox is Professor of Ancient History at one of the Oxford colleges and is an atheist.
The point he leaves implicit is that it is one thing to accept Jesus as a historic personage. Personally I've got no problem with that.
It is when other more supernatural claims get made that I feel the burden of proof shifts up a bit.
The writings in the Bible closest to Jesus's time aren't the gospels at all, of course, but Paul's letters, and - possibly - the Acts of the Apostles. Neither of them claim to be first person accounts of Jesus's life.
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Carpenter, I heard. Built ornamental eggs and suchlike.
That's the guy. Also a handy bloke with fish and bread if a few extras unexpectedly drop by.
Good with lepers. Not so good with church leaders, interestingly.
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Where did the term, kicking the bucket come from?
Suicides. Stand on upturned bucket, rope round rafter, t'other end around neck.
Kick bucket, say hello to next world.
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Why do people talk about death as passing on or over if they don't think there is a destination?
I suspect for a variety of reasons. Euphemism being one. People are funny about death, I've noticed.
About the only tenet of my religious upbringing I still have is the idea of meeting loved ones again in another world.
It's not something I can claim to actually believe, but its something I'd like to believe. No one knows what happens when we die: maybe nothing; maybe we do see our loved ones again; maybe there is a bright light and a very angry voice saying 'What did I say about eating bacon??!!'
The only time Jesus actually describes heaven, he says it is like a wedding feast. This suits me fine. I've been to some great weddings over the years. Sounds better than harps and cherubs, anyway.
I remember arguing, one drunken night when I was about 20 and was still clinging somewhat precariously to old Bible Class boy beliefs, that Jesus had said 'in my fathers house are many mansions' and that one of those houses is bound to be a slightly disreputable bar where a few irreverent souls could gather.
It's also a matter of biblical record that JC liked a drop himself - the church leaders of his day were rather critical about this - and would probably spend quite a bit of time there.
I sort of envisaged him popping in for a drink, having a laugh or two, but sighing regretfully and saying saying he didn't have time for another beer, because he had to go and talk to the bloody Baptists now.
Which, now I read all that back, sort of sums up my own attitude to all this stuff.
I do believe people have a soul and I don't believe the life I see in people I know and love dies when their body does.
Where it goes I don't know, and I instinctively distrust any pat answers to that question - whether those delivering those pat answers are waving a bible or a physics text book.
And I also believe irreverent laughter is one of the holiest things we have on this earth.
None of which is particularly rational, but what the hey.
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Good for unintentional hiliarity, though.
Yep. Serve that guy right though. Those Princes of Moab were a bunch of bad donkeys.