Otra Puente Sobre Auguas Turbulentas – Grupo Éxodo

Another Spanish version of Bridge Over Troubled Water. This one  from Grupo Éxodo, has clearer diction than the one on the previous post from Johnny Mathias.

Someone whose grasp of Spanish is better than mine might be able to explain why the English version is about water, singular, and the Spanish one is aguas which is waters, plural.

Puente Sobre Aguas Turbulentas – Johnny Mathias

Still working on the theory you can’t have too much of a good thing, my search for other versions of Bridge Over Troubled Waters,  uncovered this version in Spanish – Puente Sobre Aguas Turbulentas by Johnny Mathias.

Did you see the one about

Quotes and tips at Something should go here (where there’s several other jokes posted too).

Hager vs Crosby/Textor round 94  at David Cohen’s blog

At the carwash at Quote Unquote

Skating on thin ice at RivettingKateTaylor

Question of the day at In A Strange Land which came from In which I forget the purpose of posting at 2B Sophora

Nostalgia at Kismet Farm

Toxoplasmosis caused the crash your honour at Frenemy

Newspaper death watch – desperate remedies at Dim Post

You go girl  at Anti Dismal

What good is a right to life ? at The Visible Hand

Return of the stump speech at goNZo Freakpower

Milk Link shows just what a co-op can do  at Phil Clarke’s Business Blog

And a new – to me – blog: The Definitive 1000 Songs of All Time 1955 – 2005

Bridge Over Troubled Water – Elvis Presley & others

No one does it quite like SImon and Garfunkel but PauL left a comment on last Sunday’s post of Bridge Over Troubled Water pointing me to the Eva Cassidy  version.

That sent me in search of others and I found there’s about 2,260 of them on YouTube among which are:

Aretha Franklin

Charlotte Church

Nana Mouskouri

Il Divo

And then there’s Elvis Presley. 

I was a wee bit young to be a fan of Elvis Presley but this makes me wish I’d been born a wee bit sooner

Lie back and think of the life you might save

It’s world blood donors’ day.

I started giving blood when I was in the seventh form, and not just because it was an excuse to get out of class. Even then I understood it could save a life.

Eleven years later mine was one of the lives saved by someone else’s blood when the placenta gave way 34 weeks into my first pregnancy.

The next few years pregnancies and breast feeding precluded me from giving blood but I went back to donating after the last baby was weaned.

However, I can no longer be a donor because I was in Britain for several months in 1982 and there’s a risk I might have been exposed to mad cow disease.

I don’t remember eating much meat – my flat mates and I lived on variations on tinned tomatoes. But it’s possible I did eat beef in that time and I understand why health authorities don’t want to take any risks.

However, that ruling has cut the number of people who are willing and able to donate and there’s now a shortage of donors.

I can’t give blood, but I can give my word it doesn’t hurt when you do. There’s just a wee prick of the thumb for an initial test to ensure you’re not anaemic, then another wee prick as the needle goes into the vein then you lie back and think of the life you might be saving.

When it’s all over you’re offered a drink and a biscuit while you sit for a quarter hour or so then you’re free to go, a litre half a litre of blood lighter.

June 14 in history

On June 14:

In 1789 whisky distilled from maize  was first produced by an American clergyman, Elijah Craig and named after Bourbon, the county in Kentucky where he lived.

In 1938 Action Comics  introdcued Superman.

In 1982 The Falklands War  ended.

Simon & Garfunkel in concert

The faces are a bit older, the voices not so strong, but the songs are just as good as they used to be and Simon & Garfunkel earned the standing ovations they received.

The highlight was Bridge Over Troubled Water, even though the mic went off part way through. The audience started singing to compensate, prompting Art Garfunkel to thank us and say that was the most helpful thing an audience had even done for them.

Saturday’s Smiles

It had to be related to Simon and Garfunkel:

 

From GraphJam

SInging from the same song sheet:

Hat Tip: MatthewL Musings

 

The Boxer

How anything which aims to hurt an opponent can be classified as sport, escapes me, but I still like this song.

