Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit

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  • Rich Lock,

    I'd prefer to end up as ashes and carbon emissions.

    Go with a bang.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,

    nobody has come back to confirm it yet

    Roger Douglas?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to Sacha,

    Ha ha ha!!!

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Islander,

    It is an artifical label, and just a convenient politcal meme.

    The BBC article treats boomer as if it's a purely cultural label. Not true. Public policy and planning has to consider the big impact of the post-war demographic bulge regardless of what you call it. And the subsequent generational bulges that drive other things like employment, youth crime and school numbers.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to Islander,

    ‘babyboomers’ were a late invention as a ‘generation.’

    Mum used to talk about the "post-war baby boom" (I was born just after the war) so the term might be a late invention, but the idea of a bulge in births all about the same time being given a term isn't so far-fetched. "Baby boom" is over 60 years old now.

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    spooky country...
    just like the "Marie and the Atom" link
    - it had just been posted the day before I went looking for it - here is a "chanced upon" link that combines Baby Boomers and our perceptions of reality...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    In particular, Ben, who didn't want to be drawn into thinking about all this stuff - sorry, Ben - it must be a bit tedious.

    Nah, it's fine, I like hearing what other people think on the subject. But I've found dwelling on it to have been a very unproductive habit for myself. Perhaps writing it down will stop me doing it. I'm glad to see Steve Parks and Jack Elder hovering too, as people who've studied Philosophy more recently than me, and (I expect) more diligently and longer. Maybe there are (although I don't hold out much hope) actually some new idea from philosophers (as opposed to scientists who eventually eat up all of philosophy) on the subject.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Mm. Coincidences and tram lines around the world!

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • andin,

    No Jacqui it must be me who apologises!

    I’m rather glad you said this, as I suspect I read your earlier response to mine as being aggressive.

    I have been deliberately tart (as Islander said I think) sometimes I fell ashamed to have even shared a planet with some, who I have to share a colloquialism with. And I have had some domestic problems, I don't mean to use that as an excuse. And I hope I don't get mistaken for a bully and incur the wrath those whose site we use. So maybe this may have spilled into my replies.
    So I apologise my lack of manners and a confused mind.

    “Baby boom” is over 60 years old now.

    And if someone calls me baby .......one more time!

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to BenWilson,

    I've been trying to remember the name of a woman philosopher I read about many years ago. (Can't remember, and the list of female philosophers I found didn't ring any bells.) She had an amanuensis, and the contract was that whichever one died first, she would give the other a defining answer to life, the universe and everything (with thanks to Douglas Adams).

    Came the deathbed scene - the amanuensis whispered "What is the answer?" The dying response was "What was the question?"

    Around about then, I saw that for me anyway, the answer is "the whole of my life".

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,

    She had an amanuensis

    I think they prefer to be called personal assistants.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to giovanni tiso,

    Yay! but in this particular instance, the assistant was definitely an amanuensis. Kind of points towards the 20s or 30s.

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to andin,

    And I have had some domestic problems, I don’t mean to use that as an excuse.

    Oh - bugger! I've just used that as an excuse for not remembering the second referendum on MMP.

    And thanks for your words. I appreciate it very much.

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,

    "What was the question?"
    are the reputed last words of Gertrude Epstein to her life partner Alice B. Toklas, who did act as amanuensis to GE.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • JackElder,

    I had an amenuensis once. The doctor took it off with liquid nitrogen. Itched like hell for days.

    Wellington • Since Mar 2008 • 709 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to Islander,

    Oh, yes, thanks - that is spot on! So, just looking on Google, she doesn't come up as a philosopher....perhaps she was doing what so many of us do, trying to figure out some things for herself in amongst the work she did for a living?

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,

    Kind of points towards the 20s or 30s.

    I was going to say "the 1220s or 30s, right?" but look, in English it's used up until the last century. You could have knocked me down with a quill.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    watch those diary products...

    She had an amanuensis

    I think they prefer to be called personal assistants.

    PA could stand for Philosopher's Amanuensis...

    Though in this case...

