Posts by Rachel Prosser
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The law just won't refer to you as married, or husband or wife.
Thanks Graeme - that's what I thought.
I imagine that we'll eventually see some slippage on that when it comes to interpreting wills and so forth, where the person describing their own relationship - e.g. "All to my husband" would go to the civil-union or de facto (hetero or homosexual partner)
From recollection, the shortest valid will ever contained 3 words: "All to Mother". And he was meaning his wife.
There's something that's sparked discussion - partners calling each other "Mum" and "Dad". And not just to their children.
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"I’d have thought the main purpose of a heterosexual civil union was to avoid the clichéd, tacky multi-million dollar industry as preached by those ghastly magazines."
Actually, the friends with the bridal magazine were gay and male. And the party was great.
Those magazines suck you in a bit - my sister is getting married, and it's tempting to read them. However, for an antidote nothing works like
lEtiquette hell with its stories of bridezillas, groomonsters and beastmen.I'd presume that most same-sex couples wouldn't call each other 'husband' and 'wife' if married so that wouldn't change, legalised same-sex marriage or not.
Not sure about that - I've heard both lesbian friends refer to their "wife" and gay friends to their "husband". Both with and without a legal union.
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Oh, and Wayne Smith.
For scoring the try to take the shield of Wellington.
When I was 13, and told that Dad had just got a job in Ashburton and we'd be moving south from Otorohanga, I remember saying "but Wayne Smith's the only All Black I don't like"
It was because he scored the try that took the shield off Wellington. Turns out Mid Canterbury was a different team anyway.
I got over my dislike of both Canterbury Rugby and Wayne Smith, and am a fan of one and a respecter of the other now.
There's a meme - any examples of irrational hatreds turning into devotion?
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"I'm not sure about hatred, but I've always disliked BP petrol stations. I always avoided using them whenever possible......t. I had never stopped to think about why I disliked them, I just did."
I never shopped at Shell. My family shopped at the Red or Blue petrol stations - not that you see Caltex any more. He didn't shop at green ones either, so our family didn't do well out of the "BPs the one place on earth, that you get service with a Smurf" campaign.
I found out why we avoided Shell one day, when I asked my Dad. The answer was that his Dad said in 1953 (when my Dad was 7) that the Taxis in Te Awamutu went over to Shell Petrol. Then they started having engine trouble. So they switched back.
Thereafter, my grandfather avoided Shell. And so my Father did too. So I picked up the habit, and just got in the habit of overlooking them. It was like when you looked for a petrol station, you didn't really see the rival stations.
This, even when the whole family were cricket fans, would listen to the Shell cup and Shell trophy on the radio in the car in summer. And despite the fact that I loved going to Wellington from Wainuiomata and knew I we'd arrived when we saw the huge "Go well, Go Shell" sign as we exited the motorway.
It was only a habit though, and Fly Buys helped to break it.
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I'd like to encourage everyone to steal the words 'marriage', 'weddings', etc even 'wife' and 'husband' back from the fundies - apply them to civil unions with wild abandon until no one can tell the difference
I'm with Russell. Friends of mind who had a civil union called it a "wedding", some of the time, and read the bridal magazines for planning purposes. It's not unusual to hear someone refer to the other party to their civil union as their husband or wife.
On other times I've heard people refer to a "husband" or "wife" with implied quotation marks, using it metaphorically, but those quotation marks will slowly dissolve I suspect.
In any case - which law precisely says you can't call someone your husband unless you're married? Loads of de facto couples used to do it (and probably still do!)
The thing is, we need some good jargon to replace the terms "Civil Union Ceremony". "Union" sounds like you mean the EPMU. Civil Union sounds a bit formal. Uniting Party sounds a bit Peter Dunne..
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It was obvious in the case of Rodney's shirt. Would it be if somebody hired 100 out-of-work actors to wear promotional shirts?
Tricky that. I recall John O'Farrell in his memoir "Things can only get better" about the Labour opposition in exile in the UK, paying the au pair £5 to deliver leaflets, and technically being a breach of law, which prohibited paid canvassing. Too much like buying votes I suspect.
It's nice to come back to underlying principles in these things. Fundamentally, the principle is that "buying votes is wrong".
Not sure how to apply that in a modern day and age, when money buys tacticians to run dog whistle politics.
Although Freakonomics blog in the NYT reported a study about whether spending money helps candidates win. Turned out in the US, that there wasn't a correlation - rather it was successful candidates had more money because they were more popular, therefore got more donations, therefore had more to spend.
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I'm not quite sure why Rodney could not have just added a little tag to his jacket with "authorized by blah...".
Frankly, one might assume that the jacket was authorized by Rodney. Seeing he was wearing it. Nothing shadowy or behind-the-P.O.Box ness about that.
Re the "Rodney was embarrassed". Rodney PR-d the election very well, starting with his reinvention as a dancing divo, and even faux embarrassment gets more column inches (for less cost) .
That said, I have not ever managed to force myself to understand the EFA (she says, quietly) I'm sure I could understand it. But one does not have unlimited time, and must choose one's focus.
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I must be one of the few people who actually quite like the house-moving process.
We did it heaps when I was a kid - every 3 or 4 years on average. Dad said that if you haven't used something since you last moved, it's time to chuck it out.
I also liked packing and unpacking the Caravans when we went away for the weekend. And now I make do with unpacking the groceries.
I look at Wendy Davie's website, and actually relish the chance of having a go at the "before" pictures.
What's not to like - there's the oh-so-satisfying packing things into boxes in an organised way (which is fun). And labelling them (even more fun!) And unpacking (quite fun). And arranging things in a logical and orderly manner. My mother trained me well.
Moving to a new school, not so much fun always (and having been to 4 schools, in 4 towns, between my 9 and 14th birthdays, not so much fun now because there aren't many people other than my sister that I've grown up with all the way.).
But the fun of moving into a new house - lovely! I also am happy to volunteer to help others move house, but need to resist organising things for them. And suggesting where they could put their furniture. Hmm, maybe I need a career change...
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do you reckon there is a market niche for rental shoes?
Apparently so - I read in a magazine today a "Q and A" with none other than Ms Keira Knightly, who apparently rents the shoes she wears to premieres. And, as befits a Bend it Like Beckham star, prefers flats.
Or so says the Women's Weekly. Or Women's Day. Or New Idea - one of those. It wasn't mine I swear, I read it in a cafe. Where I was working. Honest!
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"If you buggers could just learn to save your ponies, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Dude, have you any idea of the stable fees?
Ahh, now you're taking "pony" too literally. It's slang for a £5 note. Like "tenner", only smaller.
Mind you, given the way our banks are charging, the stable fees for a fiver in the bank can be quite high.