Posts by Emma Hart

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  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    From this moment forward, I only ever intend to make populous decisions.

    I've made a few of them.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    New coach for BLACK CAPS

    Well, that was quick. Mott only pulled away from the poisoned chalice this morning.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Hard News: Flu diversions,

    But readers of sci-fi seem divided into those who also like fantasy, and those who don't. Being in the 'also likes fantasy' camp, I can't understand the other camp at all. I find both genres equally unbelievable, both are just commentaries on our current mindset, and fun stories to boot.

    I've found it a matter of whether there's a consistent system or not. Magic or science, doesn't matter. I really dislike spec-fic where the speculative elements are clearly being, as we officially call it at Bardic Web, 'pulled out of your arse'. As opposed to writers who have clearly sat down first, worked out their mythos, and know what it can and can't do.

    The down side of that is Catherine Asaro's long physics dissertations. Just get back to the soft porn, woman.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Hard News: Flu diversions,

    Is there a doctor in the house? Or, rather, someone who can verify the widely-held belief that if you're busy, your body will hold off getting sick until you ease up?

    I can bring you an anecdoctor. I have a friend who's a teacher. She always gets sick in the holidays, particularly the holidays after the winter term. As a stay-at-home parent, I get sick as soon as the kids go back to school in February.

    But I suspect the high anecincidence of this phenomenon might be down to Annoyance Bias.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    Just to date me almost to a year, it was the 1992 CWC that sparked my interest in the game. A vertiable fairytale of a tournament. Not just because of the victories, but the nature of them- whether it was the sublime batting of Crowe, the pinch-hitting of Greatbatch or the bafflingly miserly bowling attack of Larsen, Harris, Watson and Patel. Everything just came into place...until a chubby Pakistani called Inziman decided to spoil things.

    Indeed, I loved that tournament - dreadful uniforms aside. It was years before I really forgave Inzamam for that performance.

    Greatbatch was almost surreal. He got pushed up to open specifically to whack shit out of it, and he seemed able to do that every game.

    And I did love that slow bowling, watching teams' run rates slow to a crawl as we choked the life out of them. There was some blinding fielding, I remember a Patel catch in the deep... For a while in the late nineties, while we weren't so great at batting or bowling you could still rely on our fielding to save about fifteen or twenty runs.

    It's actually a couple of decimal points over :-O

    40.06 for tests. He was never an ODI number three, but then neither was anyone else.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    Fortunately, I figured out that Hadyn wasn't staring at Chris Cairns' tight pants.

    I cannot speak for Haydn's proclivities.

    Soon we will have a real coach that can tell the McCullums of the world to STFU and bat at No.7 like a proper keeper. And explain to our No3 that really, no really it's OK to defend two balls in a row!

    Y'know, I really didn't want to say 'I blame the coach', because it's so hackneyed and so typically Kiwi-whiney. But...

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    and the magnificent craig mcdermott, who i have just discovered has been a bit of a bad boy

    Where would cricket be without sex scandals? One of the reasons I used to really loathe Shane Warne was his ability to take four hundred-odd wickets in his brief breaks from Olympic-level sexual harassment and pie-eating.

    Also, I note:

    n September 2006 McDermott was caught up in a sex-tape extortion case where he was allegedly blackmailed for $65,000 by 38-year-old Peter Josef Vigan in exchange for explicit videos of McDermott with his wife.

    is somewhat abiguous.

    Who was the commentator with the plummy voice ...can't think of his name, but he was quite entertaining.

    Henry Blofield?

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Sing when you're winning,

    Come over to the flannelled side, Hadyn. Resistance is futile.Come over to the flannelled side, Hadyn. Resistance is futile.

    We have cookies. And magic underwear.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Up Front: Knights in White Flannel,

    he will have to listen to the comforting gentle drone of test match commentators as I putter about in the kitchen... I feel warm and pleasant just thinking about it.

    Kerry O'Kiefe's laugh aside, there is something very pleasant about the sound of (non Martin Crowe) cricket commentary, especially for tests, when theyr'e largely just telling each other stories to pass the time. I love taking the radio out into the garden and listening to Jonathon Agnew. That's the real start of summer for me.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

  • Field Theory: Sing when you're winning,

    Yeah, that (you should hear my mother on the Howarth years), but also: it's the inconsistency. You just can't count on the buggers for anything! Except heartbreak.

    Oh, it's not the losing. I could handle the losing, especially to teams that are clearly better than we. It's the not bloody trying. It's the going out to really shit balls. It's not considering the forward defensive stroke to be a necessary skill for test cricket. Etc.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report

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