Mid-week music – Roberta Flack

One of the trails at Coronet Peak crossed under the chair lift at a high point so the chair wasn’t very far above the skiers.

We’d stopped to give way to a chair when a skier in it leaned out and waggled his fingers close to the face of one of our group. Without missing a beat she broke into song, “Strumming my face with his fingers . . . ” from Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly With His Song:

Did you see the one about

Monday funday with words to eat at The Hand Mirror

And now for the news at Inquiring Mind

Internet addiction  at Quote Unquote

Lost My Lunch at goNZo Freakpower

The very busy spider Deborah at In A Strange Land

Dane Moeke – Something very special at Lindsay Mitchell

Presbyterian approach of Billonomics wins approval

In the July issue of North & South Guyon Espiner takes a look at the two top men in the government, those on the way up and those who may be at risk.

On Finance Minsiter Bill English he says:

. . . it’s a good bet the cautious approach will prove the right one and that highly indebted and far-flung New Zealand was poorly palced to spend its way out of poverty. To have unemployment well below rates in the US, Britain and Australia without indulging in their huge spending programmes is evidence at thsi stage Billonomics is working.

English is Catholic but his apporach to the economy has been Presbyterian: getting on to of debt and getting in control of spending without repating the slash-and-burn tactics we was in the early and late 1990s. . .

Without the luxury of surpluses to play with a Presbyterian approach is driven at least as much by necessity as philosophy but it seems to be working.

We may not be out of the woods yet but at least we’ve got a map and directions to help us on the way without saddling our children and grandchilren with debt which will put a rein on economic growth when the world recovery eventually rebounds.

Ocean to Alps by pedal power

The District Council phoned last week to seek our opinion on an Ocean to Alps cycelway.

It would start in or near Oamaru, go through the Waiareka Valley, into the Waitaki Valley, past the hydro lakes and finish near Mount Cook.

Part of it would use a disused rail corridor, and a small portion of that adjoins some of our land.

There are few details avaialble yet but I support the idea in principle for both economic and social reasons.

A recent survey shows the Central Otago Rail Trail boosts the local economy by around $7 million and creates the equivalent of about 75 fulltime jobs a year.

More difficult to quantify but also of value is the positive difference it’s brought to small, formerly isolated communities.

New businesses have been established, locals have found outlets for creative endeavours and the standard of food and wine at wayside stops has moved well beyond the sad pies and deep fried horrors that used to be all that was available.

Why are referenda questions so badly worded?

Referenda are very blunt instruments.

They usually give voters only two options – supporting or opposing the proposition with no ifs, buts or maybes.

That makes it very important to get the question right but those behind the referendum on child discipline have got the question wrong.

Most people understand the intent of the referendum - a change in the law which got rid of the reasonable force defence for people accused of hitting children to ensure that parents who lightly smack a child aren’t criminalised for doing so.

But the intention isn’t clear in the question which asks “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

Who’s smacking whom and who’s being corrected?

Would a violent smack as part of good parental correction be okay but a light one as part of bad parental correction not be?

Those are silly questions but that’s the problem with the referendum question which is open to silly interpretations.

I support the intent of the law but like Macdoctor, I think the underlying problem with it is confusion:

Kids are not being dragged off to CYFS because of a light smack. Masses of police resources are not being wasted following up on smacking “leads”. On the legal front, not a lot has changed.

The problem is . . . There is considerable fear, uncertainty and doubt about the new law and what is really acceptable. . . . The net result of this uncertainty is a reduction in the use of smacking – a result that the advocates of the repeal applaud. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this is that some parents will lack the skill-set to use some other form of discipline, resulting in the use of no discipline at all.

The whole “anit-smacking” debate was badly handled from the beginning and that led to bad law but a badly worded referendum question isn’t going to improve matters.

Just as the proponents of the law missed an opportunity to get the legislation right, the proponents of the referendum have wasted the opportunity to correct the problems with it.

Smacking isn’t child abuse . It isn’t good parenting either however, I am very uneasy about the law which makes it a criminal offence.

I won’t be voting yes but I don’t think I’ll be voting no either because by asking the wrong question the referendum means neither answer is right.

June 17 in history

On June 17:

1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies in childbirth and her husband spends 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.

