Opinion Australia

Caught a promo for some modelling show on Foxtel the earlier tonight and up popped some reference to “the famous Janice Dickenson”. I had the idea she was one of these people famous in their own minds and nowhere else. Then I looked her up on google images… and discovered I was right.,, more or less.

Seems that she was born in 1955… some 52 years or so ago or so… and apparantly she’s been on the cover of a lot of magazines, but I think her career must have been over for a long long time. In fact, the only claim to fame I can see is her reporting she’s slept with over 1,000 men.

So… look her up if you feel the need. I don’t even want to publish a picture.

I was discussing with my father the Laurence Binyon stanza used repeatedly at memorials for the fallen service personell of whatever war or conflict they fought and or died in. I used the stanza in its exact format and spelling, i.e. :

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Please note the use of the word contemn. Whenever I’ve heard this spoken aloud the word is virtually *always* altered to condemn as if Binyon had made an error. However by changing the word they make a distinct change in the meaning implicit in the stanza.

For those who think I’m being pedantic (yet again) please check the meanings of the two words from ‘freedictionary.com’, Contemn and Condemn. It’s time for people to contact the media and make them use the correct word and return the original meaning and dignity to the stanza.

Reading the Phantom’s comment on ‘Soup Glorious Soup’ reminded me of one of my pet peeves. Something I rant on about constantly is sloppy grammar in speech. And of all the culprits, the ones that *really* set me off are news reports that make no sense. Typically of course, right at this moment I can’t think of any but if any come to mind I’ll add them. Feel free to add examples of your own if you hear any.

I accept without question that in ordinary speech, and from ordinary people, it’s easy to slip up and usually we can correct ourselves if there is some ambiguity in what we say. It’s not the same for broadcast media. What they say can often be misunderstood and left open to misinterpretation. How hard is is for a professional organisation to read alloud what they intend to broadcast in front of a trained listener who could pick them up on grammatical errors?

Makes me seethe… !!

The blog looks fantastic on a 22″ widescreen monitor… but I have no idea what it looks like on a smaller standard screen.

Some feedback on the appearance would be appreciated… please?

On the way to the station the wife was querying the origins of the word tattoo and where the practice originated. I thought it was common in the stone age… but she thought it might have required metal so perhaps might have originated in the iron age.

A Wikipedia article says the word tatoo is a corruption of a Polynesian word ‘tatau’ but that the practice itself was notable even as far back as paleolithic times!

Seems that for as long as people have been conscious of self there’s been disatisfaction with our appearence and an ongoing desire to modify what nature provided us with. Still strikes me as weird regardless.