A long time ago, in a newsroom far, far away …

  Star Wars fans with a sense of humour will love Chris Barker’s Deathstar Express, which had been popping up on social media this year. He’s put almost all of his mock front pages on one web page. When you think about it, and I’m sure Chris had, how do you keep the population in […]

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Miscellaneous images from the US

A bit of a clear-out of a downloads’ folder on my computer. This has been sitting there since 2016 and I’ve no idea of its origins, but let’s say that Americans do understand irony and whomever claimed otherwise was wrong.     This was from The New York Times in the early 2000s. Dave Barboza […]

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Sharkonomics 2 reviewed

  I wanted to add a few words to Amazon for Stefan Engeseth’s Sharkonomics 2, but it seems Amazon no longer lets me post reviews. I guess Jeff B.’s rich enough without needing my content. I thought some of the negative ones he got there were a bit rough, given that he’s not proclaiming that […]

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Generation Z has the right idea with flip phones and digital cameras

  This may be a source of comedy on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but to me it’s obvious why young people are opting for flip phones and digital cameras. They’re smart enough to think: why should I have a device that’s addictive and wastes my time? Why should I spend time on websites […]

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There is no point to posting on Twitter

The demise of Twitter continues. Today I saw, while heading back to Tawa from Papakōwhai, the aftermath of a seven-vehicle accident (three cars, four commercial vehicles) on the opposite side of State Highway 1. I posted this on Mastodon, and, made an exception and did a fresh message on OnlyKlans, I mean, Twitter. You know, […]

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Elizabeth Arden is missing out on a big market here

As this wasn’t shared much on social media, I can only assume not many of you share my sense of humour. It’s a fake, of course, since I’m feverish from the first dose of the shingles vaccine (if you look down the side-effects list, I have them all) I needed something to ease my way […]

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January 2023 gallery

Here are January 2023’s images—aides-mémoires, photos of interest, and miscellaneous items. I append to this gallery through the month.     Notes Rosa Clará image, added as I was archiving files from the third quarter of 2021. The Claudia Schiffer Rolling Stone cover came to mind recently—I believe it was commended in 1991 by the […]

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New Zealand Chinese Language Week reviewed—in Cantonese

My friend Bevan was going to make a podcast in Cantonese for New Zealand Chinese Language Week, and I decided I would record a few tidbits—except it wound up being something far longer and a podcast episode in its own right. So here it is, all 13-plus minutes of it. If this isn’t your language, […]

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Far more important news

Among all the royal hoop-la, it’s nice to come across this vital 2014 article while on Mastodon.     To the scientists who analysed 1,893 poos, and other waste, thank you for your mahi.   All right, a couple of remarks about the royal coverage. First, I’ve heard from a legitimate news source, words to […]

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台山阿伯返鄉下講英文

This is one of those things I have to note down otherwise it’ll get lost to time. And you won’t see this mentioned during ‘Chinese Language Week’ here.    In the old country (台山, or Taishan, China), when my father was a boy in the 1930s and 1940s, there were some whānau in the village […]

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