Posts by Dinah Dunavan
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I still wish that 12+ years ago Singapore Airlines had a manual that had a paragraph which went something like:
"For the comfort of other paying customers please refuse to serve more than 6 standard drinks to rude, loud, fat, drunk white men. Particularly when the flight time is over 10 hours long".
Actually I would have been happy if it left out the "rude, loud, fat, white men bit" and referred to any customers. -
Years ago when I applied for a job at the Fight Centre I was somewhat saddened to realise that they thought the job was about sales while I thought it was about customer service. Didn't get that job and stopped going to the FC for my travel as the reason the staff always seemed so unhelpful became clear. Thankfully Glynn at VIP travel seems to be more customer focused than the FC people.
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Ah, morphine.
Responsible for two extra days in hospital, two days of throwing up everything I took orally, and two days of the worst headache I have ever experienced. Fortunately I was too weak to say anything rude when the nurse asked me if the headache as bad as a migraine, something I had never experienced.
At least I now can say "yes" when asked if there is any medication I'm allergic to.
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1. Jim Mora would be on Morning Report, Nine to Noon and Afternoons.
2. Bottle, but there would be more than one.
3. A well heeled gent striding down Lambton Quay with his hand in your pocket.
4. He's going to rent a campervan and chuck the bikes in so the kids can ride the cycle paths the length of NZ.
5. Who cares. The NZ public love Mr Key. -
Eagle vs Shark ... that film annoyed me in about 15 different ways
Same.
Sigh. -
Consider how Brian Edwards' Saturday morning program ... was so much better (in my view) than Kim Hill today
The only real hiatus in my RNZ listening was in the last year Brian Edwards was on Saturday mornings. I missed RNZ like crazy but I wasn't going to listen to Brian's arrogance one minute more. One morning he said in response to a listener's comment (and I am paraphrasing) "if you don't like what I am saying you can turn off your radio". So I did. It was a relief, but I missed RNZ on Saturdays and was very pleased when Brian left and I could start listening again.
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As long as I can remember my parent's house has had the concert programme (aka RNZ Concert, or whatever) playing in the background. Sometimes quietly sometimes not so. Sometimes when it is Jazz Dad would make sushing noises and we'd all ignore him.
When people say to me "oh Richard Clayderman (the fat tenors, Barbara Streisand, or insert your favourite bland music here) your mother would love his CD". I say, "ah, no, not really".
I can't imagine a world without the concert programme playing music that isn't bland. Imagine if everyone thought that all classical music had to be played and sung by beautiful people in groups with names like the 'the seven irish musicians with a couple of pretty girls on violin and fat guy playing bass and a some young hunks tapping their feet' or something like that.
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I've definitely met eighteen year olds who could be passed off as 12 or 14 year olds. Maybe not pre-teen though. In the magic world of movies full sized people can be made to look like little people (even before WETA) but it probably takes more effort than most porn movie makers are prepared to go to.
I do have to admit my forays into porn in my youth consisted of Debbie Does Dallas, and a creepy movie which we stopped watching after 5 minutes when it crossed the line from consensual sex to rape. Never had the urge to watch other people faking sex again.
I feel very creeped out by the idea that a 16 (13,14,15) year old would want to have sex with someone 10 or so years older than themselves. I know that there are plenty of instances in real life as well as romantic literature of exactly this situation. I've felt my skin crawl watching young (19-25 yr old ) men (and yes it does seem to be more men than women) chatting up very young teen girls. Friends who had an apartment in central Dunedin said it was heart breaking the number of obviously under 16 year old girls they saw being given alcohol by young men with intent. I want to shake the girls and say, "these guys are slimey creeps, you can do better than them".
So, yes I have a problem with 18 year olds being dressed to look 16, because chances are it wont be 16 year olds getting their jollies from watching them. And normalising sex between 16 year olds and (let's pick a number) 36 year olds is not what I want for tomorrow's youth.
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I feel creeped out by the idea that someone would make a porn (or not) movie using women who look like pre-pubescent girls, presumably to appeal to the market for adults who believe that it is ok to have sex with children. Call me old fashioned, but I can't be ok about that.
I listened to the Sunday BBC radio interview with the man who sexually molested his eight year old daughter. He made a comment along the lines that he believed himself to be a good man so his sexual feelings towards his young daughter couldn't be bad. Imagine if he had watched kiddy porn, he probably would have been able to convince himself that his daughter desired him too.
I strongly believe that depicting sex with children is wrong, even if it the actors are adults (in the legal sense) because it is implicitly saying "this is ok". Quite apart from the whole power imbalance issue children are not ready for sex with adults. And I don't give a toss about how sexual children are, that doesn't mean it is ok for adults to have sex with them, or to pretend that given a choice the children involved wouldn't rather be a million miles away.
Have I missed a point somewhere? Am I being overly sensitive? I get the feeling from comments that I'm the only one out here feeling very disturbed by the idea of porn using child like actors.
So in answer to Emma, it is never ok to depict sex with children (or animals, touch my dog and you're a dead man). Most TV shows dealing with child molestation don't show the act and are fairly damning of the perpetrator.
Not so sure about peeing etc, is that illegal in NZ? A weird fantasy but not exactly harmful (except in a health sense). Maybe I'm wrong, I guess it could screw someone up big time if their partner insisted on it. But that goes back to the whole power thing.
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first year university drop out rates grouped by high school
In my third year (mid 80s) at Vic I met a bloke from a prestigious Whanganui boys school. He was the only Vic first year from his high school to pass all subjects in the first year. Of course, after his first year he discovered drugs and when I met him was he failing spectacularly.