Posts by Susan Snowdon
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That was scary. It needed a 'that is not ok' intervention. Good for you Russell.
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About using 'real' people in ads, for whatever purposes, eg UOA. Do ordinary people worry about their loss of privacy? (Do you?) Or the use of your image for commercial purposes when that's not your job or you haven't been paid for it? Or does everyone just want to be on TV (or buses)? I wouldn't even agree to be filmed for being the hero of the hour in a news item, should that occasion arise.
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For onion eyes, try wearing those safety glasses that hardware shops sell, the ones that are wrap around or like goggles. Or even swimming goggles. They help reduce the amount of irritant vapour hitting your eyeballs. (You just look like an idiot.)
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Russell, I'm a computer illiterate drongo, more or less, but I've read your Listener column for years. I used to enjoy Joseph Romanos too, and I wouldn't know a rugby ball from a hole in the ground. Good writing can do that.
I want to say how I've appreciated you sharing with Listener and PAS readers some of your family life with your boys, without making them the 'story of the week' or impinging on their privacy. (I think I recall Jollisa G. saying something about this, about her decision that it wasn't fair to make her children public property.) So thanks for your delicate touch, and showing something of ASD to the wider world. I never found three teenage girls easy, but your job as parents has been that much more of a challenge. Good for you. Two gold stars... -
How can I remember how to spell occasion?
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Apropos nothing in particular, I discovered there's lots of Pohutukawa in the southern beach suburbs of Perth. Lovely that. I've no idea what the WA locals call them. In the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Bondi et al, they're just known as a "Christmas bush" (bloody Aussies).
Are you sure they're Pohutukawa? (genus Metrosideros). You'll know when they flower, in December. Auckland garden centres sell plants called 'Sydney Christmas Bush' and 'Christmas Bush.' One of them is Syzygium (much the same as Eugenia/Lilly Pilly) and I've forgotten the other one.
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In no particular order and my personal favourites today
Kiwi saver
Working for families
Student loans
Repeal of section 59
Civil union legislation
Legalisation of prostitution
Treaty negotiations
Free trade deal with China
Michael Cullen as treasurer -
I believe that the Otago University longitudinal study looked at it, and found that children who were smacked, but only lightly, were statistically less likely to engage in risky behaviours like smoking or underage drinking or engage in early sexual experiences, or end up in trouble with the law, etc. that those who were violently assaulted as children, or even those who were never smacked.
But this doesn't prove cause and effect. Violent parents and non-smacking parents may be different in other ways to 'light/occasional' smackers. e.g. in terms of parenting/personality style. I think there are studies showing differences in outcome between authoritarian, laissez-fair, and (I can't remember the other one), possibly authoritative, family types. So smacking, or not, or abuse, actually reflects something else that's happening within the family dynamic.
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I know, I should stop...
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Grant Dexter has a Bebo Page, how cool is that?
Where he asks:
What is the greatest social issue of our time? 41 days ago
Well .. it's a tough issue. For a start there are far too many homos running around. It's really annoying not being able to take more than a few paces outside without having to risk losing one's lunch.
Then there are the adulterers. They should be strung up as an example. I'll not say where or how.
But the most egregious social issue of our age is the endless stream of lives that are sacrificed through abortion.