El Condor Pasa

The first of two Simon and Garfunkel posts for Saturday: El Condor Pasa.

Cheese Rolls

How dare he?

I don’t know who he was but a TV1 Breakfast reporter was casting aspersions on cheese rolls in a build-up-t0-the-test report earlier in the week.

What’s so strange about cheese rolls?

If, as the reporter’s mirth suggested they’re very rarely found further north, that’s their culinary catastrophe. Down here in the south thery’re often found in cafes and they’re a staple of southern fundraisers

A public servant, brought up in Dunedin, now working in Wellington told me recently he was organising a southern cultural induction for his workmates and discussions of the best recipe for cheese rolls among southern refugees prompted heated discussion.

This is my mother’s recipe.

1/2 lb/250g grated cheese           1 egg 

3/4 cup milk                                       1 grated onion

frozen corn                                        grainy mustard

thin sliced bread

Beat egg then add cheese, milk and onion.

Cook in double boiler, stirring til thickens (or cook in microwave, stirring often).

Remove from heat and beat well (or put in kitchen whizz).

Add corn.

Cut crusts from bread and spread with mustard.

Spread with mixture

Roll bread:

Place on baking tray and cook for about 5 minutes until bread is toasted.

If you’re not going to eat them in the next day or so, put them uncooked on the baking tray, freeze and bag.

Mum’s recipe used tasty cheese and white bread. I prefer wholemeal bread and a mixure of edam and parmesan which has the flavour but lower fat.

Farmers fight protectionism

Federated Farmers found some allies in their fight for free trade at a meeting of the Carins Group Farm Leaders in Indonesia this week.

Federated Farmers President, Don Nicolson and vice president, Frank Brenmuhl, said farm leaders round the world supported Feds’ in condemning protectionism and trade barriers. 

“Farm leaders were highly critical of trade restrictions that have spread across the globe like a plague. Since the world economy went into recession last year, 17 of the G20 countries have implemented some form of protectionism.

“There is no doubt export subsidies hurt farmers and consumers alike. That is why we denounce the US and EU’s move to subsidise their inefficient dairy farmers.

“When countries adopted bad economic policies in decades past, only their own citizens paid the price. What these Governments don’t seem to understand is that, in today’s global economy, the burden falls far more broadly.

The only people who benefit in the long run from trade barriers are the bureaucrats whose jobs depend on them.

Taxpayers, consumers and producers all pay dearly for protectionist policies which increase costs and inefficiencies.

Time for a public conversation

Jim Hopkins is right:

It’s impossible to know how many people suspect the competence of the police to investigate major crimes. But it’s reasonable to suggest the percentage is statistically significant.

One conversation at one party on one Saturday night can’t be proof – but it can be a pointer.

And what it points to is something corrosive and damaging, something that needs to be addressed. Something we should be talking about – not in private but in public.

And the police probably need to start the conversation. First by acknowledging there is an undercurrent of distrust in the community they serve. And second by conceding they’re aware of its cause.

Read the full column and start the conversation, not to bash the police but to rebuild trust in them.

June 13 in history

On June 13:

In 1774 Rhode Island became the first of Britain’s American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.

In 1865 William Butler Yeats  was born.

In 1970 the Beatles’ song The Long and Winding Road  became the Beatles’ last number 1 song.

Richard Worth has resigned from parliament

Richard Worth has resigned from parliament.

Dr Worth, who entered Parliament in 1999, said he had gone for the good of the National Party.

“Since I resigned as a Cabinet Minister earlier this month, I have been considering my personal options, and also the welfare of the National Party – a party which I love and have served to the best of my ability for the past nine years.

 ”As a result, I have today also resigned as a list Member of Parliament with immediate effect.

“It would be easy for me to be bitter about the avalanche of rumour and innuendo that has led me into making this decision which I regard as being in the best interests of my party.

