Friday – and a New Friend!

Fiona Uncategorized

HECTOR THE GREEN TURTLE

Explanatory note: I thought The Boss was going to do this as the Friday post. However, it seems he is otherwise occupied – perhaps a little weary after the Cairns jaunt? – so I’ve taken the liberty of gazumping him.

Thank you so very much, Joe6pack, for doing the legwork!

My fellow Pubsters, this is our new friend Hector the Green Turtle:

From the WWF’s email:

Dear Pub Blog,

Thank you. By donating $XY.00 Monthly ($XYZ.00 Annually) you have become part of a committed movement of visionary men and women who are helping to preserve some of the greatest creatures ever to walk this planet.

With your support we will move this world into a very different future, one in which humans live in harmony with nature.

I cannot thank you enough for your support of WWF.

Your account will be debited on 24th of each month. A receipt will be sent to you at the end of the financial year.

Your reference number is: hgfedcba

Your Summary: Turtle Adoption

We will keep you up-to-date on the outcomes we are working to achieve. If you would like more information about WWF’s conservation work or find out about other ways you can help, visit http://www.wwf.org.au.

To adopt an endangered animal for yourself or someone else, please visit WWF-Australia’s website.

With heartfelt thanks,

Dermot O’Gorman
CEO, WWF-Australia

He looks like a really nice young chap.

280 thoughts on “Friday – and a New Friend!”

  2. Why would those “Charlie” killers,expecting martrydom ergo “heroism”, hide their faces..unless they also expected to get away?

    I don’t think they were seeking martyrdom, but were prepared to accept it if it came their way, much like any ordinary soldier on a dangerous mission. As Gigilene suggested above, it looks like they were on a rampage and needed to stay alive to continue it. They certainly got the attention of 80,000 police and paramilitaries, and indeed the entire world, either cheering or booing.

    Europe has been through this before. The Munich Olympics hostage crisis had a point besides killing Israelis: release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The hostage takers wanted to escape. Ditto for many other Middle Eastern-related terrorism outrages. The Baader-Meinhoff gang were the same. They all “had work to do” and needed to survive to do it.

    The ubiquity of suicide bombings is a modern phenomenon. It may be that we are, at least partially, going back to the old ways of doing things: targeted attacks with a purpose which does not necessarily include the inevitable suicide of the attackers.

  3. Just after reading this

    “Paris terror attacks: Muslim worker at Jewish store hid customers in cold store”

    Lassana Bathily, 24, originally from Mali in west Africa, ushered customers into the cold store at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Porte de Vincennes on Friday, where Ahmedi Couibaly had taken a number of people hostage. ………………….”I brought them inside and I told them to stay calm here, I’m going to go out. When they got out, they thanked me.”

    He slipped away using a goods lift and was able to provide police with valuable information about what has happening inside the store

    I came across this about one of the worst fear and hate mongers. Horrible man.

    Anger as Rupert Murdoch says ALL Muslims should be held responsible for terror attacks in France

    Claims even peaceful Muslims must take responsibility for ‘jihadist cancer’

    He then maintained his stance, arguing that ‘political correctness’ made for ‘denial and hypocrisy’.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2904914/Anger-Rupert-Murdoch-says-Muslims-held-responsible-terror-attacks-France.html

  6. So is Murdoch, as a Papal knight – Knight Commander of St Gregory, to be precise – going to hold himself responsible for the abuse of kids by pedophile Catholic priests?

  9. Colonialism has a lot to answer for..particularly the idea that ; To claim territory, necessitated creating a border to that territorial claim THAT in many or most cases did not take into consideration any original tribal boundaries, but instead created opportunistic political boundaries or borders relevant to desired property or mineral exploitation. Thereby creating future conflicts amongst the indigenous tribes once the colonisers vacated the scene.
    Nearly ALL European states are complicit in such colonial adventures….now, it seems the chickens have come home to roost!

  11. T.E.Lawrence (of Arabia) was caught up in the negotiations post WW1. in Palestine/Syria and the Sykes / Picot agreement…it didn’t do his head much good either !

