Posts by Carol Stewart
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But then I remember the legions of genuine believers who unassumingly devote themselves to helping other people. As in other aspects of life, it's the quiet ones that are so easily overlooked. The volunteers who deliver meals-on-wheels, the kind-hearted people who give hospitality to strangers in need, those who donate their time to collect for charity-clothing organizations, who visit the sick in hospital, and the unfashionable and un-thanked people of many faiths who bring comfort to prisoners.
But .. but .. there are also legions of non-religious people who do these things too, for non-religious reasons. Like, here in Wellington, the army of volunteers at the Karori sanctuary; hospital volunteers like my Mum; people who help with refugee resettlement and English teaching; people who volunteer at school; Coast Care and Stream Care groups ..
But in fairness I should add that our school recently had a major working bee organised by a religious group, almost all of whom had no connection with the school. It was a huge success - worked for us, worked for them.
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I don't think I need to detail the Great Smoke Inhalation Affair or the Melting Pot Incident
My best effort is the Indoor Fish Smoking conflagration of '08. Closely followed by the Unattended Toasted Muesli Smokebomb of 1978.
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Seriously? The same Mike King who's so concerned about animal welfare?
That really sucks. -
Yeah, I second that. I'm glad you called Robbie on his comments. I found them quite disturbing.
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I'm totally ignorant, by choice, of this particular video and song. Is that better than watching it and being disgusted?
Let me put it this way: I felt less nauseated looking at the pretreatment step screens at the Moa Point sewage treatment plant than at this particular video.
Russell's title for this post is very apposite. -
I've always had a soft spot for ..
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It's somewhat tangential to this thread, but this is a wonderfully erudite and entertaining essay by Jonathan Raban, an English writer living in Seatlle. It's actually about Sarah Palin but it has all kinds of resonances with themes here.
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O sterile whore of a thousand bureaucrats!
But it's Ok when James K Baxter says it, right? He must have been there on a particularly bad day, as this does seem a little OTT, even for literary purposes.
OTT? You should see Baxter's Ode to Auckland!
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I'll see you Billy Connolly and raise you J.K. Baxter:
Wellington
Time is a frown on the stone brow
Of a monument, a gale shaking the quay.
There is never time to let the whole day sink
Into the heart, and hold it sheltered there.Power breeds on power in labyrinthine hives
Nested under the daylong driving cloud;
Stale breath of suburb dawn hazing the harbour;
Tiring the eye, stripping the nerve to fever.City of flower-pots, canyon streets and trams;
O sterile whore of a thousand bureaucrats!
There is a chasm of sadness behind
Your formal giggle, when the moon opensCold doors in space. Here on the dark hill
Above your broken lights - no crucifix
Entreats, but the gun emplacements overgrown
And the radio masts' huge harp of the wind's grief.He must have written that on a day like today - daylong driving cloud alright.
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Question: if mixing sulfuric acid with potassium ferrocyanide can create dangerous gas. what happens when we eat lots of table salt on roasted peanuts, drink beer then burp; do we burp up hydrogen cyanide gas?
Not in NZ, Steven: our table salt contains only anticaking agent 551, otherwise known as silica, which is dead boring in terms of its interactions with your digestive system.