1944 Iceland declares its Independence from Denmark and becoems a republic.

Flag	Coat of arms

1867 Australian poet Henry Lawson  was born.

Vegemite gets cream cheese makeover

Manufacturers meddle with iconic brands at their peril so no doubt Kraft has put a lot of thought into the new variation on vegemite which is a mixutre of the spread we know mixed with cream cheese.

If the publicity is to be believed  the result is:

. . . a smoother, more spreadable consistency.

 Simon Talbot, Kraft Australia’s head of corporate affairs, said the new product was given to 600 homes for testing and came back with overwhelmingly positive results.

‘It’s a milder version, more suited to dipping celery or carrots, easy to spread. It’s a different flavor profile but still distinctly Vegemite.’

Vegemite is one of the things which unites New Zealanders and Australians because few people not born in either of these countries learn to appreciate the taste.

Vegemite and cheese sandwiches are still a staple of many school lunches and even featured in Men at Work’s song Land Down Under.

I have managed to disguise vegemite on cheese toasties and feed them to visitors who said they enjoyed them. But naked vegemite is very much an acquired taste and even though I acquired  it many years ago I prefer it scaped on toast in small amounts rather than spread liberally.

One of the benefits of vegemite is that it has few calories, and tiny amounts of fat and sugar. Adding cream cheese changes that, but a nutritional diet needs some fat and sugar so the new spread wouldn’t by itself be ‘unhealthy’.

When it’s launched early next month it will carry a label saying name me.

The contest is open-ended as Kraft selects the best name for the Vegemite partner.

‘It’s in the hands of the Australian and New Zealand people,’ Mr Talbot said.

And the proof of the new product will be in their mouths.

Tuesday’s answers

Monday’s questions were:

1. What did Simon & Garfunkel call themselves when they recorded their first top 50 hit, Hey Schoolgirl, in 1957?

2. Who said:  Too often the desire for peace has been expressed by women while the stewardship of the mechanisms which are used to attempt to secure peace in the short and medium term are dominated by male decision-making structures and informal arrangements. This must change.

3.  Who wrote Chance Is A Fine Thing?

4. Which city would you be in if you were standing in the Plaza de Mayo and looking at the Casa Rosada?

5. Which is New Zealand’s deepest lake?

Paul Tremewan gets an electronic bunch of flowers for a perfect score  – the second week in a row someone’s got the lot.

Swinestein gets a point for one right and a bonus for additional information.

Gravedodger gets two points for correct answers and a bonus for making me smile with the response to question 2.

Ed gets two correct and also gets a bonus for more information.

PDM – if you follow the link below you’ll find more about Lake Hauroko which is in Western Southland and it’s 463 metres deep.

Tuesday’s answers follow the break.

Tremain, Goodhew new National whips

Napier MP Chris Tremain has been promoted from junior to senior whip in the National caucus and Rangitata MP Jo Goodhew has been elected junior whip.

I don’t know Chris well but he obviously performed well as junior whip if his colleagues supported his nomination for the senior position.

Jo won Aoraki from Jim Sutton in 2005 and took the new seat of Rangitata with a good majority last year. She is a lovely person who works hard and performs well as the MP for a very large electorate where she is very popular.

  

More snowish than snowy

“What’s the weather doing?” my farmer asked as I pulled the curtains and peered out at the pre-dawn gloom.

“A few stars, some high cloud, lawn’s white, must be a hard frost,” I replied.

When he got up a few minutes later he told me to take a closer look, the white wasn’t frost, it was snow.

When it got a bit lighter we found it was more snowish than snowy.

As often happens, Dunedin got a dumping and the storm came up the coast to about Wainakarua then the worst of the weather went out to sea, leaving northern North Otago with a dusting of snow which stayed on the lawn and short-grazed paddocks but has already gone from the longer grass.

Bienvenido al Rey y La Reina de España

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain will visit New Zealand next week.

They will be accompanied by Spain’s Foreign Minsiter Miguel Angel Moratinos and Secretary of State for Trade Silvia Iranzo.

“I am delighted to host King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia. Their visit presents a unique opportunity to enhance understanding and visibility of New Zealand at the highest levels in Spain,” says Mr Key.

“New Zealand’s relationship with Spain is on the cusp of an exciting phase of further development, with the prospect of increased trade, investment and tourism.

“Our two countries are also seeking to expand education, science and technology, and cultural links.