  13. Can there be anything more presumptuous or fatuous in human behaviour than to first ; create a God-head, then to create a “monarchical title” system that presumes reward via connection to a presumed sainthood to a presumed God ?

    Who do they think they are kidding?…the very “omnipotent God” they are dictating to?

  14. THE first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, “Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1754)

    https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/rousseau/inequality/ch02.htm

  15. jaycee

    There was also a lot of divide and rule going on where the colonial power used a local minority group to be their enforcers. A perfect set up for future shit storms after the colonial power leaves and the local minority group still has grip on control , especially the military/police/security. “Independence” often coming with whole heapin’ of old scores to settle with the old minority “enforcers” but the minority group still having the guns.

  17. Ok, everybody…remember, “George” is watching…time to get out the old “Masonic secret handshake manual” and get down and get cryptic!

  18. Murdoch, senile old bugger, actually made a point in his nasty tweets, although he had no idea what he did.

    He ignorantly used the word ‘Moslem’ instead of ‘Muslim’. The two words have very different meanings when translated and although we might not understand the difference in what seems to us just alternative spellings the Islamic world sees things very differently.

    ‘Muslim’, when translated from Arabic, means ‘one who submits to or gives themselves to God’.
    ‘Moslem’ translates as ‘one who is evil and unjust’.
    http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/524

  19. Leone2,
    I reckon am heading for where you were pre-low carb diet. I did the Atkins diet a few years ago, dropped 30kgs in 3 months, felt great, hubby got sick, I stopped taking care of myself. Put weight back on. Now have fibro.

    I reckon your daughter would give me good advice.

    The problem is, keeping the charlatans/providers of Diploma of Diluted Waters and Advanced Crystal Healing from the Academy of Tea-Leaf Reading from getting their hands on government money.

  20. Re-post…(apologies to the regulars)…relevant to Leone’s “rant” up-page.

    On Health Practitioners and other medicines.

    There ought to be a rider attached to that response on the “happiest day of your life”, with the assurance of ;”I will……….provided!(see section 31-a…clause 19)”….I say that because when I first entered into that ‘contract’, I went from a batchelor whose only adult affliction was a terminal case of “lateral spine” with the attitude that most physical complaints could be cured with a good book and a good lie down to a co-habiting consumer of health foods, fads and fantasies!
    But, like any dutiful spouse, I partnered this new opinion of the infallibility of “wholistic medicine” with all the best intentions, no-one has ever attacked a nice, healthy bowl of tofu and brown rice with as much gusto as myself!….and I can honestly say to this day that the road to hell was never more solidly paved! But don’t get me wrong, I hold as deep suspicions about “orthodox” medicine….and I have memories of the family doctor (whose child had the same christian name as myself and also suffered from asthma) using me as a guinea-pig for any new industrial/medical concoction dreamed up as a ‘cure’….”…and he seemed such a nice chap” as my mother would say. While the orthodox doctor may indeed bury their mistakes, the alternative pickle theirs! Having had everything from suction cups to dubious creams and healing hands smeared all over my skin, over more than a decade of compliant nievety, I have to say that such applied medicine is by far the preferred option to the plethora of applied psychology of the “empowering guru”! Yes…ah yes!…I suffered from that one too….why are they always smiling?….I gaze at my empty wallet now and I am enlightened, for while even Jesus and Socrates struggled to realise the nexus between philosophy and pecuniary interest, with the modern “practicioner”it is a seamless weld!….When one looks back over those wide plains of time and life-experience, the entire schmozzle can best be seen as a sort of Key-stone cops bugger-up overlaid with the closing theme music from the “Benny Hill Show”…you know : Yah dah dada-dadah….!
    I wasn’t going to regale you with any tales but one springs to mind that will reveal all…
    Our family was “encouraged” to take part in a “circle-dance” in the first moon cycle on the sand at Henley Beach. We were sitting on the sand there at the bottom of the steps waiting for “Marcie” who at that moment appeared at the top of the steps… “Oh look!..” one person said, “She isn’t wearing her glasses….you know, she’s been taking that potion to strengthen her vision and she has been seeing “Janice” about ‘overcoming with her mind’ so she can stop using her glasses”….Indeed, there she was, hand on the rail stepping elegantly with pointed toe straight toward us measured step by step with all the grace of a queen….we sat there in silence, in awe….then at the foot of the steps, while staring dead straight at us, she suddenly threw a leftie and started to walk away up the beach!…….yes..yes…blind as a bat!….”Marcie, Marcie” we called…………..
    There will always be those who cannot help but seek out the oracle and worship the idol, but of course, one would be foolish to dismiss out of hand the beneficial uses of organic compounds and comforting meditations, alas, I am always drawn to a maxim from my father…: “Doctors, priests and lawyers..;one will ruin your health, one will ruin your soul and the other your pocket!” Mind you, with this “lateral spine” I suffer from, what I wouldn’t give for a damn good massage!