“I wish only to restate that I have not committed any crime, and I remain confident that when the true facts are established I will be cleared of any and all allegations of criminal conduct. I will steadfastly defend myself in respect of those allegations. But it is impossible to defend oneself in the public and political arena against hearsay, character assassination and scuttlebutt.”

Whatever truth there may or may not be in the allegations concerning him, resigning was the right thing to do because continuing in politics would have brought attacks on him and the National Party.

He was a lsit MP so the next person on National’s list, Cam Calder, will be offered Worth’s seat. He was briefly in parliament after the election but lost his palce after special votes were counted and the Greens got an extra seat at national’s expense.

The person on the list after that is Conway Powell.

Kiwiblog has Richard Worth’s  media statement.

Sound of Silence

One of the annual inter-house fixtures at Waitaki Girls’ High School was the choir contest.

My house, Gibson, chose to sing Sound of Silence in 1974 – but I don’t think we did it quite as well as Simon and Garfunkel.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

It’s William Butler Yeats’ birthday tomorrow which led me to The Lake Isle of Innisfree  for Friday’s poem.

I found it in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics.

                 The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

          – William Butler Yeats -

Wool natural option for insulation

Federated Farmers saw an opportunity for wool  in the Budget funding for home insulation and Wool Partners has followed up with a fact sheet on its benefits.

Among them are:

* Wool is a natural insulator.

* It’s healthy because it’s bio-degradable and non-toxic.

* Wool is a natural air conditioner, moderates humidity and act as a natural filter.

* It’s safer than synthetic insulation because it’s fire retardant.

*It’s environmentallyf reindly because it’s a natural, renewable and sustainable resource.

* Wool insulation gives value for money.

Wool insulation has been around for some years but is still a very small player in the market.

However, a growing demand for natural products combined with the government’s insulation scheme might provide a boost for companies like Terra Lana.

Swine flu pandemic official

The World Health Organisation has declared a swine-flu pandemic, the first gobal flu pandemic for 41 years.

WHO director general, Dr Margaret Chan, said:

The world is now at the start of the 2009 influenza pandemic.

We are in the earliest days of the pandemic. The virus is spreading under a close and careful watch.

No previous pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely, in real-time, right at the very beginning. The world can now reap the benefits of investments, over the last five years, in pandemic preparedness.

We have a head start. This places us in a strong position. But it also creates a demand for advice and reassurance in the midst of limited data and considerable scientific uncertainty.

Thanks to close monitoring, thorough investigations, and frank reporting from countries, we have some early snapshots depicting spread of the virus and the range of illness it can cause.

We know, too, that this early, patchy picture can change very quickly. The virus writes the rules and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules, without rhyme or reason, at any time.

In a media release yesterday, Health Minsiter Tony Ryall said that when WHO escalated its response there would be no need for as significant change in what was being done here. The focus was on containment.

The first concern is for health but there will also be economic costs through people having to take time off work and, while WHO is not advising any restrictions on travel, the pandemic is likely to lead to a downturn in tourism.

Fish & Game’s failed court bid could be costly

The ODT reports that Fish and Game’s failed challenge to pastoral lessees’ property rights could cost it a six-figure sum.

The two respondents to the High Court action instigated by Fish and Game, the High Country Accord, representing pastoral lessees, and their landlord, Land Information New Zealand (Linz), have both said they are seeking reimbursement of their costs.

The High Country Accord has said the case cost it $250,000, while Linz would not reveal its costs or how much it was seeking from the action heard by the High Court in Wellington.

While Fish and Game is not funded by taxpayers, it gets its money from the sale of fishing and hunting licences, it is a public entity, established by statute, which reports to the Minister of Conservation.

Its attempt to gain public access to pastoral lease properties was in effect one public body taking another to court.

It wasted money which should have been spent managing, enhancing and and maintaining sports fish and game in that action and it’s now likely that much more of the licence fees paid by anglers and hunters will go towards reimbursing the costs of the respondents.