Come Talk To Me

Happy birthday Peter Gabriel – 60 today.

I’m A Believer

Happy birthday Peter Tork – 58 68 today.

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.