  26. puffy
    Insulin resistance is very, very common, especially in older women. It has no symptoms that would alert you and often goes undetected until it’s too late. If you are over-weight and can’t seem to lose that weight, have high blood pressure and maybe a few other issues then you are a candidate.

    I would never have known if I hadn’t been seeing my GP every six months for check ups. I don’t get ‘sick’, but I did start having blood pressure checks after both my parents died – family history. My blood pressure was up, I started on medication, I had check-ups every six months and blood tests once a year to make sure everything was working properly. For years everything went well. Then, early last year, my regular check revealed my blood pressure was way too high, even with medication. Hence the insulin check and a few other tests, looking for the reason.

    My daughter certainly could give you good advice. I agree, there are a lot of nutty alternative health people out there. That article, however, chose the wrong college to use as an example, using a well respected institute that has been accredited for Austudy funding for students for a long time. We need to have well qualified people working in the alternative area, not charlatans who have done a course in flower marinating at Nimbin or some such haven for fruit-loops.

  27. I remember going with a back-muscular irritation to this German woman masseur (no!..not a big stereotype bruiser !)…who worked her way down the muscles next my spine as directed, till she came to the offending spot…
    “That’s it!” I cried…to which she gave it a “thumb-dig” that brought on excruciating pain..
    “EEEEYYYIOOOOIIOO !!” I YELLED…”Jeesus that hurt !”
    “It’s alrright, schatzi”..she soothed ” a little pain is nothing…”

    fuck me!, I thought….and THAT was the last time…

  29. My bad experience was with a chiropractor. Went there for my backache. He hardly touched my spine and managed to constantly contradict me. Then he talked about himself and showed me one of his paintings – a self-portrait. An old man with long white hair and long white beard – guru-type. I found it appallingly ugly as I whinged in pain. Asked me to make another appointment with his receptionist which I did as I was too upset not to, but knowing I would cancel it straightaway. As soon I was home he rang having to change the appointment. OH answered. The guru wanted to speak to me and insisted. I refused to talk, just wanted to cancel this appointment. By then I was in tears, having found no relief. Will never go back to any chiropractor.

  30. I caught a bit of the funeral of those 8 Torres Is kids late last night. I was amazed by what the Islander Bishop said. I immediately wrote it down because nonsense like this should not be allowed to go unchallenged.

    There would have been standing ovation in heaven when our 8 angels arrived

    First comment how would he bloody well know.

  33. Well..it being a quiet Sunday, I thought I’d drop another reminisce on the board…

    The Pencil.

    In all the years I worked as a sub-contractor for the Greeks, I worked on my own. I found that it was the best way to have control of my time and workload. But every now and then, there would be a commercial building job that required another chippie to keep the schedule moving and up to date. On one of these jobs, an older carpenter was brought in to do some finishing work, while myself, being a young bloke then could do the ‘heavy lifting’…we got to chatting at smoko after a couple of days on the job. His name was Mark, an older bloke, as near to retirement as I was far away from it…he’d be long gone by now so I’ll tell you what he told me.

    I was not long married and we were expecting our first child, so was full of that “new parent keenness” sort of thing. I told him of our expectations.

