I’m All Out of Love

Happy birthday Russell Hitchcock – 61 today.

Tuesday’s Answers

Monday’s questions were:

1. Why was Ernesto Guevara given the nickname Che?

2. What do you add to soil to improve its pH?

3. Who said “Relativity applies to physics not ethics.”?

4. Who wrote Scruffy and what sort of animal was he (Scruffy not the author).

5. What is actinidia chinensis?

I didn’t know there was a book about a tug boat called Scruffy but I accept the knowledge of those who read mroe widelyt han I do.

GD gets the electronic bouquet with  4 right and I’m giving him the fifth because he got the author right and was on the right track with the animal – (though an ape isn’t a mokney).

David got two right, close enough with the kiwifruit and a obnus for extra info on the soil.

Andrei got 3 plus a  1/2 for # 4  but I’ll give him the other 1/2for being near enough with the author and a bonus because his answers to #1 and 4 made me grin.

PDM got 1 1/2 and I’m giving him 1/2 for #3 with a bonus for amusing me with  #1 and no points off for calling me a mad cow because of the quiz in a comment on the post on blood donors

Paul got three and a bonus for extra info.

Tuesday’s answers follow the break:

Figures favour dairying

The average gross return from dairying is $9,000 a hectare, costs are about $5,ooo to $5.500 a hectare which leaves $3.5 to $4,ooo a hectare in profit.

Cropping returns around $4,000 a hectare with costs of about $2.5,ooo leaving $1,500.

Sheep grosses $1,500 a hectare with costs of $800 – $900 leaving just $600 a hectare in profit.

These figures show why cropping and sheep farmers are converting to dairying.

One of the consequences of that is less stock for the meat industry which is why no-one is surprised that Silver Fern Farms is likely to close its lamb cutting plant in Christchurch and its Belfast beef plant.

There is over capacity in meat processing and more conversions to dairying will only make it worse.

Land which is suitable for cropping  is generally fine for dairying but not all sheep and beef farms are suitable for conversion. Some farmers who choose not to, or can’t, convert  do dairy support instead – growing supplementary feed or grazing young stock and carry over cows.

But that’s not an option for all sheep and beef farmers. Many of these have been farming for capital gain and as land prices have slipped back they’ve been eating into their equity. That may be okay in the short term but it’s not a financially viable policy in the long term.

Forecasts for next season are cautiously optimistic about lamb prices but wool, pelts and other by-products are still in the doldrums and returns won’t come near those from dairying.

The right to go to court

The debacle over the foreshore and seabed started over a very simple issue – Maori wanted the right to go to court.

They’ve got that now with the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Private property rights will still apply to private property, public access is still preserved on public land.

That all sounds fair and reasonable to me.

June 15 in history

On June 15:

923  Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France was killed and King Charles the Simple was arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy.

    

1184 King Magnus V of Norway was killed at the Battle of Fimreite.

1215  King John of England put his seal to the Magna Carta.

1246  With the death of Duke Frederick II, the Babenberg dynasty ended in Austria.

 

1389  Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeated Serbs and Bosnians.

1520  Pope Leo X threatened to excommunicate Martin Luther in papal bull Exsurge Domine.

 

1580  Philip II of Spain declared William the Silent to be an outlaw.

1623 Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician, was born (d. 1672).

1667  The first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.

1752  Benjamin Franklin proved that lightning was electricity.

1775  American Revolutionary War: George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

 

1776  Delaware Separation Day – Delaware voted to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.

1785  Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, co-pilot of the first-ever manned flight (1783), and his companion, Pierre Romain, became the first-ever casualties of an air crash when their hot air balloon exploded during their attempt to cross the English Channel.

 

1804  New Hampshire approved the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.

1808  Joseph Bonaparte became King of Spain.

 

1836 Arkansas was admitted as the 25th U.S. state.

1844  Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.

1846  The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

 

1859  Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between U.S. and British/Canadian settlers.

