Posts by Lucy Stewart
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When I was a young man people for Christmas watched Young Frankenstein. It was a better world.
But did it pass the Bechdel test?
(Speaking of things that do: until last week, I had managed to avoid reading Girl Genius for five years. I don't understand how.)
until I pointed out to her that to me it was like devoting my secret mountain of gold stashed on Jupiter to the Catholic Church.
You do know that they will count you among their followers forever and ever more, right?
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So I can't use a term to describe myself that belongs to ALL of us?
You're perfectly entitled to use the term "New Zealander". As a Kiwi overseas, I certainly do, if only because explaining "Pakeha" takes far more time than it's worth.
But in a census designed to collect information on the ethnic makeup of the country, it's somewhat....pointless.
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Why are New Zealanders different?
There is something of a difference between defining yourself by your country of origin when overseas (as all those people are) and defining yourself solely by your country of origin when in it.
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Meh, I've never understood the attraction of being able to swim and ski in the same day.
I don't think it's something people really do so much as shorthand for "Yes, we are just that awesome."
I actually wonder how many USians think NZ isn't an actual country, but a dramatic construct used when a scriptwriters needs to invoke a remote and rural place.
In British TV and fiction it's still the place everyone goes when the plot requires them to have moved conveniently far, far away.
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Identify broad categories of manifestly unhealthy foods (which BTW is much easier to do scientifically) and add a duty to them. And I know for certain that adding duties is easy for supermarkets and grocers etc because they already do it for other manifestly unhealthy things.
But, as others have mentioned, then whoever did that would be the Nanny State. So it's very hard to push politically, no matter how logical it might be. Also, some foods are unhealthy when consumed in quantity; but food itself is not a luxury in the way that tobacco and alcohol are. You have to take that into account.
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Classics were the easiest and most affordable thing to buy, and because I wasn't saturated in English, I had room to take in Dickens. I had no papers, newspapers, TV, or work. If you work with words all day then Dickens is a bit much at night.
It's important to note that Dickens' works were originally serialised in newspapers, i.e.1) the longer they were, the more he got paid and 2) people read them over months and years. I reckon a lot more people could cope with an average Dickens novel if they read it over, say, the two years it took to publish Oliver Twist.
Personally, I was put off Dickens permanently around age eight when there was a Christmas sale on Dickens hardbacks at Whitcoulls and about fifty of my helpful relatives thought "Oh, Lucy likes reading big books - we'll get her Charles Dickens!" Er...no, helpful relatives. No.
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That's social factors, and maybe looking at how they work is an important part of harm reduction.
I suspect they are similar social factors to those that lead Christchurch teenagers to spend a lot of time driving in circles.
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I think the point was, if the boundaries were redrawn under FPP, you might end up living in a labour stronghold, and then your vote for anyone else would be about as influential as toilet paper.
With results like the recent British elections. I don't think it would be hard, if it came to it, to mount a very effective anti-FPP campaign. It's the sneaky half-measures we have to look out for.
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But the truth is Tom has shown he is an arsehole with his attitude towards cannabis users.
Lets not pretend otherwise.
The hat fits in this instance.
I can lend you a shovel if you'd like.
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To allow the whales that die, to sink, is to replenish other species, part of a cycle that is being depleted and desperately needs sustainable practise. Surely we should send these whales back to be recycled.
In a perfect world: yes. In a world where we'd have to tow them a fucking long way out to sea to stop their rotting corpses potentially floating back onto our beaches: no. And, of course, it's an important part of Maori cultural practice.
(I confess, though, I have no idea what they do in other countries. Does anyone know?)