Never underestimate the power of a great story

HT Petrea Burchard

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Devonport. World famous in Mainz.

Our local rag…er…shining example of journalistic excellence…er…rag, the Mainzer Allgemeine Zeitung never ceases to amaze me.

Open the paper this morning, scan past an appallingly bad journalistic effort by Stefanie Widman (who works out that 8 divided by 47 is less than 10% and that the average price of locally produced white wine is €13/litre – at which my bullshit deflectors deploy automatically, but more on that later) to the travel section and stumble over a WHOLE PAGE on Devonport, a seaside suburb on Auckland’s North Shore which we know quite (actually, very…) well.

I mean, the place is a (fairly) well-kept secret in Auckland itself, let alone the rest of NZ. And it pops up HERE under the headline “Picture-perfect wooden houses and seaside chic”?

Which is absolutely true.

We looked at buying a place there (picture-perfect wooden house for around $220k – pretty much the going rate back then, probably $800k >$975k according to the valuation these days)  just around the corner from Robby and Houghton) yonks ago when we were toying with the idea of moving back when Air New Zealand offered me a job.

Not sure about all of it, though.

A bit like Long Island without the house prices, it says.

How about this place for a mere $1.9m, then?

Or 2 beds/2 baths for $4.35m…

Posted in This is Mainz, Too good to miss | 1 Comment

Quote of the day

“I was astonished to discover recently,” says Andy Lloyd, with the air of a man who has just had to put down his toast and marmalade to express his horror at what he has just discovered. “In an allegedly “young-man’s” clothes shop – that you can now buy jackets with leather elbow patches already fitted! This is obviously from the same style (?) school as buying jeans that are already worn out – where will it all end… expensive new shoes that come replete with flapping sole, worn down heels, and pre-fitted with hardened bit of chewing gum?”

Posted in Too good to miss | 1 Comment

What We Believed When We Were Kids …

 

1. My granddad used to tell me that if I didn’t dry myself properly after my shower at night, I would wake up stuck to the bed!

2. Before Toy Story, when my youngest son was about 5, I told him his toys came alive at night when he was asleep and for the next couple of months I put his action men out around his room so they looked like they had been fighting.

3. My sister and I used to fly between Wellington and Christchurch for the school holidays. Our lovely dad used to tell us we had to hurry to collect our bags from the baggage claim area because they would only go around the bag carousel three times. After that, the airline would take them out the back and blow them up. I still rush down to collect my bags whenever I fly.

4. When colour television first came out, my nana always said don’t vacuum too close to the set as it would suck the colour out of the TV!

5. My friend and his siblings grew up believing their dad’s assertion that when Mr Whippy had his music playing, it meant that he had run out of icecream.

6. With the advent of large hay bails wrapped in green plastic, I told my grandkids that they were the cows’ sleeping bags. The cows would eat grass during the day, sleep in their sleeping bags at night, and the farmer would put their sleeping bags back in their covers in the morning.

7. My dad told us that if we left our shoes outside, the fearsome Jandal Bird would come and take them away … And I’ve convinced my young niece that a sock monster lives in the washing machine, the scourge behind so many odd socks.

HT Sideswipe

Posted in Too good to miss | 1 Comment

Tunes for a Tuesday – 24 January 2012

Strictly R&R – Atlanta Rhythm Section – The Boys From Doraville [Listen]
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer – The Beatles – Abbey Road [Listen]
Lemonade – Braids – BIRP! July 2010 [Listen]
The Christian Life (Gram Parsons Vocal) – The Byrds – Sweetheart of the Rodeo [Listen]
Cherry Red – Earthless [Listen]
Softly, As I Leave You – Elvis Presley – Walk A Mile In My Shoes: The Essential 70s Masters 5 [Listen]
You’ve Got to Stand for Somethin’ – John Mellencamp – Scarecrow [Listen]
Crazy – Northern Portrait – The Fallen Aristocracy EP [Listen]
Two Sides/Monsieur Valentine – Spoon – Live in Tallahassee, Fl: 11/8/07 [Listen]
False Alarm – The Wooden Birds [Listen]

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Clint gets it right….

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Ahoi, Captain

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Kickstarter

A backer wrote:

This is my new form of gambling. If the product lives up to the hype, I’m a big winner. If it doesn’t, I’m still honored to be a supporter of innovation and entrepreneurs. Win, Win.

The Hidden Radio popped up on my radar in 2008.

Kickstarter accepted it late last year with an initial funding goal of $125,000.

Over-subscribed by a factor of 8. Almost.

My mate Houghton and I (plus a few of HIS mates) jumped on board for 5.

Can’t wait to take mine into the local Apple reseller and do a demonstration….

Posted in Too good to miss | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The bullshit market

 (c) Angus Muir

Lucy Kellaway of the FT announces her annual jargon awards:

The eagerly awaited 2011 Golden Flannel Award for utter gibberish from a company that should know better. The winner is Manpower Group, for describing itself thus:

“Our $22 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age.”

Which makes me nostalgic for the Jurassic Age because I don’t think dinosaurs had any truck with innovative suites at all.

More here

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True, too…

2427 = 21 + 42 + 23 + 74

Posted in Baffling me with science | Leave a comment