    ‘
    “You got any kids?” I asked.
    “Two, girls…by my second wife”. he added.
    “Oh..none from your first ?” I asked.
    “No…we never got around to it…only married a few of years..” he spoke as he shelled a boiled egg.
    ‘That’s bad luck..” I offered.
    “Not as bad as it would’ve been if we stuck together!…She cleared off with my partner.”
    “Christ!…that’s a bit rich”…I said. Mark shrugged. “A long time ago now.”
    “I never had any partner.” I reflected.
    “ Yeah?..good idea…but we’d known each other (the partner and myself) since our apprenticeship days
    …and when the big building companies folded back in the seventies, we formed a partnership…1st. fix roofing.” He sat back with his legs crossed and sort of stared ahead in some thought while he ate the egg. Of course, being an inquisitive chap (I love a good goss story!), I was dying to hear some more..but there are times and there are times…I knew now was not the time to pry, so I left it to the next week at smoko. I then took up the story with him.

    “ That partner you had, was he a good tradie or the bludger type….I ask, since you say he took off with your wife…I was wondering if you had to carry him on the job?”

    “ No..no…he was a bloody good tradesman…knew the job inside out..much brighter than me..he used to do the quoting and setting out…that was probably my downfall.”
    “How’s that?” I asked.
    “Well…he would leave me with the cutting-list, say..and take off for a couple of hours to do a quote and I’d be there on the job cutting the timber and he’d come back and we’d get stuck into it….” he sat back and pondered a moment..” You know..I probably would never have found out when I did except for that one small slip with the pencil..”
    “What pencil?” I was now very curious.
    “These pencils..you know ; these thick carpenter’s pencils”. And he motioned to the one in the top pencil-pocket of his overalls. He took it out and turned it over to show me three little cuts near the top. ‘That’s my mark..I put it on all my tools and things..it’s a habit since my apprentice years…so you know your gear. “..Mark put the pencil back into the pocket and leant back against the wall “I shoulda worked it out a bit sooner…like when my partner ; Dave’s wife, bumped into me at the shops one day and asked me to join her in a coffee there..

    She asked me then out of the blue if I thought Dave was having an affair..I was gobsmacked…’Dave, I repeated..nah!..can’t see it…he’s always on the job ..’cept when he goes to do a quote..an then he’s usually only gone an hour or two….I had to think a bit…Nah!..can’t see it.’ I said again’…but it did stick in my head for some reason”.

    Mark leant to his lunch-box and took out a snack-bar….he continued..
    “It was about a month or so after that chat that I was there on the job early, setting up…I was at my tool-box marking these six new pencils I had bought the night before from the hardware…I sharpened one for myself and had just put the remaining five into the top drawer of my tool-box when Dave was at my shoulder..’Ah!..he said..I’ll have one of those if you don’t mind, I’m all out of them.’…I gave him a new one.” Mark ..again stopped as if in deep thought and stared ahead…he was like that..then he continued…
    “It was that very night, actually..I was putting my slippers under the bed and when I lifted the valance there, I saw the pencil..it was one of my carpenter’s pencil with my mark on it…I picked it up and said my thought out loud..’What’s this doing here?’….and the missus looks over her shoulder and mumbled something like ..”It must have dropped out of your pocket”…I just accepted that , shrugged and put it on the bedside table to take to work in the morning. I never gave it a second thought, to be honest…and I never would have again except when I got to the job, Dave was already there, up on the roof doing some measuring…I went to my tool box, took out my nail-bag and remembered the pencil in my pocket from last night….I opened the top drawer and saw four new pencils there..I automatically put my hand into my nail-bag and felt and took out the new pencil I had put there yesterday….” Mark stopped, frowned, like he was going through the moment all over again, recalling it step by step…” I remember I was thinking to myself..I’m not a fast thinker..an’ I’m not quite ‘with it’ if you know what I mean..I’m sort of confused trying to work this thing out…there’s the four pencils in the tray…there’s the one in my nailbag, ..five.. an’ here’s the one I found under the bed last night…that makes six.. hang on, didn’t I give one to Dave yesterday before he went to do that quote and if so how come I have six again now..and then that meeting with Dave’s wife an her thinking of him having an affair and the pencil I gave him and he going for a quote..how come I have six now…and then the wife’s ; “It must have fallen from your pocket”…all this sort of jumbled stuff…of course the LAST THING on my mind was any idea of Dave…of Dave and my wife..and it might still have been explained away except at that moment, Dave calls out from the rafters..’Mark!..can you throw me up another of those pencils..the other must have dropped from my pocket”…but I was in the middle of this dammed awful thing and wasn’t hearing him properly till it all twigged with him bloody calling to me over and over..;
    “Mark!….Mark!…the pencil..the pencil…”

