Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Many happy returns to Ray Davies – 66 today.

No Matter What

Many happy returns Joey Molland, 63 today.

Monday’s quiz

1. What does Wanaka  mean?

2. Ad lib is an abbreviation of what and what does it mean?

3. Who wrote The Spoilers, Wyatts Hurricand Hurricane and High Citidel?

4. What two lines follow:

 Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,

5. Name two of the four letters in the alphabet which have all dots and no dashes in Morse code.

What’ll we call the new stadium?

Dunedin’s new stadium has been controversial.

Some people think there’s  nothing wrong with Carisbrook, some don’t like the new location, many object to the cost.

I support the new stadium and its location in the north end of the city, close to the campus which is such an important part of the historical, cultural and financial fabric of Dunedin.

Saturday was very mild for winter in this part of the world – 16 degrees at lunchtime. But that’s unusual for winter and it wouldn’t be unknown for some summer days to struggle to get that high,

The idea of a roofed stadium which takes away worries about weather for event organisers is a good one for a venue which is suitable for a variety of sports, the arts and other entertainment options.

On Saturday we joined the thousands who accepted the invitation to visit the building and were impressed with what’s been achieved so far.

Wellington’s stadium is better known at the Cake Tin, Carisbrook was the ‘Brook or House of Pain.

It’s officially called the Forsyth Barr stadium and while I appreciate the need to give the major sponsors their due, that’s a bit of a mouthful and I suspect it won’t be long before it gets a nick name, but what’ll it be?

Tau Henare recovering from heart attack

National MP Tau Henare had a heart attack in the early hours of yesterday morning.

He’s recovered sufficiently to write on Facebook:

Well at 2ish this morning I had a wee heart attack. Yip that’s right. freakiest thing in the whole world. anyway, all is good they put a stent into my artery and hey presto all good on the pumping blood score. Rest and Recuperation. Don’t Panic whanau and don’t Jump for Joy either.

Tau went public about developing diabetes earlier this year and has been on a get-fit-lose-weight programme.

A draw’s a win and a loss

Last week’s post on the All Whites’ 1-1 draw with Slovenia Slovakia was to be my only one about the World Cup.

But after this morning’s game against Italy I couldn’t resist the urge to comment on perspective.

The game finished with another single goal for each side draw which is regarded as a loss for Italy and a win for us.

For more informed commentssee:

 Keeping Stock 78 versus 5

At No Minister Barnsley Bill reckons the result would be like Iceland holding the All Blacks to a draw.

Not PC says Woohoo! and has a round up of international media reports.

Bad business for good man

Allan Hubbard is Presbyterian by both faith and nature.

Although he features on the NBR’s rich list, he lives a modest life, spends little on himself and drives an old VW car.

The story of his modest beginnings  and what he’s achieved is inspiring and a  few weeks ago he talked about it to The Listener.

He grew up in the Depression, one of five children in a very poor household and the poverty he experienced then was a strong motivating factor in his life.

He did well at school but his father wouldn’t let him go to Otago Boys’ because they were working class and Allan might get ideas.

He gained School Certificate and University Entrance at night school while working fulltime, put himself through university then set up an accountancy firm in Timaru.

His company prospered and as it did he used his business acumen and wealth to help others.  Some of his business dealings and philanthropic acts are a matter of public record – including underwriting the Opuha Irrigation Scheme by buying all its shares which he  sold to farmers at the original price once the scheme was operating.

The rural grapevine tells of many other acts of generosity which aren’t public, stories of people he’s helped into farms or businesses. He backs people he trusts, who are prepared to make sacrifices to get ahead, as he did,  and , very few have let him down.

Hubbard’s company South Canterbury Finance has been the subject of several bad-news stories in recent months. Now Aorangi Securities, seven trusts and Allan and his wife Margaret ( but not  it is important to stress, SCF) have been placed into statutory management.

I know little about his business dealings but have always been impressed by him as a person.

Principals of other finance companies and organisations which have attracted negative headlines have been criticised for extravagant living at the expense of their creditors.

This is not a criticism that can be made of the Hubbards.

A fact sheet on the statutory management is here.

The NBR covers the story here.

Interest.co.nz covers it here.

UPDATE: The Timaru Herald has a statement from Hubbard here.

June 21 in history

On June 21:

524  Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeated the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.

1307  Külüg Khan enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.

1528 Maria of Spain, Holy Roman Empire Empress, was born (d. 1603).

1582  The Incident at Honnō-ji  in Kyoto.

1621  Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.

 

1732 Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer, was born  (d. 1791).

1734  In Montreal, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique was put to death, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city.

1749  Halifax, Nova Scotia, was founded.

1768   James Otis, Jr. offended the King and parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.

1788   New Hampshire ratified the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.

1791 Robert Napier, British engineer, was born  (d. 1876).

 

1798   Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeated Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

1813   Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria.

1824   Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces captured Psara in the Aegean Sea.

1826   Maniots defeated Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.

1854  First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.

1864   New Zealand Land Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ended.

1877   The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, were hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

 A “coffin notice”, allegedly posted by Molly Maguires in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

1879 Gemma Doyle, British developer of Planar Theories and Realms Theology, was born  (d.1959).

1895  The Kiel Canal was officially opened.

 

1898   The United States captured Guam from Spain.

1905 Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize  laureate, was born  (declined) (d. 1980).

1912  Mary McCarthy, American writer, was born  (d. 1989).

1915  The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.

1919  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fired a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg General Strike.

 

1919   Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of World War I.

1921  Judy Holliday, American actress, was born  (d. 1965)

1921  Jane Russell, American actress, was born. 

1940  The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage began at Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

1942   World War II: Tobruk fell to Italian and German forces.

1942  World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaced near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.

1944 Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks), was born.

1945  World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ended.

1947  Joey Molland, English musician (Badfinger), was born.

1948 Ian McEwan, English writer, was born.

1948  Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

1952  Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, was converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

1957  Ellen Louks Fairclough was sworn in as Canada’s first woman Cabinet Minister.

1964 The Beatles landed in New Zealand.

1964  Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi,, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

   

1973   In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States established the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.

 

1982 Prince William of Wales, British prince and heir, was born.

1982  John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

 

2000   Section 28 (outlawing the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in the United Kingdom) was repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.

2001  A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indictws 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

 

2004   SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

2006   Pluto’s newly discovered moons were officially named Nix & Hydra.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia