Posts by Jolisa
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Man, I'm glad I didn't link to the Wikipedia page, if children are reading this. I'm still recovering from the picture.
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and Albert became Prince Albert Otter.
Wahey! The kinky bugger. Still, a nice touch for the honeymoon.
(Sorry Kyle)
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what are your feelings about "awesome"? Apparently visitors to NZ can't get over how often we say it and how multi-purpose it is. It's a word I've come to hate, personally.
I hate it too, and yet am also guilty of overusing it -- to the point where my kids assume it's an all-purpose synonym for good, thanks, wow, no problem, yummy, etc etc.
New Year's resolution: to stop doing so. I had a moment of clarity at the bank yesterday, when we said to the teller we'd like to transfer some money from one account to another. "Awesome," was her reply.
When we filled in the form and brought it back up, she went one better, pronouncing us "Amazing."
Totally deadpan, not a shred of irony. This was in Hamilton, but still. It's word inflation, is what it is -- where do you go for real awesome, when "awesome" now just means OK?
I'm thinking of announcing an awesome freeze for 2009, to get the verbal currency back on track.
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(It had better not have whitebait in it, is all I'm saying)
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After a recent rofflenui at Honey Bar, this could be the summer of the mint julep.
Rofflenui is a drink now? Recipe please!
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Gorgeous, and talented to boot. She's a doll!
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Oh and thanks Susan for reminding me: there are now two very fine EPs by the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra in the shops, for your listening pleasure. And an album in the works. Rock on!
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I think the great childrens' authors are those who've discovered that you don't get the enduring light without the dark.
Craig, I'd agree completely -- although Arthur Ransome didn't see fit to drown any of his unsupervised little sailors, and is still a great children's author. (BTW David, how did you resist the temptation to sit young Roger, I mean Bob, in the bows for a perfect photo op?).
But in general, yes, a heart of pragmatic darkness anchors the very best writing for children. You inspired me to dig up an observation by Joan Aiken that I cited in a very old blog post:
There is a current fashion for suggesting that everything is very easy, if it is properly explained. ... I can hardly state strongly enough what a mistake I think this is, to tell children that they will find a solution to every problem they are likely to encounter.
[Instead] it is the writer's duty to demonstrate to children that the world is not a simple place. Far from it. The world is an infinitely rich, strange, confusing, wonderful, cruel, mysterious, beautiful, inexplicable riddle. We too are a riddle. We don't know where we come from or where we are going, we are surrounded by layers of meaning that we can only dimly apprehend, however much we try to learn.
And how much more enjoyable it is for children -- how much more it accords with their own observations and instinctive certainties -- to be told this, than to be told that the world is a flat, tidy, orderly place, with everything mapped out and accounted for by computer, with no unexplored regions left; that somewhere, neatly waiting, each person has an identity, like a parcel left at the post-office to be collected; that a naughty bear who doesn't like playing with other bears has only to be invited to a party, and he will soon change his ways.
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Deborah, I knew we were sisters under the skin. Which one is your cuzzie again?
And yes, I'll second the recommendation for Alistair's Music. Rainbow of ukuleles on the top shelf just looking for a good home.
Ben, bro, that is the best landing story. Reminds me of flying back to NZ not long after 9/11, and in the middle of the flight, a voice over the intercom started quietly counting down from ten. I thought it was all over ...3...2...1...
And then when we didn't explode in mid-air, I realised the flight attendant was saying "Happy New Year!" I'd totally forgotten what day it was.
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I've always wondered if use in multiple use of colons in a single sentence was punctual sin but, hey!: if an award winning writer on words can use them with aplomb..!: I may as well imitate!
Ha! Whoops. Ah... it wasn't a mistake, it was typographical Christmas decorations. Yeah! Like fairylights but in print.
::See:?:: ::Mega::festive::!::
Merry Xmas (where X = appropriate festival)
I like it :-)