Having long since *fallen woefully behind all manner of commentaries upon all manner of matters, this is 'simply' to quickly 'cover off' a couple of items long since past their **'currency' as topics of present moment...before they get lost in the swamp of memory loss with all the succeeding items that continually confront, rattle and/or otherwise 'besiege' me in this unique age of information overload...
The more ***'minor' matters first - at least in terms of earth-shattering importance and/or overall significance in the scheme of things - so I can get stuck into some more meaty matters of moment...
(though, yes, one person's molehill is another person's mountain, and vica-versa) - some of which, I'll ruefully admit, may well extend back as much as six - though the 'major' ones, but two - weeks.
I'll start upon a lighter note, seeing as so much of what we're constantly confronted with these days is anything but...
#Congrats to the seagull - though I hate/detest/loathe the entire species (of NZ gull, anyhow) - which seized a little chihuahua in its beak and made off into the sky with its newfound treasure-trove...!!!
Yes, I know schadenfreude is a sinful attitude to take to anybody in any circumstances, but I must confess a wry smile and chuckle when I heard this BBC News item's mentioning of a hapless (British?) lady/couple in great anxiety thereabouts, perhaps because I've known of many such doggies, and no, though a close acquaintance might be surprised to hear me say so, let's just say they've never been my favourite breed...by a big margin, and then some...though 'cute' they may be...
#While on the topic of oddballs and eccentrics, you'd have to give it to the present occupant of the Oval Office on all manner of levels...but surely his bid to purchase Greenland has to take the cake - I mean mickey (or minnie) - (out of the world community)...but I hear they (my genealogical ancestors the Danes, I mean) ain't sellin'...at least any time soon...least of all to someone likely to open it to full-scale oil et al exploration...
On the more prosaic, if at times equally laughable, or more aptly pathetic level...was:
#Health Minister David Clark's offhand comment awhile ago (July 11th, Morning Report, RNZ National), in regards to the Government's 'special reboot [re] drinking water supplies' (following the lethal episode in Havelock North a year or so ago) that "Mosgiel chose to chlorinate its drinking-water."
While I'm not especially opposed to the practice, conducted properly and all -i.e. with the proper safeguards and the like (as I was doubtless shown in my teens while serving as our high school rep to some of the local reservoirs around town)- my instinctive reaction was simply: "Yeah, right...just as they (Mosgielians, that is) were asked whether or not they supported the mandatory fluoridation of their local water supplies (around that selfsame time, following Havelock North)!"
My obvious sense of 'chagrin' at this is buttressed by all the palaver about "lack of respect for the people's choice" spoken following the Hamilton City Council going over the heads of its populace and ending fluoridation for awhile, whereas how often is it ever mentioned that the Dunedin City Council did just that back in 1967 when it mandated water fluoridation of (the great bulk of) Dunedin water supplies despite a 2:1 rejection of this in a local referendum prior to this?
But providing safe and pure drinking water for its citizenry is clearly a basic requirement of local government; yes, it's beyond a joke and ought to scare the 'b......s' out of local councils and dental departments nationwide if and when in time to come the aggrieved citizenry decide to pursue these stick-in-the-mud, head-in-the-sand, never-say-we-were-wrong, health mis-practitioners for every last - no, not dime, coz money ain't the issue - shred of credibility they still have the gall to lay claim to...
At least John Colquhoun had the deep-down honesty and integrity, upon returning from overseas in the 80s, to concede he'd been wrong about the efficacy and/or safety of mandatory water fluoridation; which, as that man of few but salient, however at times acerbic, words Brian ****whateverhisnameis rightly described it - as others have been known to - is nothing more nor less than mass medication.
*Perhaps at times not all that surprising in view of the almost constant interruptions some of us experience on virtually a day-to-day basis, and especially whenever our trust in the follow-through of various sorts who, doubtless with every good intention in the world, enthusiastically promise us this, that and the other is shattered yet again, when those glibly-made promises simply fail to materialize...
...so apologies if and wherever my writing doesn't appear as up-to-scratch as arguably it sometimes is.
**But arguably not use-by date...
***But with hindsight's beneficent wisdom, having written all the foregoing in my usual stream-of-consciousness mode, I can see that the latter item should and indeed could never ever be characterized as at all minor or inconsequential; in fact it is a matter of the greatest moment...