1864  American Civil War: The Siege of Petersburg began.

1864  Arlington National Cemetery was established when 200 acres (0.81 km²) around Arlington Mansion (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) were officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1867  Atlantic Cable Quartz Lode gold mine located in Montana.

1877  Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

1888  Crown Prince Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm II and is the last emperor of the German Empire.

1896  The most destructive tsunami in Japan’s  history killed more than 22,000 people.

 

1904  A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City‘s East River killed 1000.

1905  Princess Margaret of Connaught married Gustaf, Crown Prince of Sweden.

 

1909  Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lord’s and formed the Imperial Cricket Conference.

1910 David Rose, American songwriter, composer and orchestra leader, was born (d. 1990).

1911 W.V. Awdry, British children’s writer, was born (d. 1997).

 

1911  Tabulating Computing Recording Corporation (IBM) was incorporated.

1913  The Battle of Bud Bagsak in the Philippines concluded.

1916  U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.

1919  John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight at Clifden, County Galway.

 

1920  Duluth lynchings in Minnesota.

1920  A new border treaty between Germany and Denmark gave northern Schleswig to Denmark.

1934 The U.S. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was founded.

1935 Jack Lovelock won the “Mile of the Century“.

1937 A German expedition led by Karl Wien lost sixteen members in an avalanche on Nanga Parbat. The worst single disaster to occur on an 8000m peak.

 1943 Muff Winwood, British songwriter and bassist (Spencer Davis Group), was born.

1944 World War II: Battle of Saipan: The United States invaded Saipan.

1944  In the Saskatchewan general election, the CCF, led by Tommy Douglas, was elected and forms the first socialist government of North America.

1945  The General Dutch Youth League (ANJV) was founded in Amsterdam.

 

1946 Noddy Holder, British singer (Slade), was born.

 1949 – Simon Callow, British actor, was born.

1949 – Russell Hitchcock, Australian singer (Air Supply), was born.

 

1954  UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) was formed in Basle.

1955 The Eisenhower administration stages the first annual “Operation Alert” (OPAL) exercise, an attempt to assess the USA’s preparations for a nuclear attack.

1959The  Chinese Gooseberry was renamed kiwifruit.

1963 Helen Hunt, American actress, was born.

1971 Nathan Astle, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1973 Pia Miranda, Australian actress, was born.

1978 King Hussein of Jordan married American Lisa Halaby, who took the name Queen Noor.

1982 Mike Delany, All Black, was born.

1985  Rembrandt’s painting Danaë was attacked by a man (later judged insane) who threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.

1991  Birth of the first federal political party in Canada that supported Quebec nationalism, le Bloc Québécois.

1992  The United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it was permissible for the USA to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the USA for trial, without approval from those other countries.

1994  Israel and Vatican City established full diplomatic relations.

1996  The Provisional Irish Republican Army exploded a large bomb in the middle of Manchester.

2002  Near earth asteroid 2002 MN missed the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Cool Water

Burl Ives would have been 101 today.

I would if I could

I signed up to be a blood donor when I was 17 – motivated at least as much by the chance of time off school as by the idea of helping others.

I carried on giving blood fairly regularly, except when I was pregnant or feeding babies, and in later years was prompted by the knowledge that I’d been helped by someone else’s blood the day our daughter way born.

Then I was told I couldn’t be a donor any more.

I’d been in Britain in the 1980s and the New Zealand Blood Service didn’t want my blood in case I’d contracted mad cow disease.

I’d still be giving if I could but since I can’t I’m making a plea on World Blood Donor day for those who can to do so.

Monday’s Quiz

1. Why was Ernesto Guevara given the nickname Che?

2. What do you add to soil to improve its pH?

3. Who said “Relativity applies to physics not ethics.”?

4. Who wrote Scruffy and what sort of animal was he (Scruffy not the author).

5. What is actinidia chinensis?

Of mice and woman

I heard a scrabbling noise behind my desk.

I sat very still and waited.

A mouse popped its head round the side of the desk, looked at me and popped back.