    Came the deathbed scene – the amanuensis whispered “What is the answer?” The dying response was “What was the question?”

    ... it's probably a Black Bury...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,

    Well, they were both independently wealthy women…Alice’s cookbook became v. popular in the 1960s & 70s because one of the recipes contains marijuana(“Hashish Fudge"…I have a copy bought from the Folio Society in 1994 (it was originally published 50 years earlier.)
    Ian D & Jack E – snicker! Good ones!
    Ditto, Giovanni-

    And my apologies – Gertrude’s last name was just Stein (I was thinking of the limerick…)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Carol Stewart, in reply to Islander,

    Worth reproducing, I feel:
    There’s a wonderful family called Stein:
    There’s Gert and there’s Ep and there’s Ein.
    Gert’s poems are bunk,
    Ep’s statues are junk,
    and no one can understand Ein.

    Wellington • Since Jul 2008 • 830 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    what no limned Rick,
    nor Frank N. ...
    nor Beer...

    ...odd that Gertrude's last name means Stone
    but it's Alice's cookies that get you there!
    a joint effort perhaps?

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn,

    I've just got to post this - tonight we decided to watch a film which had been recorded some time ago. Didn't know anything about it at all, but we usually video things which look interesting, so off we went. It was about death, meditation, other dimensions......The Fountain.

    While we were watching, my sister asked me if I thought one of the scenes was a dream sequence. I said I didn't know. "What is the answer?" she said.

    Yes, yes, I know - pure coincidence :)

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Well, Alice was the smoker (tobacco only – the hashish recipe was given to her by one of her friends and both she – & Harper’s who published the cookbook in 1954 (sobs, my memory is deteriorating, must be all the healthy food I am eating) were mortified to learn that it wasnt quite legal….)

    Jacqui D – I’ve thought, ever since I read GE’s death-bed retort/reply, that she was entirely in command of her mind while dying.
    “What is the answer?"Alice B.T
    “What is the question?” GE dies.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • andin,

    I just like to read this kind of drivel and laugh.

    The Fountain's theme of fear of death is "a movement from darkness into light, from black to white" that traces the journey of a man scared of death and moving toward it. The film begins with a paraphrase of Genesis 3:24, the Biblical passage that reflects the The Fall of Man. Hugh Jackman emphasized the importance of the Fall in the film: "The moment Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, humans started to experience life as we all experience it now, which is life and death, poor and wealthy, pain and pleasure, good and evil. We live in a world of duality. Husband, wife, we relate everything. And much of our lives are spent not wanting to die, be poor, experience pain. It's what the movie's about."Aronofsky also interpreted the story of Genesis as the definition of mortality for humanity. He inquired of the Fall, "If they had drank from the Tree of Life [instead of the Tree of Knowledge] what would have separated them from their maker? So what makes us human is actually death. It's what makes us special."

    Aronofsky sounds like a complete tool. And producers and actors fell for this tosh as well. But I saw this Can we accept that politicians, CEO's, celebrities, and perhaps people in almost any walk of life can achieve many things and still be twits with really poor judgment and fundamentally flawed understanding of the world around them (AKA Stupid).
    And it made sense.
    Anyway hope you had a few laughs in the filmI did, it got a bit tedious towards the end tho'.
    For some reason I just wanted to make it 1200 posts. Must be the OCD kicking in.

    raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report Reply

  • Jacqui Dunn, in reply to andin,

    Andin – they’ve got to sell the film – it would be part of the contract for the leads to go out and talk about it, even if, privately, they didn’t much go for it.

    While I was watching, I was thinking – especially towards the end – that this would be the point that 85% of your average audience would start slow-clapping, while the remaining 15% would be wondering where the film was going.

    I don’t think it will stay with me very long.

    And (added after reading your link), this ties in rather with Celia Wade-Brown's idea that just because someone has skills, doesn't mean they can't improve by learning new ones.

    Does anything else think that PAS threads are cross-pollinating?

    Deepest, darkest Avondale… • Since Jul 2010 • 585 posts Report Reply

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