Sylvie @7
My condolences.
It may be of little consolation to you, but you will remember him forever - and in time, it'll always make you smile.
Don't let him be your only pet - just as people can remind us of someone dear, our pets can also remind us of those who have gone before. As xeger said; you'll know when your next pet is before you.
In the meanwhile, I'm sorry for your loss.
Inge, @#236
Actually, in the hands of the competent, phonics can be a way into reading and spelling for some children. They've recently been reintroduced here, under a few special programs for kids with reading difficulty, and the results can be phenomenal. Here's a recent success story.
In the hands of the incompetent, phonics are a disaster. And whole-word reading works for many learners, child and adult, and is still being used in tandem with phonics, which seems to me to be the way to go.
My mum was, inter alia, a teacher of remedial English and a librarian. I can't remember a time I couldn't read, but I do remember that when I was two, she made me a set of phonics flash cards (along with some cards with whole words like my name, "aeroplane," "Fluff," (my dog), and so on) and I used them to make up stories. I also used phonics to try and read new words, which was a great game.
When I finally got to school, I had to prove to my teacher that my parents were not helping me with my reading by pulling out that day's newspaper and reading it at them.
So, long story short, phonics FTW. But only in the hands of a competent teacher.
No love for "get thee hence"?
Well, if you want to get all literal about it, I suppose ...
I go to a mechanic two suburbs away, although there are many closer, because when my partner and I went to pick up my car after some emergency brake-work, he greeted us both, and then showed me the old discs and explained what he had done.
I have no way to evaluate what he did - if I were a mechanic, I'd have done it myself - but he was open and courteous, and he spoke to the person who owned the car, rather than defaulting to the person with the dangly bits. So, he gets my business, and that of my friends. We fell to chatting about it one day, and he said that it's become part of his sales strategy; he knows that if he treats women like customers, he'll get more women customers. He's right.
True, all mentioning the seax, but that hilt looked a good deal bigger than a mere knife-hilt; it were sword sized, and we've not seen one that big before.
That sword hilt - the one with the hole with a pointy end and a blunt end. Is that possibly evidence that the Anglo-Saxons used one-sided blades? Because that alone will set the cat among the pigeons :)
I wonder how many of the birthers are also deathers? If I were in America, I'd be terribly tempted to turn up to a town-hall meeting with a sign saying "Kenyans will kill your grandma."
inge @#100:
Other way round, in the past: For a while, the rich and healthy were choosing not to take out private health insurance, as they had to pay the Medicare levy anyhow (it's part of our tax system), and figured that since they were paying for it, they might as well rely on the public system. Waiting lists ballooned.
To encourage people who have the means to go back to the private system, we now get a tax benefit which pays for about 2/3 of a private health insurance premium. Also, if you earn over a certain amount and don't have private cover, you have to pay an increased Medicare levy which usually works out at aroundabout the amount you'd have to pay for basic private cover anyhow.
Lastly, people who are over 30 who don't have private cover have to pay slightly higher premiums when they do finally take it up (say, when their salary goes over the Medicare threshold), which is meant to encourage people to pay for private health insurance before they become a drain on the system. So, if you rely on the public system while you are young and healthy and then take out insurance when you reach the age where you are more likely to make frequent claims, you pay more. Mind you, having done the math, I'm still way ahead and I didn't take out private insurance until well into my 30s.
Wyman, Australia, where I live, also has universal health care. Waiting lists are much the same as in Canada, particularly waiting lists for elective surgery, which can run to months or occasionally over a year for conditions judged to be non life-threatening.
Acute and emergency care is immediate and of very high quality, and every time I have been to an emergency room (asthma or in one case, a copiously bleeding gash) I've been seen within 5 minutes of reporting to the triage nurse. Most medical clinics bulk-bill, meaning seeing a GP is completely subsidised, and if you are prepared to wait until a doctor can see you, you can usually get an appointment immediately. Seeing a specialist, or seeing the GP of your choice if they do not bulk-bill sometimes requires a copayment.
There are also private medical facilities, used largely by people with private health insurance, and there are tax incentives for taking up private health insurance; an attempt to ease the burden on the public system. If you are careful, private health insurance can pay for itself, particularly if you go in for complimentary medicine, wear more-than-basic glasses or visit a dentist (they are finally going to bring in universal dental care ... sometime before the next election would be my guess).
It's not a perfect setup, but medical care is readily available and will not bankrupt a family, even in an emergency. The Government has just announced a major overhaul of the system, as it's run by the individual states at the moment, and the current feeling among the bureaucrats is that efficiencies and economies might be gained from a national approach. The more cynical among us believe that it'll just add another layer of bureaucracy without much change on the ground. We shall see.
Count me and mine among those who curled up by the fire with an especially good red wine to celebrate the longest night of the year Dow Nunder. This day becomes more important every year to my household - we can fight the cold, which is yet to come, but the gloom of a Melbourne winter mires the heart and mind. Even a few more seconds of light every day makes it feel like the worst is past us.
Good news! Someone's obviously been listening to Jim. Our Lord Mayor has released a statement suggesting people in the city prepare go bags.
Mind you, his suggested contents list implies he hasn't been listening all that well.
Allan @ 33;
Them's fighting words. Vegemite is not only perfectly cromulent food, it ennobles any cheese into whose proximity it is brought.
It's not our fault if you unbelievers eat it like it's peanut butter, rather than like it's wasabi.
I am rather charmed by the notion that something can be "too fat-free." I suspect I will start randomly critiquing things as such, to see the reaction from the local food martyrs.
And now I have to find salsa verde in wintry Melbourne. And alas and woe, USA Foods is out. But they do carry Herdez.
On the subject of Clarke and Dawe - Mr Clarke has a website.
His piece on farnarkling remains the definitive work on the ancient sport - here's a taste:
"The word Farnarkeling is Icelandic in structure, Urdu in metre and Celtic in the intimacy of its relationship between meaning and tone."
More here: http://www.mrjohnclarke.com/.
Ah Paul, you terrible cynic - would Jeeves lie to us? Actually, wait a minute - of course he would, but only by omission, in a noble cause, and never directly or with malice.
But here is further evidence of Fry's bushel-hiding tendancies: "There's a piano in my house, and I play when no one's around - but as soon as anyone listens, my confidence goes and I lose my sense of rhythm." From _Moab is my washpot_ IIRC.
As to whether that was him in the Jeeves and Wooster clip, I still suspect it was, British Television budgets of the 90s being what they were, but he'd have to have been good and liquored (or coked) up, as he often was in those days in an attempt to overcome his social anxiety.
You want to impeach the First Dog, #14? Do you have any idea how government actually works? (Mind you, a talking dog - that's something I'd pay to see ... )
So is bone-headed idiocy, Clark.
Sorry Paul - Here's a cut'n'paste version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbsad51e-eM
Paul @ 20
Mr Laurie is a very fine musician indeed, but there is evidence that Fry is no slouch himself.
I think Mr Fry is right to hide his light under a bushel - if he were to let it be more widely known that as well as being so intelligent, so talented and so funny, he was also a musician, he'd be at even more risk of being lynched for being Far Too Clever.
Laurie, on the other hand, has carefully cultivated an image of being Not As Smart As Steven, and can get away with such virtuoso displays.
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| 2008 | 51 |
| 2007 | 137 |
| 2006 | 59 |
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