Posts by Richard C

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  • Hard News: Now It's On,

    Also, I fear Duncan Garner's belief that beginning every second sentence with the word 'Look' denotes a gritty commitment to hard truths will reach epidemic proportions...

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Just marketing to the base,

    For me, Dickens is one of those interesting artists who transcended his limitations while leaving his faults in plain view.

    That about sums it up for me too, Joe. By the way, if any of you haven't read Orwell's terrific essay on Dickens, I'd thoroughly recommend it.

    He is all fragments, all details — rotten architecture, but wonderful gargoyles.

    Spot on George, spot on...

    It's online here:

    http://www.orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd

    (excuse the ugly URL - still a bit baffled by the hyperlink instructions..)

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Island Life: Let’s learn English, with…,

    Meanwhile, over on the Rock, the increasingly twitchy Waiheke Week has commissioned a guest editorial from Dr Michael Bassett on 'TV3 and election journalism'.

    For your eddumification I present a few clippings:

    Item!

    with the morals of an elderly uninvited funeral goer he/she helped themselves to wine and savouries while snuggling alongside private conversations at a private function

    Item!

    Duncan Garner is acting like he's on Labour's payroll

    Item!

    A small group with a Berlin Wall mentality are associated with a website Scoop..."Scoop" it transpires is also involved with Duncan Garner's story. Snooping Scoopers have become TV3's news gatherers.

    And in conclusion!

    Why were these non-stories the lead items on TV3 News? Were they paid for? Does the producer have no shame? And what, I wonder, does our Ninth Floor Nanny in the Beehive know about the activities of the Snooper Scoopers who are clearly working for Labour?

    Still, it did at least achieve something I had hitherto thought impossible: making their execrable 'Surfdale Sally' column look lucid by comparison.

    Bah! Back to ranting about Auckland City / Fullers / Townies then...

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Cracker: I don't just read the…,

    If he does it would be a very early coinage, as I come from much the same area and time as Mr Pursey, and never heard the word before the late 90's. (Hersham, btw, is an suburb in Surrey. Maybe the equivalent of Pt Chev or Kohimaramara. Not the ghetto).

    Hmm, interesting. 'Twas a common phrase down our way (Herefordshire) at least as far back as the mid-eighties.

    Generally used by suspicious villagers and, eh, silly schooboys in reference to the gypsy caravans that were holed up in a Hereford Road layby.

    All of which tends to support Sofie's wiktionary citation....

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Speaking freely,

    It equally cracks me up that Boag's rag gets such a big pickup rate. I'm sure few Waiheke folk would pay for it, on principle, but their inability to resist reading it, reminds me of my sick addiction to Kiwiblog.

    Ben, from memory, the Gulf News is the only one of the three that has its circulation independently audited, so I'd be a little wary of the claims from the Waiheke Week...

    That said, I'll happily confess to picking it up on the ferry each Thursday morning, safe in the knowledge that Mr Bennett will provide me with a few minutes of (self?) righteous fury...

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: Vote Grey Warbler,

    What, no mention on the list of our champion aviator the bar-tailed godwit? For pluck and determination, you can't go past it.

    Agreed: vote Kuaka! About ten days go (and much to our delight) we happened on a pair of them, recently returned to our local Waiheke beach. Like what that Ted Hughes had to say about Swifts:

    "They've made it again...the globe's still working."

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

  • Speaker: It's the recrimination I don't…,

    england win right? (grace forbid...)

    then imagine the ditty, "one wee war and one world cup!!"

    Not to mention the papers. Yer 'Super Soaraway' Sun will just not be able to resist some rowdy, Falklands-related stirring:

    "Paul vows to Sack Argie Defence"

    "Jump-Jet Johnny ready for war"

    "Gotcha! Again!"

    etc...

    Waiheke Island • Since Oct 2007 • 27 posts Report Reply

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