Tayla is a tall, trendy 10 yr old. She tells me that on the weekend she had to help her dad birth a calf, and it all went wrong. Her dad had to break the calf''s bones to extract its body bits. The cow was pretty wrung out, but they watered, fed, mended and tended her, got her to her feet and she perked up.
The next day they returned and she was ...not making it. Tayla's dad shot her. "You thought it was going to have a happy ending, didn't you?" Tayla said.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Words
miasma: sounds to me to be sparkling and flowery. Wrong.
fulsome: has such a powerful sense and projection of its own meaning, that if you use it correctly you will almost certainly convey the opposite of what you intended.
pronunciations: idyll. Correctly pronounced to rhyme with riddle, piddle, widdle, all of which I reject and persist in pronoucing it as idol, or idle, both of which convey the languid lazy beauty of something Eyedyllic - the "I" as in "Ibis", "Iambic", "Iberian".
respect: very current at the moment. "Do your teachers talk about respect?" I ask. "All the time," rolls eyes. "What does it mean?" "Oh, they haven't told us that, yet."
Unfair selection there. A lot of comments, some of which were meaningful.
I find it generally disrespectful for people involved with younger, say teachers, coaches and THE PRINCIPAL OF A LOCAL FAITH SCHOOL to refer to their students as "kids"....a word that can be casual or friendly, but by such as the above sometimes sounds like a synonym for "the mob".
fulsome: has such a powerful sense and projection of its own meaning, that if you use it correctly you will almost certainly convey the opposite of what you intended.
pronunciations: idyll. Correctly pronounced to rhyme with riddle, piddle, widdle, all of which I reject and persist in pronoucing it as idol, or idle, both of which convey the languid lazy beauty of something Eyedyllic - the "I" as in "Ibis", "Iambic", "Iberian".
respect: very current at the moment. "Do your teachers talk about respect?" I ask. "All the time," rolls eyes. "What does it mean?" "Oh, they haven't told us that, yet."
Unfair selection there. A lot of comments, some of which were meaningful.
I find it generally disrespectful for people involved with younger, say teachers, coaches and THE PRINCIPAL OF A LOCAL FAITH SCHOOL to refer to their students as "kids"....a word that can be casual or friendly, but by such as the above sometimes sounds like a synonym for "the mob".
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sticky Social Situations
On Guardian Unlimited Talk, someone asked for ways to handle a potentially dreary social occasion.
It was suggested arranging for one's mobile phone to ring, and saying loudly into it: "Dead? When? How? I'll be there at once."
On the other hand, if you were actually enjoying yourself, you could say: "Dead? When? How? Well, he won't mind waiting then, will he?"
It was suggested arranging for one's mobile phone to ring, and saying loudly into it: "Dead? When? How? I'll be there at once."
On the other hand, if you were actually enjoying yourself, you could say: "Dead? When? How? Well, he won't mind waiting then, will he?"
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Overheard
Two seven year olds.
Him: "I went to Sydney on the weekend."
Her: "What Sydney? The Sydney with Sydney Harbour?"
Him: "Um...." Silence.
She persists: "You mean the Sydney near Yass?"
"Yes," he says, relieved. He's found his bearings.
Take note, Sydney. Hubris is never a pretty look.
Him: "I went to Sydney on the weekend."
Her: "What Sydney? The Sydney with Sydney Harbour?"
Him: "Um...." Silence.
She persists: "You mean the Sydney near Yass?"
"Yes," he says, relieved. He's found his bearings.
Take note, Sydney. Hubris is never a pretty look.
The Fly and I
Yesterday there were four flies inside. Today, only one -but, I can tell that he really likes me.
Where have all the insects gone? Few flies, no greenflies, blowflies, moths, or clouds of flying ants. Backyard zappers? What?
I am cautious re change. My bank recently changed its bland paint to crimson, orange and oxblood -(a fitting colour in that its old logo used to be a slaughtered sheep). It has unhelpfully redesigned its online banking, from black on white to grey on cream. It has erected plastic barriers between the tellers and customers - I think of them as Gail's gaols.
Are these there to protect me from the tellers? I think it's the reverse, and feel quite chuffed that the bank evidently sees me as menacing.
Where have all the insects gone? Few flies, no greenflies, blowflies, moths, or clouds of flying ants. Backyard zappers? What?
I am cautious re change. My bank recently changed its bland paint to crimson, orange and oxblood -(a fitting colour in that its old logo used to be a slaughtered sheep). It has unhelpfully redesigned its online banking, from black on white to grey on cream. It has erected plastic barriers between the tellers and customers - I think of them as Gail's gaols.
Are these there to protect me from the tellers? I think it's the reverse, and feel quite chuffed that the bank evidently sees me as menacing.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Apologia
It's lucky that I'm not a diplomat: I'm sure that I would airily have trodden on international toes, with neither intention or awareness, so that I would have provoked even mild and pacifist countries like Sweden or New Zealand to declare war on Australia.
This to explain the edit of my last post, in which I happily and unconsciously slated a whole decade of people.
Expanding further on reactions to heat/cold: an older, such as I, is not stoic and enduring: it's just that entropy is getting the upper hand.
This to explain the edit of my last post, in which I happily and unconsciously slated a whole decade of people.
Expanding further on reactions to heat/cold: an older, such as I, is not stoic and enduring: it's just that entropy is getting the upper hand.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Hot
Yes, it is, isn't it?
Chris Brennan: "Fire in the heavens, and fire along the hills./ And fire made solid in the flinty stone."
Yes.
I read where U.K. teachers wanted schools compulsorily closed if temperatures reached 26 C.
I read and hear of soldiers in the M.E., where temperatures are 10 degrees hotter than here - high 40s, over 50s. We haven't really stretched ourselves, evidently.
I notice the difference in expectation of some younger who grew up with uncooled or poorly cooled and heated cars, supermarkets, homes, schools, businesses and lives, some of whom now have so accommodated themselves to changing times that they seem to consider a temperate climate, albeit created artificially, to be a sine qua non.
Chris Brennan: "Fire in the heavens, and fire along the hills./ And fire made solid in the flinty stone."
Yes.
I read where U.K. teachers wanted schools compulsorily closed if temperatures reached 26 C.
I read and hear of soldiers in the M.E., where temperatures are 10 degrees hotter than here - high 40s, over 50s. We haven't really stretched ourselves, evidently.
I notice the difference in expectation of some younger who grew up with uncooled or poorly cooled and heated cars, supermarkets, homes, schools, businesses and lives, some of whom now have so accommodated themselves to changing times that they seem to consider a temperate climate, albeit created artificially, to be a sine qua non.
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