Dick’s Toolbox cont. .. argument that global warming is not just happening, (surprise), but is happening at a rate far greater than expected. We have an expanding population, (yes Virginia, there are far too many people), opting for the cheapest (coal fired) solutions to energy generation. Couple with virtually no power conservation, garnish generously with…
..from a couple of old geezers venting about how things have deteriorated since ‘our day’. Vaguely apropos of that, I usually have no idea what I’m going to write about when approaching these P&W follies of mine and so I have adopted a standard preparatory procedure. First I have a quick squiz at Christchurch’s The…
.. on the highway at speeds so slow that they could be confused with reverse why break the habit of a lifetime? We were quite young and so the intrepid band of fisherfolk set off from the west bank of the lake and some considerable time later reached the east side trout free and sunburnt….
..classed as actually employed. How one survives seven days on $13.50 is not explained. There are also many people who want to work – take many of those over 45 for example, who have given up seeking any job through not being able to take the endless frustration of hidden ageism denying them even an…
..driving-in-the-city impatience and exasperation. It’s a neat trick I jotted down the music that had become my soundtrack and I’ve just checked the dertails on the ABC Classic radio website. It was a guitar piece called Chamber Concerto by Shaun Rigney, whom I’ve not heard of before, played by one Antony Fielding*, whom I’ve not…
..a polished head emerging in a straight line from the type of neck generally owned by South African rugby hookers or Gestapo torturers. Those tight rolls of flesh extrude out of a too-tight collar and there is too much gold jewellery that once characterized used car salesmen or proto-Mafiosi. His legs look like Christmas hams…
..of two young ladies ( I am using the term ‘young’ loosely in the same way as you might describe the morals and ethics of the NSW Labor party) who rowed backwards below us for about an hour. The convention of rowing is that you face the blunt end (the stern) so that you can…
S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…
S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…
..on the street. Nevertheless, the lunch and the chat were great fun; the world’s problems with Intellectual Property and Copyright were discussed at length and the house pinot proved quite acceptable to boot, so I charged off back to the Casino car park full of bonhomie and anticipation. Perhaps I was cutting it a bit…
..Airport” as we started our descent in Whenupai, Auckland’s main airport until 1965. This inspired great confidence in the passengers, already frightened by the low altitude, turbulence, cloud and the single toilet. It was an age of muted optimism. Our father was a stock and station agent and would drive up from Eketahuna, redolent of…
..in our collective brain I had my subject. The first thing to do was listen to Ad Nauseam and see whether it had dated or indeed had retained any of the elements that made it funny – or shocking – in the first place. I’d heard the first in the series (Live) many decades ago…
.. Thom nowadays and they tend not to mix in my ever-decreasing circles. I first read about it in an audio magazine article written by the late, great Richard C Heyser of JPL one of the pioneers of in-depth loudspeaker laboratory analysis, and developer of Time Delay Spectrometry, who was using Catastrophe Theory to describe…
Manners certainly didn’t apply in these fraternal disputes. I suppose there had to be some release from perpetually polite behaviour – we were lads after all – but our constant bickering eventually led to our having to be separated and given our own bedrooms. Of course I got the better bedroom and Richard was consigned…
..with an annoyingly cheerful ‘Good morning’. Some time is spent contemplating what I would do with all the money I am totally convinced that I am going to win in the next lottery draw, a conviction which has gone totally unrewarded. Annoyingly I know that I have a better chance of being struck by a…
..discovered it was written by George Bernard Shaw – we’ll call him GBS from now on – and the star, (and executive producer), was none other than Christopher Plummer, widely pilloried for just being in The Sound of Music, but a perfect fit for the role of Caesar. The GBS version of the relationship between…
..differentiates Melbourne from the rest of the world. Or maybe just Australia. It gives locals the joy of being the best in the world at a game that no one else plays or wants to play; in this it is like gridiron football writ very small. Rugby is at least played by more countries though…
S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M S P E C T R U M M I K E R U D D B I L L P U T T . C O MM M I K E R U D D B I L…
..(Maybe that accounts for my neighbours breaking into fits of sniggering whenever they see me). It turned out that I’d cracked my left foot a mighty whack on the side board, but there was nothing much else worth reporting. My foot was sore enough, but it was obviously not broken, so I counted myself lucky….