Posts by James Butler
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Sartorial comment: NZers, as a rule, do not regularly wear khaki chinos, jorts, or jirts. Therefore, we are made of win.
I wear denim shorts on occasion; this is mainly because I went to school with sk8rz. Pleated pants of any fabric, however, are a crime against humanity when worn without a suit or dress jacket.
As an aside, one audience member at a concert I sang at over the weekend was a tall, thin elderly man wearing black dress shoes and socks, tweed walk shorts, tweed jacket, a Waitakere conservation t-shirt, and a (silk?) cravat. He looked ace.
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one memorable weapon from Iain Banks' Consider Phlebas , which converted from a pendant into a tiny, silent-firing lacework pistol
Who needs a gun when you can have a frikkin' knife missile?
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I always thought a huge chunk of the not-sprogging-with-close-rellies thing is about family structure rather than genetics
Replace "family structure" with "abuse", and you have a stronger point. The power dynamics within a family make the boundary between coercion and consent so dubious (even for legal adults) that the only prudent option is a blanket taboo (Robert Heinlein notwithstanding).
having a granddad who is also your father makes for confusion however you slice it
Confusion seems like the least of the problems.
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I've been reading this thread with some interest (and horror) and haven't come up with anything interesting to say, but I'm going to say it anyway... I'm 26 and the father of a boy and a girl, aged 8 and 5 - my wife and I have only gradually gotten used to moving in social circles with our children's friends parents, who are closer to our parent's age than ours (living in Mt Eden doesn't help ;-)).
What are the biological risks associated with having children at a later age compared to the sociological risks of having children before you're mature/financially stable enough to adequately care for them? I read somewhere(TM) that for society as a whole, increasing the average age of starting a family is correlated with all kinds of benefits. Higher average education levels among women being just one.
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My late father thought that The Beatles had written some nice tunes, so he went out and bought Ron Goodwin and his Orchestra present: Classic Beatles or somesuch - which he thought did the material far more justice than the originals.
His only other pop record was Days of Future Passed, because he liked the orchestra bits.
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I would be indigent if I got stopped in the 50 zone.
Gosh, you must be really hard up. If it ever happens, we'll hand round the hat for you.
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If someone cancelled a Herald subscription solely because Garth George writes for it, then I’d say that was pretty precious too
Speaking of whom... did The Herald build a new Garth George recently?
It seems to me that those who espouse the "one nation, one people" concept are invariably white, and stand to the right of the political spectrum. That, in itself, is a cause for suspicion.
Who'da thunkit.
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Ah. Journalism.
Journalism and gadget geekery. I had just assumed that everybody here was also there.
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Ah, true. For some reason I was mentally confusing celts and gauls.
(and I guess the Normans were only half-gaul at best)Not that confused: Gauls are Celts. Normans are mostly Viking.
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Whereas the Burger King and Coke Zero ads are just crass
I (slightly) know one of the guys behind the Burger King ads. He has a degree in Performance Voice.