My farmer was in the office, I phoned him and told him about the mouse. He laughed.

I retrieved a mousetrap from the laundry, baited it with peanut butter, set it down beside the desk and found something important to do in the office.

When I returned to the house 15 mintues later I checked the trap and found it had done what it’s designed to do.

The wee sleekit, cowran, tim’rous beastie was an ex-mouse.

Common ground on high country

That a change in government has brought a change in attitude towards the high country was reinforced by Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, in her address to Federated Farmers High Country section:

. . . we, the stewards of the high country – you as the farmers and me as the Minister responsible for public conservation land in the high country – have more in common than I think we often realise.

I think it’s fair to say that too often in New Zealand we are only prepared to emphasise and remember the differences rather than reflect all of what we achieve together. . .

I must emphasise that we share the common interest for preserving the high country for future generations – whether for farming, landscape and biodiversity protection or recreation.

Public conservation land constitutes about one third of the South Island high country. We are all stewards here.  DOC, through Landcorp, has an association with Molesworth Station – 180,787 hectares home to New Zealand’s biggest herd of beef cattle, numbering up to 10,000 beasts.   DOC has also granted over 800 grazing licences on public conservation land.

We share the common purpose of managing alternative economic opportunities from our core business – particularly tourism opportunities.     

We share the threats.  Fire, pests and weeds do not respect boundaries.  This means as neighbours with these common interests we must work together. We may be neighbours for a very long time – and we, like you, want to be good neighbours.

The relationship between the previous government and high country farmers, especially those with pastoral leases was at best uncomfortable and often antagonistic.

Farmers felt their stewardship was undervalued and their property rights were threatened.

The current government’s acknowledgement of farmers’ stewardship and their role in safegaurding the land; and respect for their property rights have provided the foundation for a much healthier relationship between all politicians, DOC and farmers.

June 14 in history

On June 14:

1276  While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song Dynasty court held the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song.

1287  Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria.

1381 Richard II met leaders of Peasants’ Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance.

 

1645 English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces were beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers.

 

1648  Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony.

1775  American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.

 

1777  The Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.

1789  Mutiny on the Bounty: Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reached Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat.

 

1789 – Whiskey distilled from maize was first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig. It was named Bourbon because Rev Craig lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

1800 The French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquered Italy.

1807  Emperor Napoleon I’s French Grande Armee defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland ending the War of the Fourth Coalition.

1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author, was born (d. 1896).

1821  Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrendered his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.

1822  Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables”.

 

1839  Henley Royal Regatta: the village of Henley staged its first Regatta.

 

1846  Bear Flag Revolt began – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, staredt a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic.

1863  American Civil War: Battle of Second Winchester – a Union garrison was defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia.

1863 Second Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson during the American Civil War.

1864 Alois Alzheimer, German physician, was born (d. 1915).

1872  Trade unions were legalised in Canada.

1900  Hawaii became a United States territory.

1900  The Reichstag approved a second law that allowed the expansion of the German navy.

1907 Nicolas Bentley, British writer and illustrator, was born (d. 1978).

 

1907  Norway adopted female suffrage.

1909 Burl Ives, American musician, was born (d. 1995).

1919  John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown left St. John’s, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.

 

1928 Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Marxist Revolutionary, was born (d. 1967).

1929 Cy Coleman, American composer, was born (d. 2004).

1937 – U. S. House of Representatives passed the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act.

1936 Renaldo “Obie” Benson, singer (The Four Tops), was born (d. 2005).

1938 Action Comics issue one was released, introducing Superman.

1940 World War II: Paris fell under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.

1940 The Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence

1940  A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1941 June deportation, the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, began.

 

1942 Anne Frank began to keep a diary.

 

1946  Donald Trump, American businessman and entrepreneur, was born.

 1949 – Alan White, British drummer (Yes), was born.

1950  Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, was born. 

1951  UNIVAC I was dedicated by U.S. Census Bureau.

 

1952  The keel was laid for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.

 

1954 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that places the words “under God” into the United States’ Pledge of Allegiance.

