Posts by Bevan Shortridge
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Joe wrote:
how many of the ancestors were illiterate. Like, signing marriage, baptism, and birth registers with their mark ('X'), which was then annotated and endorsed by some official or church functionary
Two of My great (x4) grandfathers witnessed land transactions in the Hokianga in the 1830s and both had "his mark" next to their names. Someone evidently wrote down their names for them, but there was a problem in that the person would write down what they thought they had heard. That was fine for John Baker. Not so good for Hewen/Hugh surnamed Manall/ Manhall/ Munhaul/ Munhall. His children varied the spelling as well. They could write, though. Hugh's son had his will in Maori and in English by 1858. Has caused problems trying to track the family with the multiple variants.
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RE: Radio NZ's coverage. I felt it was more, maybe immediate? TV gave the visual impact when it did get going but with RNZ you didn't need to wait for someone to get the pictures, or for someone/something to get on camera, or to get to a studio, RNZ could do it by phone from the Wellington studio. So they could get going with coverage a lot earlier than TV.
They could also ring a number of present and former staff in the region who could give their first hand experiences of the quake (Interesting that two of those they spoke to were in the San Francisco quake in 89).
Again, voices only and not pictures were needed. My thought on TV was that even if they didn't have pictures to show early on they could be relaying Civil Defence info. I then thought it might be more likely, with power gone, that you could listen to a radio (batteries, in a car) than watch the TV.
[EDIT} @Damian Christie. Hmm, snap, although had not read your comments aimmediately bove when I posted.
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Somewhat surreal hearing Kim Hill on RNZ explaining exactly how to make a temporary toilet. Very useful, yes, but a bit surreal nonetheless.
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Probably stupid to ask, but is there a guide somewhere as to what these new entities will be doing / looking after? What I'd like on the elections2010 site is if you get to vote for a Ward, Local Board, this is what those people voted in will be looking after, what they will be responsible for etc. This is what they will be doing. If there isn't one already...
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For the Australian election tomorrow. Pulled from Australian TV but still on Youtube:
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Hmmm. 42 on that test. Thought I had gotten slightly better in the whole social situations thing. Well, maybe I have and a few years ago my score would have been rather higher. I'm fine if I know the people but if they're new I think I've been known not to utter a word. What 81stcolumn wrote sounded familiar in parts. People used to ring up and open with "whaddya know?" Never knew what the correct response to that was, so there was usually silence from my end. That or "Not much". Is there a guide on conversation responses? If someone says "blah" then the correct / usual response is...
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George wrote:
There was an ad on television a few years ago in which "Dave"? got his 15 cent paper delivered with only the sports section and few other articles, and it cost him 15 cents.
Daily Keno adverts - "You call the shots". Another ad concerned Avocados IIRC.
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Stevie and Stones performing a blend of Uptight and Satisfaction.
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Robyn Gallagher spake:
Do you think John Key has ever actually partied? Like, real hard-as?
Well, there was that "Groove into the future with National" thing a few years back. Although I don't recall the news footage showing him partying much. Or at least none of the hard-as variety.
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The talk of treating the dead made me try and figure out what I've long thought was a bizarre remark about my great grandparents in an acquaintance's diary when they were living on Capri (my great grandmother was from Naples). They had quarrelled because, in January 1890, my great grandmother had wanted to "exhume and scrape her mother's bones". The problem being her mother had been deceased for 12 months and "the legal period was 18 months".
I have had no idea for years why she wanted to exhume the bones (being used to the buried generally staying where they were). I found an article today that mentioned burial sites could be rented in Italy. In Naples, after 18 months, the soil had mummified the bodies enough so they could be exhumed, wrapped, and placed in family crypts in catacombs, therefore relieving descendants of paying the rental, and allow someone else to be buried. It was a way to cope with overcrowding and ongoing rental fees. It happened elsewhere with differing times depending on the times it took the soils to mummify.
<Edit>
Gio, is this still so? The article I read was from 1994 and the practice seemed to be current then...