  35. My blood pressure is fine. I am just fat. I eat too much. I like sweets. I like mashed spuds. I like a juicy steak or a couple of lamb chops with my mash. I hate exercise. My willpower is non existent in the local Vietnamese bakery, so that shop is off limits, as is their freshly baked bread just waiting for a spread of real butter and jam, or their crunchy rolls just waiting to be turned into last nights roast meat and salad roll.

    Sigh.

  36. jaycee
    Excellent story. Now when are you going to get around to putting all your stories into a book?

  37. puffy

    I have a different problem. When I went to hospital, I was underweight and malnourished, according to the doctors. After the transplant, the dietitian said that people tend to put a lot of weight after the transplant, so start immediately with a low-fat diet: low-fat yogurt, low-fat margarine, low-fat cheese. Anyway, I’ve put on 2 kilos but it’s probably mainly water as I still have to drink nearly 4 L a day.

    Weight can be a problem for many people.

  38. puffy
    Yeah – Sigh! is right.

    I like mashed spud, well, spuds in general. And toast for breakfast, nice toast made with bread from the Vietnamese bakery. Those shops are just too tempting. The girls in my local must think I’ve died, it’s so long since I’ve been there.

    It’s not that I can never eat spuds or toast or pasta again. I can, but as an occasional treat, not every day.

    Just as well I don’t have much of a sweet tooth because everyone who has my problem says they really crave sweet things, at least until they adjust. I didn’t have that problem.

  39. Thank you Puff and Leone….I notice several rotten grammar mistakes there..I hate that!..but alas, for want of a decent primary education in the basics…Gonski was good!

  40. jaycee, the grammar mistakes are not a big thing in such great stories. please keep them coming. Yes, when will we get the book?

  42. BOOK!!??…are you mad!!??…do you know how many poor bastard artists die in garrets in Aust’ for want of a decent meal?….I know of one such poor bugger currently at the ANU. developing a keen eye for the feral rabbits that gambol around the lawns there…

  44. He asked me how to make a trap and how to gut and clean rabbits…I had to dissuade him from such an enterprise..
    “Look,” I said seriously ” even if you do get good at catching these rabbits, you’re such a frugal bloke that you’ll end up tanning the skins to make a winter coat for yourself…and soon your sojourns amongst the bushes in twilight will be noticed and someone will take a phone-pic of you and it’ll appear in the papers looking like that pic of Bigfoot, sloping away ..with your crude rabbit-skin coat and you’ll have a fresh-dead rabbit in your hand that will be mistaken for a baby or summat, so you look to all the world like Goya’s “Pluto eating his young” and then there’ll be a “Hue and Cry” to hunt you down through the grounds of the ANU. …no…best you stick to those 3minute noodles and sardines…you’ll live longer.

  46. But I tell you what…he isn’t alone amongst the students there…He told me he found this Chinese wholesale place where he could get a whole box of 3 minute noodles for half price and as he was carry this booty back through the Uni grounds to his “den”, he was spotted by other students who called and demanded to know where he had got them and he had to run for his very life!

  48. Jaycee,

    Your story about Mark the carpenter made me laugh and tear up.

    It takes true artistry on the part of the author to elicit that response.

  49. re. Rupert Murdoch.

    When Margaret Thatcher died I know there was plenty of discussion about the appropriateness of some people celebrating. I at the time didn’t really have an opinion but understood how passionately some in the UK felt about her and the effect her policies had on many people.
    When Murdoch drops off the perch however I will be cheering and celebrating louder than anyone.
    What a lowlife scum he is.
    That malignant piece of crap has done far more damage to this country and the Australian way of life that I and many others treasure than any terrorist could ever dream of.
    My only wish is that his death will be long, painful, lonely and full of suffering.

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