 

1959  A group of Dominican exiles with leftist tendencies that departed from Cuba landed in the Dominican Republic with the intent of deposing Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina.  All but four were killed and/or executed by Trujillo’s army.

1961 Boy George, British singer (Culture Club), was born,

1962 – The European Space Research Organisation was established in Paris.

1962  The New Mexico Supreme Court in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, 70 N.M. 196, prohibits state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they live on a reservation.

1966  The Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books), which was originally instituted in 1557.

 

1967   Mariner 5 was launched toward Venus.

1976  The trial began at Oxford Crown Court of Donald Neilson, the killer known as the Black Panther.

 

1982  The Falklands War ended: Argentine forces in the capital Stanley unconditionally surrenderred to British forces.

 

1984 Robert Muldoon called a snap election.

1985  TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by Hezbollah shortly after take-off from Athens.

1990 Miners from Jiu Valley were called to Bucharest by President Ion Iliescu to quell demonstrations in University Square by anti-government protesters.

2001  China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan form the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Did you see the one about . . .

Countdown employee-redfaced - Dim Post at his satirical best.

Devastating, just devastaing - Adolf at No Minister on the NZ Herald’s 7 deadly sins front page.

Life’s a Beach - A Little Whine and Cheese on a family day at the lake.

But the personal is political – In A Strange Land replies to one of the judges of the AIr NZ Best Blog Award.

Busted Blonde - BB’s last post at Roarprawn. I’ll miss her although Cat-astrophe on the BP oil spill shows Brunette has potential to be a worthy successor.

Quote of the Day - Anti Dismal on the absence of market forces in bureaucracy.

The taxing issue of burden – The Visible Hand has a different perspective on tax cuts.

Sylvia’s Mother

Happy birthday Dennis Locorriere, 61 today.

Sylvia’s Mother was one of my teenage favourites – but I’m not sure it’s stood the test of time.

It’s one of those days . . .

It was only 1.5 degrees at the bottom of Mount Iron late this morning but the view from the top was ample compensation for the cold.

It’s one of those days about which Katherine Mansfield said:

”It was one of those days so clear, so still, so silent you almost feel the earth itself has stopped in astonishment at its own beauty.”

It’s about character

The glovebox in the stock agent’s car was full of petrol vouchers.

The friend who saw them there asked why so many. The agent without a blush said, he’d bought them on the company petrol card.

Misuse of cards isn’t confined to ministers and Michelle Boag has just made a very good point on Q&A – it comes down to character.

Some people are mean and will claim every cent to which they are entitled and more, others won’t claim anything, most will err on the side of caution when making legitimate claims.

Some people have left comments wondering about Helen Clark and Heather Simpson. Any regular reader will know that I am not a fan of either of them but I will be very surprised if there is anything untoward on their cards. Labour under Clark was very good at spending taxpayers’ money on policies to help other people who may or may not have needed it, but she was not personally extravagant.

The only thing that’s been commented on her card so far is a $19 pair of gumboots. That’s very cheap, the last pair I bought cost around $100.

People who misused their cards deserve the opprobrium being heaped on them but it wasn’t every minister who did and some of the expenses being queried are legitimate.

If people are running the country and travelling the world as part of their duties we can’t expect them to stay in backpackers and eat at street stalls.

I might also accept them putting everything on the minsiterial card and including a cheque for personal expenses when they sent receipts.

But given some can’t be trusted it would be better to leave them to pay on their own cards then claim back legitimate expenses.

What do they have in their wallets?

Of all the excuses given for mis-using ministerial credit cards, the one I find most difficult to believe is that it was the only one they had.

Everyone I know has several  in their wallet – one friend has 32 cards in his wallet among which are both personal and company credit cards.

If I’m going overseas I take out anything which is only useful in New Zealand but that would still leave  credit and EFTPOS cards.

Whether they’re at home or abroad some past ministers said they didn’t have their own cards to use for purchases – so what did they have in their wallets then and what do they do now they don’t have the ministerial cards to use?

