Posts by Kyle Matthews
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Would it be possible for me to have a word with the Italian expert in your department? Or you could slap him or her on the thighs very hard on my behalf, I'm really not that fussed.
Oh he desperately loves Italy, goes there every year and has a wonderful time. He just says that Italians are (to stereotype I guess) very passionate people, and sometimes that comes out in ways that wouldn't make sense to NZers.
We had another lecturer, for example, who came here from (Northern I think) Italy for a semester. He was flying out of an airport which had been shut down for three days because of a strike, and the government sent the army in to evacuate all the travellers to another airport. I asked him why they didn't just leave of their accord on buses and he just shrugged and said that was the way things were done there.
Here's the thing: imagine you have National in power for the next forty-six years. (Stopped shivering yet?) Never, or seldom, alone, most often in coalition with bits and pieces parties, two or three or even four at a time. Only at the end, for a period of a little over ten years, does one of these partners exceed 10 per cent of the vote, at which point National throws them the bone of the occasional prime ministership. Would you call this "unstable"? It's the closest I can think of to one party rule in a Western democracy.
Yeah, that was my understanding of the situation too. I guess I wouldn't call a government stable if it failed to make it through to the election, and that did happen sometimes in Italy. Consistently lead by one party, yes.
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I'm getting that, Jon. It started when I updated the flash player to look at the nzonscreen website.
The automatic redirect to versions of flash that media send you on, often completely screw things. I've sometimes had to uninstall and start from scratch.
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Italy had a long, semi-continuous, stable government with the Christian Democrats in power between 1946 and 1992. Beat that with a stick (I know I felt like it).
Giovanni, you'd know the history of your country ten times better than I would.
But I did a 1st year history essay in 1993 on the Italian political system. My conclusion was that the lack of stability they'd had in coalitions over the past few decades was largely down to the low level of proportionality so that coalitions needed to be held together by umpteen parties at the various levels, and when they had (what the Italian expert in my department would call a "very Italian") falling out the government fell over and had to be reconstructed with a bunch of the other parties for a while longer.
the fragmentation would make it easier to govern, not harder; a government would have more options to shop around and gain a majority on legislation.
That's a big presumption. Yes there would be more parties in government, but each of them would have slightly less MPs, so everything would have to have one or two more parties to get over the line. That would be harder - getting an extra one or two parties to agree to pass everything.
Also, to hold a government together, you'd have to keep 5 political and personal egos in line, instead of the current 3 or 4.
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Oh wait, I didn't read to the bottom!
Twirling ban
Al Sobotka, the Joe Louis Arena head ice manager and one of the two Zamboni drivers, is the person who retrieves the thrown octopuses from the ice. After he retrieves an octopus, he has been known to twirl it above his head as he walks across the ice rink to the Zamboni entrance.
On April 19, 2008, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell sent a memo to the Detroit Red Wings organization that forbids Zamboni drivers from cleaning up any octopuses thrown onto the ice and imposes a $10,000 fine for violating the mandate.[8] The linesmen will instead perform any clean-up duties. In an email to the Detroit Free Press NHL spokesman Frank Brown justified the ban because "matter flies off the octopus and gets on the ice" when Al Sobotka swings it above his head.[9] In an article describing the effects of the new rule the Detroit Free Press dubbed the NHL's prohibition as "Octopus-gate".[10] By the beginning of the third round of the 2008 playoffs the NHL loosened the ban to allow for the octopus twirling to take place at the Zamboni entrance.[11]
Octopus-gate. Heh.
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Heh. That Redwings octopus wiki page is worth quoting at length:
There is a certain etiquette that must be followed for fans that wish to throw octopuses onto the ice.[3]
Beforehand, an octopus should be boiled for at least 20 minutes on high heat with a little lemon juice and white wine. This will mask the creature's odor as well as reducing the amount of slime. A raw dead thrown octopus would result in a smelly ball that would stick to the ice upon impact and possibly leave an inky stain, while a well-boiled octopus will bounce and roll across the surface of the ice.
After the octopus has been properly prepared it must be smuggled into the ice arena, as it is against the law in Detroit (and other NHL cities) for a fan to throw anything onto the ice during a game. A preferred method is to wrap the octopus in plastic (a trash bag or a large Ziploc bag will do) and then wrap the package around one's middle section to give the appearance of a beer belly.
The most appropriate time to throw an octopus onto the ice is after the national anthem is sung or after the Red Wings have scored a goal. The octopus must be thrown onto the ice surface in an area that is clear of all players. It is never acceptable to aim for opposing players. Tactics are also used to protect the identity of octopus-throwers from arena security. It is common practice for the hurler to ask the surrounding people to stand up with him to shroud the task in anonymity.
Experienced throwers grasp the octopus around the middle of its arms with the octopus's head (or more correctly, its mantle) hanging down near the thrower's knee and then swings the octopus with an overarm motion. Holding the octopus by the ends of its arms prior to the throw may result in the mantle of the octopus breaking off during the wind-up.
After successfully participating in this peculiar tradition, the octopus thrower is left with a tell-tale indicator: stinky hands. It is advisable to bring along a wet wipe and a slice of lemon to assist in removing the odor.
They're all class in Detroit.
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All Blacks - not playing
Coming to a former British colony probably no where near you!
And the poor guy they sent out to sweep them all up.
A dildo is not the worst thing he would have had to remove. Hats are fairly common, but I've seen rink staff have to remove a dead octopus from the ice (how the fans got that in, I have no idea).
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Oh, and if NZF make it over, its probably curtains for National.
As NZ First gets "quasi-cleared" by the privileges committee and the SFO, in hindsight Key's decision could be looking more and more interesting.
Morally he'll probably always be seen as right, however if NZF do make it in, it'll possibly lead to another term of left-wing government. History is going to look very interestingly at that, as might his own party.
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Lol. Steve brought the funny.
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Actually, the Greeks and the Romans were fine with it
Yes, but they had that whole molesting the slave boy thing going on.
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