And of course Hosking
Friday carnival of Quiz, Weekly Dismal Awards and Hall of Fame Induction, on a Thursday
And so this is Easter and what have we learned? I’m going to take tomorrow off to enjoy the day when everything is closed; the day we used to call Good Friday before we came up with Level 4.
So the Friday carnival of More Than A Feilding Friday Quiz, More Than A Feilding Weekly Dismal Awards, and More Than A Feilding Hall of Fame Induction are all taking place today.
Roll up your trousers, the Dismal Awards are especially sketchy this week.
More Than A Feilding Friday Quiz
1. In 1959, NASA made an alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol for solar panels and antennae. What else is Nitinol used for today?
a. Eradicating ants
b. Sustaining intimate adult pleasure
c. Dental braces
d. Windscreen protection
2. Just days after meeting PM Muldoon, Chairman Mao Zedong suffered what?
a. Shingles
b. A heart attack
c. Kiwifruit poisoning
d. Dandruff
3. The working group overseeing completion of a business case into merging TVNZ and RNZ is called what?
a. Being Kind to Public Radio With This Pillow
b. Strong Public Media Business Case Governance Board
c. Scoring Twenty Large And Asking PWC For The Answer
d. Cultural Learnings of Murdoch for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Aotearoa
4. Which of these statements about RNZ does not appear in the anonymous j’accuse! piece currently running on Newsroom?
a. “Self-interested ambition”
b. “Pop will eat itself”
c. “The radio entity will be subsumed”
d. “Ambitious sales people”
5. What is a swingletree?
a. A crossbar that attaches to the traces of a draft horse
b. Private group on Tinder
c. Some cricket thing involving bowlers
d. Adult device that Simeon Brown claims is not his
Answers Break
1. In 1959, NASA made an alloy of nickel and titanium called Nitinol for solar panels and antennae. What else is Nitinol used for today?
Dental braces
2. Just days after meeting PM Muldoon, Chairman Mao Zedong suffered what?
A heart attack. There’s a fascinating account here of their conversation
3. The working group overseeing completion of a business case into merging TVNZ and RNZ is called what?
Strong Public Media Business Case Governance Board
4. Which of these statements about RNZ does not appear in the anonymous j’accuse! piece currently running on Newsroom?
“Pop will eat itself”. The full denunciation is here
5. What is a swingletree?
A crossbar that attaches to the traces of a draft horse
Okay, back to the questions!
6. What are you doing when you apricate?
a. Giving up the booze
b. Preserving fruit
c. Sunbathing
d. Using a swingletree with Simeon Brown
7. Who wrote: Turn up the Eagles the neighbours are listening?
a. John Campbell
b. Lennon and McCartney
c. Mike Incensed-of-Matakana Hosking
d. Becker and Fagan
8. What did Stanley Kubrick originally intend to have in 2001 A Space Odyssey, but gave up because it was too hard?
a. Aliens
b. Marlon Brando
c. Car chase
d. Cell phones
9. What is poor old Mike Incensed-of-Matakana Hosking trying to say in this OMG-so-dire-even-for-him ‘opinion’?
a. Wake up Jeff
b. Wake up Sheeple
c. Nurse!
d. The Aristocrats
10. The final lines of what ‘80s hit have been compared to this nursery rhyme?
My mother said
That I never should
Play with the gypsies in the wood
a. Never Gonna Give You Up
b. Ashes to Ashes
c. Sierra Leone
d. Born In The USA
The rest of the answers
6. What are you doing when you apricate?
Sunbathing
7. Who wrote: Turn up the Eagles the neighbours are listening?
Becker and Fagan, in the Royal Scam track Everything You Did
8. What did Stanley Kubrick originally intend to have in 2001 A Space Oddysey, but gave up because it was too hard?
Aliens
9. What is poor old Mike Incensed-of-Matakana Hosking trying to say in this OMG-dire-even-for-him “opinion”?
Nurse!
Would also accept: I really hate her I’ll think of a reason later
10. The final lines of what ‘80s hit have been compared to this nursery rhyme?
Ashes to Ashes, and its perfect ending My mother said, to get things done, you'd better not mess with Major Tom
More Than A Feilding Weekly Dismal Awards
Never any shortage of candidates is there?
Dismal Award the first
Step forward, or rather, look this way from the dock please Derek Chauvin.
Due process will decide whether you should be convicted, but actual video evidence tells us clearly what kind monster you are. Nine goddam minutes George Floyd was lying there, many of those minutes unconscious. In what world does it make sense to keep your knee on him while everyone around you is imploring you to stop and let him breathe?
If only George Floyd could have had the due process you’re enjoying.
Dismal Award the second
Huge showing this week by Amazon who decided to go all combative on Twitter.
Bullshit! fired back reporters, with actual evidence.
Bullshit! fired back actual Amazon employees.
Fuck all y’all! fired back Amazon, utterly validating the proposition that no business interest should be able to grow beyond the reach of its government.
Dismal Award the third
For a long time when I wasn’t paying attention I would half notice some praise or adulation for Naomi Klein and think what, now? That ditzy Beauty Myth author? Surely you jest. But no, very different author.
In a career marked by gaffes and errors, on she goes, undaunted, happily burbling along in the same bestseller lists as Dan Brown.
And now here she comes, equating the protection of citizens from a virus with fascist tyranny and whatever credibility she might had is utterly gone and so, it seems, is her decency.
Dismal Award the fourth
Hello whoever it was in their truck yesterday afternoon who knocked our daughter off her bike. She says that had it been a moment later, it wouldn't have been just her bike that was broken beyond repair.
Try and guess how incensed I am and how much I agree with her when she says it shouldn't be a death sentence to ride a bike in this city.
Dismal Award the fifth
Hello anonymous damn teacher and stalker. Where the hell do you get off?
Dismal Award the sixth
Hello Trump-fluffing, truth-denying slime merchant Matt Gaetz, I see you may be in a bit of difficulty with the FBI. Nothing trivial I hope.
Also hello besieged MP Andrew Laming. The only thing that seems to be protecting you at this point is your independent vote propping up the Liberals, and Lord, how many times has politics made its way down that grubby path?
Every sordid male connected to this sordid administration’s sordid dealings needs a long bath in boric acid. Or caustic. I’m not fussy.
Dismal Award the seventh
And of course Hosking
More Than A Feilding Hall of Fame Induction
I am steadily improving my social media diet by chucking overboard people and organisations and media outfits that do not bring me joy. In their place I’m subscribing to things like the Facebook page for the Back Country Trust.
The who now? Allow me to copy and paste.
The Backcountry Trust funds and supports volunteers to maintain huts and build tracks for outdoor enthusiasts including trampers, deerstalkers and mountain bikers. We are passionate about outdoor recreation and preserving New Zealand’s rich backcountry heritage.
Many local volunteer groups and clubs have a rich history caring for our backcountry recreation network. The Backcountry Trust aims to provide a secure funding source that will allow them to continue this valuable work into the future.
I never get tired of clicking. Every picture, every project, every story is a winner. This is Hall of Fame stuff.
Never mind your Grand Designs and your Block and all that 2000 dollar a metre makeover porn. These are reno’ projects that make you feel good each time you click through the before and after photos: huts, tracks, a whole network of magic places, far from all the Dismal people and their Dismal shit.
It makes you want to go and visit every last hut. It also makes you want to maybe take along some power tools and cautiously ask if you might be able to help.
well said David, If only George Floyd could have had the due process you’re enjoying. How that despicable male ever became a cop, just shows the reforms needed in policing in USA