****Edwards! (two days on)
The more ***'minor' matters first - at least in terms of earth-shattering importance and/or overall significance in the scheme of things - so I can get stuck into some more meaty matters of moment...
(though, yes, one person's molehill is another person's mountain, and vica-versa) - some of which, I'll ruefully admit, may well extend back as much as six - though the 'major' ones, but two - weeks.
I'll start upon a lighter note, seeing as so much of what we're constantly confronted with these days is anything but...
#Congrats to the seagull - though I hate/detest/loathe the entire species (of NZ gull, anyhow) - which seized a little chihuahua in its beak and made off into the sky with its newfound treasure-trove...!!!
Yes, I know schadenfreude is a sinful attitude to take to anybody in any circumstances, but I must confess a wry smile and chuckle when I heard this BBC News item's mentioning of a hapless (British?) lady/couple in great anxiety thereabouts, perhaps because I've known of many such doggies, and no, though a close acquaintance might be surprised to hear me say so, let's just say they've never been my favourite breed...by a big margin, and then some...though 'cute' they may be...
#While on the topic of oddballs and eccentrics, you'd have to give it to the present occupant of the Oval Office on all manner of levels...but surely his bid to purchase Greenland has to take the cake - I mean mickey (or minnie) - (out of the world community)...but I hear they (my genealogical ancestors the Danes, I mean) ain't sellin'...at least any time soon...least of all to someone likely to open it to full-scale oil et al exploration...
On the more prosaic, if at times equally laughable, or more aptly pathetic level...was:
#Health Minister David Clark's offhand comment awhile ago (July 11th, Morning Report, RNZ National), in regards to the Government's 'special reboot [re] drinking water supplies' (following the lethal episode in Havelock North a year or so ago) that "Mosgiel chose to chlorinate its drinking-water."
While I'm not especially opposed to the practice, conducted properly and all -i.e. with the proper safeguards and the like (as I was doubtless shown in my teens while serving as our high school rep to some of the local reservoirs around town)- my instinctive reaction was simply: "Yeah, right...just as they (Mosgielians, that is) were asked whether or not they supported the mandatory fluoridation of their local water supplies (around that selfsame time, following Havelock North)!"
My obvious sense of 'chagrin' at this is buttressed by all the palaver about "lack of respect for the people's choice" spoken following the Hamilton City Council going over the heads of its populace and ending fluoridation for awhile, whereas how often is it ever mentioned that the Dunedin City Council did just that back in 1967 when it mandated water fluoridation of (the great bulk of) Dunedin water supplies despite a 2:1 rejection of this in a local referendum prior to this?
But providing safe and pure drinking water for its citizenry is clearly a basic requirement of local government; yes, it's beyond a joke and ought to scare the 'b......s' out of local councils and dental departments nationwide if and when in time to come the aggrieved citizenry decide to pursue these stick-in-the-mud, head-in-the-sand, never-say-we-were-wrong, health mis-practitioners for every last - no, not dime, coz money ain't the issue - shred of credibility they still have the gall to lay claim to...
At least John Colquhoun had the deep-down honesty and integrity, upon returning from overseas in the 80s, to concede he'd been wrong about the efficacy and/or safety of mandatory water fluoridation; which, as that man of few but salient, however at times acerbic, words Brian ****whateverhisnameis rightly described it - as others have been known to - is nothing more nor less than mass medication.
*Perhaps at times not all that surprising in view of the almost constant interruptions some of us experience on virtually a day-to-day basis, and especially whenever our trust in the follow-through of various sorts who, doubtless with every good intention in the world, enthusiastically promise us this, that and the other is shattered yet again, when those glibly-made promises simply fail to materialize...
...so apologies if and wherever my writing doesn't appear as up-to-scratch as arguably it sometimes is.
**But arguably not use-by date...
***But with hindsight's beneficent wisdom, having written all the foregoing in my usual stream-of-consciousness mode, I can see that the latter item should and indeed could never ever be characterized as at all minor or inconsequential; in fact it is a matter of the greatest moment...
****Edwards! (two days on)
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