Posts by giovanni tiso
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One is almost sorry one cancelled one's subscription to the Listener two weeks ago, otherwise one could phone them up and cancel it after this little gem of a story and tell them why. Then one could hop off one's high horse, because one's tuckus is getting kind of sore.
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What of homo economicus and what exactly is that invisible hand of Adam Smith doing?
The invisible hand every now and again closes into a fist and punches you in the nuts. Smith was the first to recognise that.
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Chuck, what I enjoy about PA is that it's refreshingly free of snideness and innuendo.
So long as it doesn't involve Sarah Palin. Perhaps it's okay so long as you don't slander New Zealanders.
What? Me? On a high horse? I believe you're thinking of this picture.
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I don't know that comparing us to them is entirely useful, Giovanni. Simply because they lived somewhat different lives.
Oh, I agree, completely. Her oldest sister was twelve when her mother died and she brought up five younger siblings. Who all lived, which in those days was extraordinary. Later my gran had a neighbour who couldn't remember if she had had fifteen or sixteen children. I'd have to check with my mum, but I think that no more than three or four made it to adulthood, or survived the war at any rate. Life was so cheap, and kids so fragile. Remembering those days and all those early deaths, she used to say "oh, but they were little", with a sort of a shrug - life became more precious once you were out of the woods of early childhood, just the opposite of now.
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your Nanna's photo was choice Giovanni
Thank you (and Kerry), I am very fond of it. I spent an inordinate number of years at university and convinced them to let me do a PhD which was really an elaborate ruse to put that photo in a book.
The next one we have of her was taken during her fiftieth wedding anniversary. Smallest Picasa account ever!
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More fun.
Yeah, I noticed that. Not the smart end of the sixteen year old spectrum, I would say.
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"If this bill is passed, then we might - I not saying we will, but we might - see the advent of Gay Bars !"
Hah!
Maybe he meant gay bears?
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My favourite is Hitchens' double bluff irony impasse. All of the meaningless hoaxes are good, but I especially like the letters to gunsmith and Richard Dawkins.
He's the blogger that keeps on giving. This, from Non kinky sex is a waste of time: "Having testicles is like being chained to the village idiot."
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On the other hand my parents cohort started work in their early teans whilst one of my early ancestors left home at 6!! To pack cod on a ship in the Iceland seas.
I am so going to use that line with my just-turned-seven-years-old son next time he misbehaves. (It'll replace my usual "I'm calling Sue Bradford!").
Healthy reminder that being a child in times past was a rather more serious business than it is now, P or no P, I'd venture to say crossbows or no crossbows. My mum got caught in German crossfire on the village square - beath that with a stick.
What 16 is to me is this photo of my gran, circa 1920. Pregnant, soon to be married, soon to become the servant of her mother in law. You wouldn't call that a 'child' or a 'girl', would you?
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I've been told quite bluntly (and, sadly, off the record) by some MPs who voted for the CUB that, as far as they're concerned, marriage equality is off the books.
Did they say why? Is it fear of a bigoted backlash, or is there a sense that it's not the kind of battle that enough people would organise around? I ask because that's the debate back home, whether to aim for marriage equality or gun for the civil unions, knowing that the latter are not necessarily a step towards the former.