Sir Howard Morrison

Sir Howard Morrison: The death of a giant of the New Zealand entertainment industry and one of the great Maori role models. I saw him perform several times, mainly when I was a teenager and always with the Quartet. Coming upon the recent loss of Gerry Merito, this is a sad occasion. Only one of the famous Quartet is now still alive.

He was the leader of a wonderfully talented family. His father was an All Black and actor Tem being his nephew. His version of How great thou art is easily the best version of all time.

Letterman: Also entertainment; the Prime Minister appeared on the the David Letterman Show in the US and he seemed to come across well. It is serious entertainment as it is all advertising for NZ.

The travellers: They get back tomorrow, which will be great. It has been quite good housesitting with no problems. We even didn't do too badly in the Quiz while they were away with two 3rds and a 4th last week.

Weather: What is wrong. Bloody cold with snow in the Rimutakas and Sydney having dust storms. Some of the pictures from Sydney are quite surreal - Mars like views. There is some talk that we may get some of the damn red dust here. With daylight saving starting on Sunday it should be a lot warmer than it is.

All Blacks: Certainly better against Oz but there was no real competition in the lineouts and I still have my concerns. Plus Australia are such a young team.

Housesitting

Housesitting: Should that be one word or two?? I've settled on one. We are at Sarahs and everything is working out OK although I visit our place most days to collect mail, watch the Rugby etc. (Wellington lost again - and played badly again - Taranaki and now Waikato!!)
Went to start the car and it was completely dead. Got the AA out and it turned out that the boot wasn't properly closed and the boot light had run down the battery.

Skype: Spoke to the team in the UK by Skype just after they had arrived. Incredible - all free - who pays??

Nutty Yanks: Still following the Health debate in the US.

It has spread to calling Obama a Nazi/Communist/Socialist/Muslim/Dictator and claims he is not American born. Everything but a black man, which I think is the main problem - and a smart black man.

Some of the interviews with these nut cases has to be seen to be believed. When interviewed and the facts are pointed out they just don't believe it. One example was about the appointment of a Czar (a title coined by the press to a Presidential Adviser in a particular area such as Drugs). They didn't realise that Reagan had done it first and thought that Czars were Communists and when told the Communists had killed the Czars they just shook their heads saying "Not true"!!!

The stupid thing is that many of the poor who would be helped by a Public Health system don't understand it and rail against it. They are just being conned.

One excellent You Tube piece was a mock protest of "Billionaires for wealthcare" going around the crowds thanking them for making them billionaires. But I think the irony was lost on most of them.

Funny enough I don't think our 'Socialist' health system goes far enough. It should (as in the UK) cover dental and mabe optometrical and a greater subsidy of Doctors visits. Our problem is that we can't afford to do it.

Other Protests: In Samoa they are changing from driving on the right to the left so they can import cheaper cars from Japan and NZ. Many are unhappy but I don't think they have much traffic gridlock in Samoa.

PP and M: Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary died aged 72.

Rugby: AB's tonight and again the team selection defeats me. Sad news to read that ex AB Captain and President of the Rugby Union Jock Hobbs has cancer.

Quiz: Not doing too bad without Joe. Came 3rd this week and only a couple of points in it but the bad news is that she has said we have to pay $4-00 to enter instead of the $2-00. However, with our being in the winning frames most weeks that is not too bad.

UK

UK: Sarah, Joe and the boys took off on Monday night for 3 weeks in the UK when they will attend Joe's brothers wedding. They phoned that they had arrived OK after the 30 hour flight - tired !!

Meantime we are house sitting at their place to look after (keep in order and feed) their two overseas students. However. we return each day to collect mail, work on stuff etc.

TV: Often we will watch morning TV - always TV1 which is opposite from the evening news when we watch TV3. The main reason in the morning is the host Paul Henry - he is outspoken and doesn't fudge matters which I like. He reminds me of the film about the outspoken US radio talkback host Howard Stern. Polling showed he was hated, but even those who hated him tuned in. A bit like me with the UK rugby writer Stephen Jones. I think he writes rubbish but I have to read him!!

Quiz: Without Joe we came 3rd equal (even though she had another couple of answers wrong). Saw a friend who is thinking of organising a charity quiz and wondered if I was interested in organising it. Told him I would think about it as I would rather take part.

Exchange Rate: Must be a real worry as it is hitting 70c to the US. Good from the point of view of travellers and importers but not for investors or exporters. The Reserve bank has held the cash rate this morning which will probably mean a rise against the US Dollar which I think is still 10% overvalued.

Squirrelizer

Squirrelizer: A couple taking a picture of themselves using a timer got a surprise. At the vital moment a squirrel popped up into their photo. They put it onto the Net and as they say the rest is history. So much so that people can now squirrelize their photos.


Headgear: A Muslim woman was not allowed into the Public Gallery of a Napier Court due to her wearing a headscarf. The Judge later said he had made a mistake and should have allowed her to attend. A scarf is OK in my view however, I wonder what the result would be if a Scotsman wanted to wear a kilt in a Saudi Court. Well, we do know what the result would be!! Of course the politically correct Labour MP Chris Carter was upset.

Music: Looking at my music blog I see the most visited song is now Carl Mann with Judy. That is a surprise.

Another surprise is that the 92 year old Vera Lynn is in the UK album charts challenging the Arctic Monkeys (who!!) for the No.1 position. She is the oldest living person ever to get into the Top 20. Her CD containing all her wartime hits was released to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the start of WWII on 1 September 1939.

Almost music as it is Copyright. Just heard on the news that Google wants to digitize books and put them on the Net. Either the authors have to come to an arrangement with them or in the case of most NZ (and world) authors their books will be put on the Net without their approval. Why?

It seems that the Americans say that any book that is not commercially available in the United States is deemed to be out of print and by inference out of copyright. But it seems this does not apply to US authors. So if say a Jamacian author writes a book that is only sold in the West Indies the Americans (Google - unofficial motto - Don't be evil) can just put the book on the Net.

And they wonder why the rest of the world get upset.