“In recent years, high-level bilateral political interaction has strengthened considerably,” says Mr Key.

When New Zealanders travel overseas we are accustomed to people in other countries having only a vague, if any, idea about New Zealand.

But in Spain when people asked where we were from, almost all reacted with a smile when they heard nueva zelanda and responded by saying, “el pais más lejos de españa,” – the country furtherest from Spain.

They also knew us because of los kiwis – kiwifruit. Spain is one of the biggest markets (maybe the biggest?) for our kiwifruit and we saw them everywhere fruit was sold from the biggest supermarkets to the smallest neighbourhood stores.

Farmers we spoke to had some knowledge of, and respect for, our sheep industry too.

Spain suffered from the years of oppression under Franco but it has been rapidly catching up. When we lived there four years ago, the EU was pouring billions of euros in to infrastructure and the country with a positive flow on effect on the economy.

New Zealand’s former dependence on British markets blinded us to opportunities in other parts of Europe in the past. This visit will  provide opportunities for trade and other relationships to our mutual benefit.

June 16 in history

On June 16:

1723 Adam Smith the Scottish philosopher and economist was baptised (his exact date of birth isn’t known)

1858 Abraham Lincoln gave his House Divided  speech:

A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

1915 The British Women’s Institute was founded.

1961 Rudolf Nureyev  defected in Paris.

Nude Blacks won

It wasn’t all pain and shame in Dunedin at the weekend – a New Zealand team won one game.

The Bottom Bus Nude Blacks beat Le Coqs, 15-5, making it six out of six for the home team in the 6th Annual Bottom Bus Nude Rugby International.

Dave Gee has a commentary and pictures (rugby balls strategically placed will spare any blushes).

BOTW at the concert

Paul Henry and Peter Williams were luke warm on the Simon & Garfunkel concert when discussing it on Breakfast this morning.

I can understand why because while we enjoyed it, Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon are both 67. Their voices aren’t quite what they were 30 years ago and would be more suited to a smaller, more intimate venue. But that of course would mean fewer people and therefore either much more expensive tickets or much less money made.

Note to the organisers: playing Frank Sinartra as we came in wasn’t the best way to warm up an audience for Simon & Garfunkel. Given the programme talked about the influence the Everly Brothers had on S&G, music from them and their contemporaries would have been more appropriate – and enjoyable.

That said, Simon & Garfunkel sang all the old favourites we wanted to hear, the musicians were fantastic and even though they’re not the young men we remembered, they’ve still got a touch of magic.

The Stuff review is here.

The Dom Post review is here.

Lane Nichols blogs on the concert here.

The Herald review is here:

Bridge Over Troubled Water was always going to be A Moment. But as Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel traded verses on pop’s greatest consoling anthem towards the end of this first show of their Auckland two-nighter, it became Really Quite Something Else. The sound system – possibly overcome by its own electronic lump in the throat – gave out, leaving just the stage-sound and a slighty confused looking Simon and Garfunkel.

The crowd took over. And just as it built to its final crescendo, the sound came back up. Big finish. Aaah. Sigh.

“That was the nicest thing an audience has ever done for us” remarked Garfunkel.

And Bits On The Side  took a video of  Bridge Over Troubled Water when the sound system went and the audience took over (pity that the bloke close to the recorder had more enthusiasm than tune).

Nathan Guy new minister

Nathan Guy has been appointed a Minister oustide Cabinet.

He will be Minister of Internal Affairs and have responsibility for Archives New Zealand and the National Library. He’ll also be Associate Minister of Justice and have the new position of Associate Minister of Transport.

Guy is a dairy farmer who entered parliament as a lsit MP in 2005,  won the seat of Otaki last year and has been Senior Whip.

Guy’s appointment follows Richard Worth’s resignation.

Worth was also the Minister for Land Information New Zealand and that responsibility now goes to Maurice Williamson.

Caucus will elect a new senior whip tomorrow.

Making success of socks by subscription no mean feat

The answer to the question of where even socks go leaving us to put our best feet forward in the odd ones which are left continues to be elusive.

Blacksocks.com doesn’t have an answer to the question but it does have a solution to the problem: the sockscription.

You choose they socks you want and how often you want them and the company mails them to you. The theory is that, providing you choose the same make, style and colour you never have to worry about odd socks again because you keep getting more the same.

