Posts by Tom Beard
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I've been to my share of meetings with karakia, and while I don't object to others expressing their beliefs, I feel it would be more disrespectful to mouth empty words than to keep quiet. I felt that I didn't make a fuss about it, and that by bowing my head in silence during the prayer I was both respecting others' rituals and joining in the contemplative moment.
However, there was always at least one manager who would give me the evil eye for not reciting along. When I came to my turn to choose a karakia, I happily went with Whakataka te Hou (as others have mentioned), and I joined in secular waiata and mihi with pleasure, but for some it seemed that unless I joined in the full Maori/Anglican theology I was being an ignorant colonialist.
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"You just missed a great New Zealand cultural moment," advised the MP for Wellington Central, and I expect he was right.
And if you'd been in Wellington Central, you'd have witnessed another "great New Zealand cultural moment". Horrific though it is to contemplate the thought that the swilling, pullulating festival of munterhood that is the Sevens is an authentic cultural moment, I fear that it may be just that.
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I want to pay artists, not fat old white men sitting around pools in Vegas.
Hey! That's my retirement plan!
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Tom Beard, that Calimocho sounds unbelievably vile.
It's actually surprisingly palatable, especially over lots of ice on a hot day. I read somewhere that it was a recipe "passed on from father to son" in Spain. Then again, I read somewhere else that that only applied if the son was under 15 and the father had prison tatts...
...which brings us neatly back to Lower Hutt and boy racers.
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I've spotted spanish red wine in Woolworths for $4 on occasion. It made perfectly good sangria.
Should be good for Calimocho.
Wasn't half as bad as some NZ Sav blancs - I detest that variety and I can't think why NZ would want to be known around the world for tnat pissy sweet taste.
Hear hear! In fact, the best approach to pronouncing "sav" or "sauv", if you want a decent wine, is to simply say "Ries-ling".
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Research shows that risky behaviour probably is genetically hard-wired in
Biological determinism alert! Next you'll be claiming that human beings are actually mammals as well as cultural agents...
But yes, risk-taking is a huge part of the transition from dependent childhood to independent adult. I just wish we could get them to prove their bravery by sending them off to kill a lion with a spear, rather than charging around the city streets.
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So, why is it that people supposedly don't like Kyle Mills? There was one notoriously bad spell of death bowling IIRC, but wasn't that 5 years ago?
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And on an entirely different point, your use of "sav" is another example in addition to "tute" of abbreviations spelt to fit English language conventions, not the word they were abbreviated from.
I've always found it weird that people abbreviate "sauvignon" to "sav" in speech: after all, the long version isn't pronounced "savvignon". Maybe its because of the assonance in "Cab Sav", which has been thought of as a major grape variety for a lot longer than "Sav Blanc" has?
Another example of re-spelling abbreviations is "brekkie" for breakfast. I saw a cafe chalkboard advertising "breaky" recently, and it's just wrong.
And as for boy racers: wouldn't they have been blatting about on Harleys (or similar) 50 years ago? It's just cheap imports and ready credit that' smade it possible for them to do the same with cars. Time for another Mazengarb report?
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Memorising RGB codes
I saw a t-shirt the other day that read:
"Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All of my base
Are belong to you"I suppose that to some people, that will be the most romantic thing they have ever heard.
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Quitter! My Zappa has just about acquired enough length at the ends to call for some moustache wax and become a full-fledged Handlebar plus Chin Puff, and you have to go all baby-faced on me! Call yourself a chap?!