June 13 in history

On June 13:

823 Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of the West Franks,was born (d. 877).

 

1249 – Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots.

1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal – the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.

1525 Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.

 

1584  Miyamoto Musashi, Legendary Samurai warrior, artist, and author of The Book of Five Rings, was born (d. 1645).

1625  King Charles I married French princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon.

 

1752 Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist, was born (d. 1840).

 

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

1777 American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.

1798 Mission San Luis Rey de Francia was founded.

1805  Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sighted the Great Falls of the Missouri River.

 

 1863 Lady Lucy Duff Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935).

1865 William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1937).

1866 The Burgess Gang murdered five men on the Maungatapu track, south-east of Nelson.

1871  In Labrador, a hurricane killed 300 people.

1881 The USS Jeannette was crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.

1883 Henry George Lamond, Australian farmer and author was born.

1886  A fire devastatesd much of Vancouver.

 

1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in Lake Starnberg south of Munich.

1893 Dorothy L. Sayers, English author, was born (d. 1957).

1893 Grover Cleveland underwent secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation wasn’t revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.

1898 Yukon Territory was formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.

1910 Mary Whitehouse, British campaigner, was born (d. 2001).

1910  The University of the Philippines College of Engineering was established.

1917  World War I: the deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.

1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh received a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York.

1934  Adolf Hitler and Mussolini met in Venice.

1942 The United States opened its Office of War Information.

1942 The United States established the Office of Strategic Services.

1944 Ban Ki-moon, South Korean United Nations Secretary-General, was born.

1944 World War II: Germany launched a counter attack on Carentan.

1944 – World War II: Germany launched a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.

1949 Dennis Locorriere, American singer and guitarist (Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show), was born.

1952  Catalina affair: a Swedish Douglas DC-3 was shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.

 

1953 Tim Allen, American comedian and actor, was born.

1955  Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, was discovered.

1966 The United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

 

1967  U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

1970 Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer, was born.

1970  ”The Long and Winding Road” became the Beatles’ last Number 1 song.

1971  Vietnam War: The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers.

1978  Israeli Defense Forces withdrew from Lebanon.

1981 At the Trooping the Colour ceremony a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fired six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.

1982  Fahd became King of Saudi Arabia on the death of his brother, Khalid.

1983 – Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

1994  A jury in Anchorage blamed recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

1995  French president Jacques Chirac announced the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.

1996 The Montana Freemen surrendered after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.

1997 Uphaar cinema fire, in New Delhi, killed 59 people, and over 100 people injured.

1997 American fugitive Ira Einhorn was arrested in France for the murder of Holly Maddux after 16 years on the run.

2000  President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea met Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit.

2000  Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2002 The United States of America withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2005  A jury in Santa Maria, California acquitted pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

2007  The Al Askari Mosque was bombed for a third time.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Wild Thing

Happy birthday Reg Presley – 67 today.

10 degrees outside . . .

. . . but it’s 23 inside with out any heating thanks to sunlight, insulation and double glazing.

Why have New Zea;anders been so slow to build warm houses?

Saturday’s smiles

 

A priest was being honoured at his retirement dinner after 25 years in the parish.

A leading local politician and member of the congregation was chosen to make the presentation and to give a little speech.

However, he was delayed, so the priest decided to say his own few words while they waited:

“I got my first impression of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional told me he had stolen a television set and, when questioned by the police, was able to lie his way out of it. He had stolen money from his parents, embezzled from his employer, had an affair with his boss’s wife and taken illegal drugs, I was appalled.

“But as the days went on I learned that my people were not all like that and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving people.”

Just as the Priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and started by saying:

“I’ll never forget the first day our parish Priest arrived. In fact, I had the honour of being the very first person to go to him for confession. . . “

Hat Tip: The Ag Letter from Baker and Associates. It’s full of informative and useful reading on farming matters. You can read a past edition and subscribe here.