But why wouldn’t you just buy matching socks yourself at the local store?

Company founder Samy Liechti says:

 . . . many people can also buy cheap watches but they spend thousands of dollars for quality. He’s Swiss, so I concede the point.

He boasts about Blacksocks’ yarn-testing methods in northern Italy, says Blacksocks are cheaper than other brand-name socks, and notes that delivery is included in the price.

Without years of wear, it’s hard to fully test this system.

Blacksocks has 50,000 active customers, and 100,000 former customers. “Often they have too many socks and they decide to quit the brand,” Liechti acknowledged.

Hmmm.

He may be right and I have to give him credit for making a success of a business like this which is no mean feet feat.

But my Presbyterian upbringing still struggles with the concept of paying for something which isn’t difficult to do for yourself, especially when there’s an even more frugal alternative: embracing odd socks as a natural phenomenon and wearing mis-matched ones as a fashion statement.

Meat prices positive but costs up too

 Westpac and National Bank forecasts both paint a positive picture for meat in the next couple of years.

The only threat to meat prices appears to be the exchange rate, but the National Bank, in its Rural Report publication, said there was no reason the New Zealand dollar should stay high given the country’s high debt, large and ongoing current account deficit, and low to no economic growth.

It forecast two years of easing to about US49c before increasing to US60c.

Lamb prices have defied predictions of doom even in the face of a relatively high dollar, partly because of a drop in the ovine population after droughts in Australia and here. The large number of dairy conversions in the past couple of seasons have also led to steep falls in sheep numbers.

While supply has dropped, demand has been steady or risen.

The reports say the sheep meat industry should enjoy good conditions for two more years at least.

The reasons behind this season’s high prices – low lamb numbers, a weak pound against the Euro making UK lamb exports viable, and strong retail sales – should remain.

Farmers would also benefit from meat companies competing for lamb.

Some commentators were expecting a decrease in dining out as the recession bites to dampen demand for lamb but it appears any drop in orders from resaturants has been more than compensated for by increased sales at supermarkets as people rediscover the joys of home cooking.

Beef prices are a little more uncertain although reduced numbers after a big kill in the USA last season and on-going drought in Argentina will impact on supply.

Prices are only one half of the business equaiton and while they have gone up so too have costs.

Meat and Wool Economic Services survey of sheep and beef farm input prices show on-farm costs in the past year went up by 7.6% in the past year.

The biggest rise was in fertiliser which went up 33.8%;local body rates increased 5.6%; interest rates dropped by 6.7% and fuel prices dropped 14.2%.

The overall cumulative on-farm inflation for the five years to March 2009 was 32.2% and over 10 years on-farm inflation rose 50.4%

That compares with consumer prices which increased by 16% over five years.

If interest is excluded the underlying rate of on-farm inflation in the past year was was 10.7 per cent compared with 9.8 per cent for the previous year.

Business was the winner

The All Blacks lost but the ODT reports Dunedin businesses won with the influx of rugby fans bringing millions of dollars into the city.

I was down there on Friday and many of the shops had got into the spirit of test weekend by dressing their windows in black and white and/or red, white and blue.

One of the advantages of being a smaller city is that an event like a test makes a big impact. In larger cities major events aren’t so noticeable because its more difficult to motive larger numbers and the influx of visitors is a smaller percentage of the usual population.

Monday’s Quiz

1. What did Simon & Garfunkel call themselves when they recorded their first top 50 hit, Hey Schoolgirl, in 1957?

2. Who said:  Too often the desire for peace has been expressed by women while the stewardship of the mechanisms which are used to attempt to secure peace in the short and medium term are dominated by male decision-making structures and informal arrangements. This must change.

3.  Who wrote Chance Is A Fine Thing?

4. Which city would you be in if you were standing in the Plaza de Mayo and looking at the Casa Rosada?

5. Which is New Zealand’s deepest lake?

June 15 in history

On June 15:

1667 The first human blood transfusion was adminsitered by Dr Jean-Baptiste Denys. The blood was taken from a sheep and transfused to a boy who survived. The fate of the sheep isn’t mentioned.

1844 Charles Goodyear recevied a patent for vulcanization to strengthen rubber.

1966 a bomb explosion in Manchester   injured more than 200 people. Police blamed it on the IRA.