Saturday’s smiles

Some definitions from a women’s dictionary:

Argument n. A discussion that occurs when you’re right, but he just hasn’t realised it yet.

Bar-be-que  n. You bought the groceries, washed the lettuce, chopped the tomatoes, diced the onions, marinated the meat and cleaned everything up, but, he, “made the dinner.”

Blonde jokes n. Jokes that are short so men can understand them.

Clothes dryer n. An appliance designed to eat socks.

Diet Soda n. A drink you buy to accompany chocolate..

Exercise v. To walk up and down a mall, occasionally resting to make a purchase.

Grocery List n. Something you compile with great care then forget to take to the supermarket.

Hair Dresser n. Someone who is able to create a style you will never be able to duplicate again. See “Magician.”

Hardware Store  n. Similar to a black hole in space-if he goes in.

Park (park) v./n. Before children, a verb meaning, “to go somewhere for romance.” After children, a noun meaning a place with a swing set and slide.

Patience n. The most important ingredient for dating, marriage and children. See also “tranquilizers.”

Waterproof Mascara  n. Comes off if you cry, shower, or swim, but will not come off if you try to remove it.

Confidence not caution

Several commentators have seized on John Key’s statement that GST will only go up if most people will be better off because of income tax cuts as a sign of potential for backtracking.

I don’t think he’s being cautious, I think it’s a sign of how confident he is that most people will be better off and that cuts in income taxes will more than compensate most of us for the increase in GST.

What’s better for individuals and the wider economy – less money in our pockets and lower GST or more money in our pockets and higher GST?

I’d vote for the latter any day because it gives us more choices.

If people already live from payday to payday they may keep on doing that and they’ll be no worse off. But some might also find that a little more in their pay packet enables them to save something.

Those who already have something left over at the end of the week will have more left over and the choice to spend or save it as they want to.

The plan to cut income taxes and raise GST isn’t just about how much everyone will be left with. It’s also about a change in attitude. John Key and his government wants us to have more of our own money and to reduce the burden of the state on individuals.

It’s far better to let us keep more of what we earn and have a small increase in the tax on what we spend than to take more from our pay packets and take less from what we spend.

It’s better for us and it’s better for the wider economy which in turn is better for us.

Maintenance better than repairs

We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary last month.

Although “celebrated” is perhaps not the correct term – my farmer was in Central Otago and I was at home, but even had we been together we probably wouldn’t have done anything out of the ordinary.

My farmer reckons it’s better to know you’re loved every day than be fussed over once a year.

A cynic might say that’s an excuse to get away without giving presents.

But the good sense in his philosophy has been reinforced recently because I’ve come across several couples who’ve been having problems.

Not all of us get it right the first time and I’m not making judgements on people who have good reasons to part.

But it saddens me that people without major problems let themselves drift apart and don’t give their relationship the care and attention they need.

A marriage is like a house – it’s much better to do regular maintenance than let things slide and have to do repairs.

February 13 in history

On February 13:

711 BC  Jimmu, Japanese emperor, was born.

 1503 Disfida di Barletta challenge between 13 Italian and 13 French knights near Barletta.

 Monument to the Challenge in Barletta.

1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VII , was executed for adultery.

Portrait miniature of Catherine Howard, by Hans Holbein the Younger.

1575 Henry III of France was crowned at Rheims and married Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont on the same day.

1633 Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.

Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Giusto Sustermans

1668 Spain recognised Portugal as an independent nation.

1689 William and Mary were proclaimed co-rulers of England.

 

1692 Massacre of Glencoe: About 78 Macdonalds at were killed early in the morning for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange.

1728 John Hunter, Scottish surgeon (, was born.

1743 Joseph Banks, English botanist and naturalist, was born.

1815 The Cambridge Union Society was founded.

1835 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, was born.

1849 Lord Randolph Churchill, British statesman, was born.

 1869 A Ngati Maniapoto war party led by Wetere Te Rerenga attacked Pukearuhe. They killed  Lieutenant Gascoigne, his wife and three children and a Wesleyan missionary John Whiteley.

  1880 Work began on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels’s primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.

 Construction of the covering and tunnels.

1880 – Thomas Edison observed the Edison effect.

1881 The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne was first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.

  

1891 Kate Roberts, Welsh nationalist and writer, was born.

1894 Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector.

 

1914 The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers was established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1920 The Negro National League was formed.

