Word of the day
24/12/2011Hope – to cherish a desire with anticipation; to desire with expectation of obtainment; to trust with confident expectation of good; to cherish hopes of; to entertain or indulge hope; to cherish a desire of good or to look forward to as a thing desirable, or of something welcome, with expectation of obtaining it or belief that it is obtainable; one who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good.
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Christmas greetings
24/12/2011To all of you who call here and especially those who leave the comments which enhance this blog:
Thank you.
May your Christmas, however you choose to celebrate it- or not, be happy and may 2012 be especially kind to you and yours.
Saturday smiles
24/12/2011Memo from OSH & HR:
All employees planning to dash through the snow in a one horse open sleigh, going over the fields and laughing all the way are advised that a Risk Assessment will be required addressing the safety of an open sleigh for members of the public.
This assessment must also consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a venture, particularly where there are multiple passengers. Please note that permission must also be obtained in writing from landowners before their fields may be entered.
To avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we would request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise nuisance. . .
You’ll find the rest at Credo Quia Absurdum Est
Rustlers charged
24/12/2011Central Otago farmers have had an early Christmas present – two men have been charged with stock rustling and police say the case is by no means complete.
The stock thefts have been going on for a couple of years and the charges relate to the theft of about $240,000 worth of stock and equipment but it’s not an isolated case.
The investigation showed no link between the two men and other alleged stock thefts in Central Otago or further afield, Det Evans said.
Such thefts included about 200 in-lamb merino ewes, worth about $40,000, from Ribbonwood Station at Omarama in late September; about 160 merino wethers, worth about $13,000, from Carrick Station in the Nevis Valley in August; and about 1800 merino ewes and an unknown number of lambs, worth about $130,000, from a Queensberry farm block at the end of 2007.
“Police have reviewed other stock theft files from our area as part of this investigation and reiterate that they can find no link between these men and those thefts. Other alleged stock thefts therefore remain unresolved.”
The location of the properties, number of stock and other factors point to people who know the area and are used to working with animals.
The rural grapevine is naming names with good reason but that isn’t the same as evidence that will stand up in court.
We’re all very pleased the police are taking this so seriously because it could happen to any of us.
Federated Farmers Otago president Mike Lord sums up the problem:
If you go on holiday you can lock your house or lock your garage … with a farm it’s just not that simple.”
Even when we’re not on holiday we can’t be in every part of a farm every day and rely on a combination of our own precautions, staff, neighbours and an element of luck to keep stock and property safe.
The five best toys of all time
24/12/2011Our daughter taught us a valuable lesson on her first Christmas.
She spent more time playing with the boxes and wrapping than any of the gifts they’d held.
Apropos of that Geek Dad has the five best toys of all time.
I’d add a sixth – water.
Hat Tip: Sharing the Love on Christmas Eve at the Lady Garden
Sing the song of Christmas
24/12/2011Jim Hopkins begins his column Silent Night voice of our history:
The spirituality of Christmas has been heedlessly stripped away by the Caesars of our age … It was playing on the wireless last week, Justin Bieber’s version of Silent Night, and no matter how soppy the singer, the song still cuts, every time, like love, to the quick. There are always tears in the tune and a lifetime in its lines.
Silent Night is the song of Christmas. There’s so much inside it. The melody floats and soars and lives in the Gothic nave of our imagination, stirring something in us we’d forgotten was there. . .
And concludes it:
. . . But that will happen only if we acknowledge the character and history of Christmas and allow some part of the holy day into the holiday. And that’s all but gone now. The spirituality of Christmas has been heedlessly stripped away by the Caesars of our age, who would have no rendering except to themselves. Officially, like or not, this is still a Christian country, yet our politicians – and the media they control on our behalf – cannot summon the will to make any reference to 2000 years of tradition and belief. We have come to a contrary pass when those who assert the sanctity of taonga in one breath will so casually forsake it in the next.
Still, Silent Night survives. To goad, comfort, challenge and console. As memory and star, it is the song of Christmas. Sing it.
The bits in between are worth reading too.
December 24 in history
24/12/20111754 George Crabbe, British poet and naturalist, was born (d. 1832).
1777 Kiritimati, (Christmas Island) was discovered by James Cook.
1814 The Treaty of Ghent was signed ending the War of 1812.
1822 Matthew Arnold, British poet, was born (d. 1888).
1865 Several U.S. Civil War Confederate veterans formed the Ku Klux Klan.
1880 Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, children’s book writer and creator of Raggedy Ann was born (d. 1938).
1893 Harry Warren, American composer and lyricist (Chattanooga Choo Choo – I Only Have Eyes for You), was born (d. 1981).
1905 Howard Hughes, American film producer and inventor, was born (d. 1976).
1914 World War I: The “Christmas truce” began.
1922 Ava Gardner, American actress, was born (d. 1990).
1923 George Patton IV, American general, was born (d. 2004).
1924 Albania became a republic.
1927 Mary Higgins Clark, American author, was born.
1941 World War II: Hong Kong fell to the Japanese Imperial Army.
1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower became Supreme Allied Commander.
1946 France’s Fourth Republic was founded.
1948 Frank Oliver, New Zealand rugby player, was born.
1951 Libya became independent from Italy. Idris I was proclaimed King.
1953 Tangiwai railway disaster – The worst railway disaster in New Zealand’s history occurred on Christmas Eve 1953 when the Wellington-Auckland night express plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River, just west of Tangiwai in the central North Island. The accident happened after a railway bridge was destroyed by a lahar.
1955 NORAD Tracked Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.
1974 Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin.
1979 – The first European Ariane rocket was launched.
1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria killed 50-100 people.
2000 – The Texas 7 held up a sports store in Irving, Texas, Police officer Aubrey Hawkins was murdered during the robbery.
2003 – Spanish police thwarted an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid’s Chamartín Station.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.