I may not be the world’s foremost expert on driving, but even I could see you made two critical mistakes driving out of the supermarket carpark.
1. You drove the wrong way around the one-way system.
2. Your baby was on the lap of your passenger.
I hope that you were pulled over and booked on the way home. But if not, I hope you didn’t collide with anything.
You, sir, are a thoughtless moron.
PS. You’re not doing the reputation of P-platers any good, either.
The news from the Bali conference reminded me a lot of the machinations during international negotiations on The West Wing. No doubt things would have progressed further if it was Jed Bartlett, not George W Bush, running the White House.
But you’ve got to hand it to the delegate from Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad.
Then the head of the US delegation, Paula Dobriansky, spoke. “We are not prepared to accept this formulation,” she said, setting off loud, long boos in the hall.
This was the cue for delegate after delegate to take aim at the US.
Australia remained silent. But South Africa’s delegate called Ms Dobriansky’s intervention “most unwelcome and without any basis”.
“We would like to beg them” to relent, added the Ugandan delegate.
The delegate from Papua New Guinea leaned into his microphone. “We seek your leadership,” Kevin Conrad told the Americans. “But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.”
The UN climate conference exploded with applause. The US’s isolation was complete. No one spoke in support. And Ms Dobriansky capitulated, withdrawing the US objection.
Anybody know if this exchange is on video anywhere?
Update: Here it is. (Thanks Zzz)
I’ve long been a Monty Python fan, but am a little too young to have seen the movies on their first runs in the cinemas. So when it was announced that Spamalot would have a run in Melbourne, I decided to see it. I went along with the kids and Marita yesterday. Warning: some spoilers.
Some audience members were obviously long-term Python fans. One guy had a Ministry of Silly Walks t-shirt on. One man exchanged his yarmulke for a knotted handkerchief.
It was very funny in parts… the consensus seemed to be that the French Taunting scene was the best. But apart from lifting bits from the movie, it also took potshots at musicals, with the well-publicised “Song like this”, and a scene where the leading lady bemoaned the small number of scenes she was in. Mostly though I thought the funniest material was either directly lifted from the movie, or at least within the main plot of the movie.
I didn’t really “get” the song about Broadway shows needing Jews to be a success, and to be honest I felt a tad uneasy when the chorus first came round. But the aforementioned knotted handkerchief wearer and his family didn’t seem offended, and happily put their hands up when one of the characters on stage asked if there were any Jewish people in the audience.
I thought the cast was really good. Whoever did Dennis’s mother did Terry Jones’s Pepperpot voice perfectly. The special effects and animations were terrific, and I loved the bit where Arthur met Tim The Enchanter, obviously hanging on wires, and said he appeared to “hover in the air without string or any visible supporting device”.
All in all, a superb show. The programme is pretty funny too.
And last night I watched Bill Oddie’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are. Great stuff. The link between them? John Cleese recently claimed (MP3) that Tim the Enchanter was named after Tim Brooke-Taylor. And if I recall correctly, Graeme Garden appeared in one of the Holy Grail trailers.
I just saw a miracle.
It’s lunchtime in the city.
It’s two weeks before Christmas.
There was no queue at the post office.
How is this possible?
Maybe it was a hallucination.
A phrase which is being thrown around in some circles (particularly government) recently is the Chatham House Rule. Perhaps it’s always been around, but I’ve only noticed it more recently.
I think some of those using it don’t really know what it means.
What it strictly means is: You can talk about whatever you hear, but you can’t say where it came from:
“When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.”
– Source: Chatham House
Whereas some people seem to think it means: This is confidential. You can’t repeat this.
I do my best to respect confidences, so if in doubt about what they mean, I’ll be assuming it’s the latter. But in some cases I might ask what they really mean.
A comment on a very funny Scott Adams’ post about a Las Vegas casino sucking money out of his wallet led me to this fascinating post about casino design. In turn, some of the comments there are very interesting too.
It reminds me a bit of supermarket design. How things like milk (that you might come in for regularly) are always at the back, so you have to walk past everything else to get to them… and keep looking elsewhere to find eggs and bread.
Safeway have 1.2 Kg “Only at Woolworths/Safeway” bulk packs of Weetbix… a great deal, sure to get you going back to them. What they don’t tell you is that Coles stocks 1.3 Kg boxes.
All part of the way that businessmen design the world to help us consumers part with our money.
That said, I try to resist all the impulse buys while grocery shopping. I tend to stick to a fairly well-defined list. I stock up on things that are on sale (including switching brands, within reason, and buying two-at-a-discount knowing one will go in the freezer), but only if I know I’ll need them.
PS. Speaking of consumption, I’ve got hold of a thing which measures electricity consumption for individual appliances. I’m going to try it soon, and see how much juice the computers/TV/microwave/etc are each burning up.
So far it’s not a good month for minor ailments. Last week Jeremy had a coughy-coldy thing; this week Isaac’s had it worse, knocking him out of school… thankfully he’s got over it in time to go off to camp this morning.
As for me, I must have eaten something bad, and my over-sensitive stomach (aka “Bowen Belly“) has been at it again overnight. Maybe it was the snags for dinner last night weren’t cooked right through, but if so, how come I was the only one affected? Not pleasant, and today I’m at home hoping to catch up on sleep.
On the bright side, the cluster headaches have almost completely gone thanks to the medication.
This week my head is a little tender however… but that’s to blame on the huge bang on the temple I got from the front door on Saturday. I know I’ve never been an athlete, but sometimes I astound even myself at my low level of coordination.
It’s not my place to elaborate on all the specifics, but a good friend of my sister passed away in quite tragic circumstances on Friday. One can only feel for her family, in particular her husband and two young kids.
BeyondBlue: Postnatal depression. Donate (no online option unfortunately).
PANDA: Postnatal and Antenatal Depression Association. Donate (online or by post).