1934 The Soviet steamship Cheliuskin sank in the Arctic Ocean.

1942 Peter Tork, American musician and actor (The Monkees), was born.

1944 Jerry Springer, American television host, was born.

1945 The siege of Budapest concluded with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.

1945 World War II: Royal Air Force bombers were dispatched to Dresden to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.

1950 Peter Gabriel, English musician (Genesis), composer and humanitarian, was born.

1955 Israel obtained 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.

1960 France tested its first atomic bomb.

1960 Black college students staged the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.

1967 American researchers discovered the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.

1970 Black Sabbath, arguably the very first heavy metal album, was released.

1978 Hilton bombing: a bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman.

 

1979 An intense windstorm struck western Washington and sank a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.

1982  Río Negro massacre in Guatemala.

1981 A series of sewer explosions destroyed more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.

1984 Konstantin Chernenko succeeded the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1990 German reunification: An agreement was reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.

1991 Gulf War: Two laser-guided “smart bombs” destroyed the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad.

2000 The last original “Peanuts” comic strip appeared in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz died.

2001 An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hit El Salvador, killing at least 400.

2004 The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of the universe’s largest known diamond white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star “Lucy” after The Beatles’ song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

A fuller ferry tale

The diverting ferry story on which I posted this morning has another side.

Chris Carter says he didn’t ask for the Waiheke ferry to divert to Davenport to pick him up after he’d got there by mistake.

Michelle Boag, who happened to be on the ferry, and Carter, gave their versions of the story on Jim Mora’s panel this afternoon.

The Herald story which confirms Carter didn’t ask for any favours, is here.

Apparently the ferry leaves from a different wharf at night and it’s not unusual for people to take the wrong one and nor is it unusual for the other ferry to divert to pick up the odd passenger who’s made that mistake.

Memo to Fullers: shouldn’t you correct your signage or procedures so that people are less likely to get on the wrong ferry, and staff notice when they do?

The Knife

Happy birthday Steve Hackett, 60 today.

We went to the field days and we saw . . .

The sun shone, the people flocked and the exhibitors smiled at the Southern field days at Waimumu .

Many companies were sharing sites to save money so site numbers were down a bit on the 2008 record but there were still about 450 exhibitors covering several acres of ground.

We probably saw fewer than half of them in the couple of hours we were there but those we chatted to were happy with the sales they were making – especially the Mitsubishi dealer who’d sold 6 utes.

The mood was relaxed. Farmers we spoke to were looking for rain but cautiously optimistic about the outlook.

Today’s the final of the three day event.

Jamie Mckay  will be broadcasting the Farming Show live from Waimumu. One of his guests will be Prime Minister John Keywho will then be going to Edendale to open Fonterra’s new milk drying plant – the biggest raw milk processing plant in the world.

February 12 in history

On February 12:

881 Pope John VIII crowned Charles the Fat, the King of Italy.

 

1429  English forces under Sir John Fastolf defended a supply convoy carrying rations to the army besieging Orleans from attack by the Comte de Clermont and John Stuart in the Battle of Rouvray (also known as the Battle of the Herrings).

1502 Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

1541 – Santiago, Chile was founded by Pedro de Valdivia.

1554 A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for treason.

1567 Thomas Campion, English composer and poet, was born.

1700 The Great Northern War began in Northern Europe.

1719 The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands was founded.

1771 Gustav III became the King of Sweden.

1809 Charles Darwin, English naturalist, was born.

1809 Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, was born.

1816 The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, was destroyed by fire.

 

1817 An Argentine/Chilean patriotic army, after crossing the Andes, defeated Spanish troops on the Battle of Chacabuco.

1818 Bernardo O’Higgins formally approved the Chilean Declaration of Independence near Concepción, Chile.

1825 The Muscogee (Creek )ceded the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.

1828 George Meredith, English writer, was born.

1832 Ecuador annexed the Galápagos Islands.

1855 Michigan State University was established.

1870 Women gain the right to vote in the Utah Territory.

1879 The first artificial ice rink in North America opened at Gilmore’s Park in New York City.

1881 Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina, was born.

1894 Anarchist Émile Henry hurled a bomb into Paris’s Cafe Terminus, killing one and wounding 20.

 

1909 SS Penguin was wrecked in Cook Strait.

1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1911 Stephen H. Sholes, American recording executive, was born.

1912  Xuantong Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the last Emperor of China, abdicated.

1914 The first stone of the Lincoln Memorial was put into place.

1915 Lorne Greene, Canadian actor, was born.

1923 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film and opera director and designer, was born.

