Posts by Biobbs
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Hard News: Interesting Britain!, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s one of those things that sounds like it could never happen again because surely we learned from the last 20 times?
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Hard News: DNC 2016: Beyond weird, most…, in reply to nzlemming,
Oh really? I thought he was there longer. Huh. Retract. Thanks, Joe.
I think the wording of the Wikipedia article is slightly misleading. What they meant was, he served 14 months of Kennedy's term, plus a full four-year term of his own (1964-68), making him still eligible to run again in 68. Had he served two years of Kennedy's term instead of 14 months, then he would not have been eligible in 68.
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Hard News: Radio being made, in reply to linger,
A picture may be worth a thousand words
Sometimes the words are more valuable, and the pictures, as James Littlewood says, are
generic, often irrelevant, more often distracting than enlightening
— as sent up mercilessly in this clip from ABC’s The Hamster Wheel (Season 2, Episode 4, 17 October 2012)
And such criticism isn't new. Remember the Lord Privy Seal?
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Hard News: Music: The year the…, in reply to Glenn Pearce,
In a Xmas miracle, McGowan gets new teeth
- as long as he can still sing this with his new chompers, we're all happy for him.
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Up Front: Reading Murder Books, in reply to sandra,
Staying in London, my absolute fav detective of all time is Lauren Henderson's hilarious Sam Jones . Sam is a Camden girl - hedonistic, foul-mouthed and witty, and when not detecting or doing her day job as a sculptor, spends her time clubbing in black leather and rubber (one of the books is even called Black Rubber Dress). Lauren also has a newer YA detective series which I've not read, but has really good reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.
Sam Jones is part of the English 'Tart Noir' wave of the 90s - to which our Stella Duffy and her fantastic Saz Martin series also belong, although the Saz novels are much more violent and less humorous.
Also really enjoy Carol O'Connell's long-running Kathy Mallory series. Mallory is definitely not immediately likeable, but the depths of her character make her a great protagonist.
More innocent younger pleasures: I was a huge Dick Francis fan back in the day, read almost every one of his books, even though I've never had anything to do with the equestrian world. My work took me back and forth to Oz fairly often in the late 80s and early 90s, and they were a perfect length for Trans-Tasman travel in the days before personal entertainment systems in planes. I'm sure they would seem very dated now, but a few of those written at his late 70s/early 80s peak (Knock Down, Risk, Whip Hand and Reflex in particular) had surprisingly deep characterisation.
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The shame is spreading: now front page on the Guardian's international edition:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/11/new-zealand-female-mps-mass-walkout-pm-rapists-comment
So much for NZ's repuatation for progressive politics.
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Oops. Don't they proofread anything in ChChCh?
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Speaker: Let's talk about class, in reply to Kumara Republic,
I don't know where certain people have gotten the idea that "eco-nuts" were responsible for Pike River happening because they wouldn't allow strip-mining
From the Herald of course. With this piece of 'responsible journalism' just a few days after the event:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10690389
- the blubbery one, Kiwibl*g, Paul Holmes (Herald again), and Gadsby (Letter to The Press) all chimed in and the meme spread rapidly from there.
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Hard News: Diverse Auckland: are we…, in reply to alobar,
Was it Rowan Atkinson ( in character ) that said "But we've got the recipe now , so can't they go back?"
One of his many glorious moments in the undiluted brilliance that was NTNON:
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Hard News: Bad Judgement, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Scary thing is, same thing would probably happen today :-(