1924  Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a political speech on radio.

1934 The Austrian Civil War began.

1934 In Spain the national council of Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista was inaugurated. 

1938 Judy Blume, American author, was born.

1945 David Friedman, American economist, was born.

 

1946 Operation Deadlight ended after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

 52 surrendered U-boats moored at HMS Ferret,Lisahally, Northern Ireland

1948 Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and author, was born.

1950 Steve Hackett, English guitarist (Genesis), was born.

1961 U.S.S.R. launched Venera 1 towards Venus.

1966 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, announced the Six Points in Karachi as the election manifesto of Awami League, that later led to formation of Bangladesh.

1973 The first United States prisoners of war were released by the Viet Cong.

1974 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature was exiled from the Soviet Union.

1990 Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian History when she becomes premier of Western Australia.

1997 Hwang Jang-yop, secretary in the Workers’ Party of Korea and a prime architect of North Korea’s Juche doctrine, defects at the South Korean embassy in Beijing along with his aide, Kim Dok-hong.

1999 President Bill Clinton was acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2001 NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the “saddle” region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2002 The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević began.

2002 – An Iran Air Tupolev Tu-154 crashed in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.

2004 The city of San Francisco,  began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

2006 A powerful winter storm blanketed the Northeastern United States dumping 1 to 2 feet of snow from Washington D.C. to Boston, and a record 26.9 inches of snow in New York City.

2007 A gunman opens fire in a mall in Salt Lake City killing 5 people wounding 4 others in the Trolley Square shooting.

Candlelight vigil for victims of the Trolley Square shooting.

2009 Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York killing 50 people.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

A diverting ferry tale

Once upon a time, about last night, a silly man whose chief claim is that he’s the Opposition spokesman for self-importance, made a ferry big error of judgement.

He’d meant to catch the Waiheke Ferry but got on the one to Devenport by mistake.

Instead of returning to Auckland and getting another ferry to Waiheke,  he asked Fullers to divert the direct Auckland-Waiheke ferry to Devenport to pick him up.

The OSfSI might have lived happily ever after with no-one escept the 100 passengers who were inconvenienced by a 15 minute delay in their arrival knowing about his arroagance. But one of the people on board whispered in the ear of David Farrar.

And who is the OSfSI?

Pop over to Kiwiblog for the answer.

Invercargill’s 40m high club

If you’ve yearned to join the mile high club but know you never will, you  have the opportunity to reach the heights of passion a little closer to the ground.

A night for two in Invercargill’s 40m high water tower is up for auction on TradeMe.

Invercargill is offering hardy lovers from the South a chance to bid on a once in a lifetime opportunity with a romantic night for two in Invercargill’s historic Water Tower.

The lack of big city lights and high-rise buildings means that lovers have an unimpeded view of the stars.

The romantic night will include a couples pamper package and gourmet dinner hamper and breakfast will be hand delivered by Mayor Tim Shadbolt.

Hat Tip: Southern Squall

The better deputy to be

While acknowledging Invercargill mayor, Tim Shdbolt, at the dinner for the Prime Minsiter in Invercargill last night, Bill English said, he’d rather be John Key’s deputy than Tim’s.

If you haven’t been following local body politics in Southland that might not be funny, but the audience knew of the strained relations between Tim and his deputy mayor and was greatly amused.

Tim had the grace to laugh too, though it’s possible he didn’t find it quite as funny as everyone else did.

Today in history later

The field days and dinner with the Prime Minister came before compiling today’s look back at history.

The crowning of Charles the Fat, the fate of the SS Penguin and other matters of historical moment from past February 12ths will be posted later.

Chattanooga Choo Choo

The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for Chattanooga Choo Choo on this day in 1941.

I haven’t been able to listen to his song in quite the same way since the mid to late 1970s when the Otago University Capping Sextet sang their version of it.

Green Acres

Eva Gabor would have been 91 today.

I loved Green Acres when I was a child, but looking at this makes me think some things are better in memory than in reality.

Which toy would you choose?

We’re going to the Waimumu field days today.

I haven’t been before but know what to expect – lots of big noisy things which remind me of an email received from a reader last year.

He’d been doing work on his property which required the assistance of a digger. He’d left that to the expert but with some regret that he hadn’t been able to play with the big toy himself.

That led him to write a list of the tools/implements he’d really like to have which, if memory serves me correctly, included a digger and a chain saw.

I’m not into noisy toys but if I had to choose one I’d have to confess I’ve never grown out of the thrill which comes from playing with water. That would put a water blaster at the top of my list.

What would you put on yours?

Flag debate isn’t flagging

There are more important things to concentrate on than whether or not we change our flag but the debate over it is continuing.

Heartened by John Key’s admission he’d prefer a silver fern, John Ansell has launched a poll to find out which silver fern most people prefer.

Meanwhile, the latest bid on the TradeMe auction for the Prime Ministerial doodle of a flag is $18,888. The winner will also be invited to morning tea with the Prime Minister.

February 11 in history

On February 11:

660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

1531 Henry VIII  was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.

1752  Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States, opened.

1790 Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for abolition of slavery.

1794 First session of United States Senate open to the public.

1808 Anthracite coal was first burned as a fuel, experimentally.

 

1809 Robert Fulton filed a patent for improvements to steamboat navigation.

1812 Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry “gerrymandered” for the first time.

1814 Norway‘s independence was proclaimed, marking the ultimate end of the Kalmar Union.

1826 University College London was founded under the name University of London.

1826 Swaminarayan wrote the Shikshapatri, an important test within the Swaminarayan faith.

1840 Gaetano Donizetti‘s opera La Fille du Régiment received its first performance in Paris.

1843 Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera I Lombardi received its first performance in Milan.

1847 Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, was born.

1855 Kassa Hailu was crowned Tewodros II, Emperor of Ethiopia, by Abuna Salama III.

 

1861 United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1864 Charles Heaphy was recommended for a VC for rescuing a soldier while under fire.

  1873 King Amadeus I of Spain abdicated.

1904 Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand, was born.

1905 Pope Pius X published the encyclical Vehementer nos.

1916 Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control.

 

1917 Sidney Sheldon, American author, was born.

1919 Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress, was born.

1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD), was elected President of Germany.

1920 King Farouk I of Egypt, was born.

1929 Italy and the Vatican signed the Lateran Treaty.

1934 Mary Quant, English fashion designer, was born.

1936 Burt Reynolds, American actor, was born.

1938 BBC Television produced the world’s first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of  the Karel Capek play R.U.R., which coined the term “robot“.

 A scene from the play, showing three robots.

1938 Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1939 A Lockheed XP-38 flew from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.

1941 The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for “Chattanooga Choo Choo“.

1943 General Dwight Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

 

1948 John Costello succeeds Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.

1963 Julia Child‘s show The French Chef premiered.

1964 Sarah Palin, 11th Governor of Alaska, was born.

1969 Jennifer Aniston, American actress, was born.

1971 Eighty-seven countries signed the Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons in international waters.

1973 First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam took place.

1978  China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, Shakespeare and Dickens.

1979 Islamic revolution of Iran achieves victory under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1987 Philippines constitution went into effect.

1990 Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was released from Victor Verster Prison.

1991 UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, formed in The Hague.

1997 Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

2006 Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington in the face, neck, and upper torso while hunting quail.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Christchurch Town Hall, 1978.

The backing band came ons tage to tune up, started jamming, the audience picked up the rhythm and began clapping in time.

By the time Roberta Flack came ons tage we were well and truely warmed up and she took us even higher, singing just like this:

Happy birthday Roberta, 73 today.

Wanna be a blog idol?

Stuff is calling for entries for its second Blog Idol competition.

All you’ve got to do is:

Write your best blog post, on any subject, up to 150 words, and send it together with your name, address and contact details to blogidol@stuff.co.nz.

Impress our Stuff panel, and you’ll be a finalist, blogging with a “voting” audience of thousands of Stuff readers. The winner of Blog Idol 2 will win a fantastic new Nokia N95 cellphone, courtesy of Vodafone, plus a contract to blog on Stuff.

The end of free milk in schools

On this day in 1967 the provision of free milk in schools ended.

It had been introduced in 1937 as part of the Labour government’s plan to boost the health of children.

By the time it finished it was costing the government about 840,000 pounds a year.

At Oamaru South School the milk was delivered to the gate where it sat in all weathers until the milk monitors – some of the bigger standard four boys – brought it in and delivered it to each classroom.

In winter it was freezing, in summer it was warm.

This was long before the days of homogenised or skim milk and each half pint bottle was topped with a large glob of cream.

In all seasons it was awful and the end of the daily torture by milk was celebrated by my generation of school children.