Bolt rebooted

-----------------------
The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info
-----------------------

Last updated on July 2nd, 2017 at 08:53 am

Weekend-long technical problems at Andrew Bolt’s site are now resolved. Go visit; much goodness awaits.

Posted by Tim B. on 02/03/2008 at 02:39 AM
    1. O. I wonder if he’s on strong painkillers, too?

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 02:42 AM • permalink

 

    1. kae a bolt out of the blue. Now if my connection will stay on.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 02:44 AM • permalink

 

    1. Excellent. I’ve been missing my daily dose of Moonbats, and Bolt has some excellent moonbats.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 03:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. My class size was sixty, I think all of us learnt to read and write, subtract and multiply. What is phonics? Sounds like how I was taught. But then we used simple English and called it reading and writing.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 03:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. #4 Depending on when you were in primary school, you were probably taught to read and write using the phonetic method. In my opinion, it’s far better than the whole-word method.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 03:03 AM • permalink

 

    1. #5 Started primary school in the middle of last century.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 03:23 AM • permalink

 

    1. I was going to make a comment, but must rush off to the mosque to become a retard err revert, to take advantage of this opportunity.

      Posted by burrah on 2008 02 03 at 03:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. #5
      Phoenetics is how I learnt.
      Primary/Infants teacher mum says a combination of the two (see/say and phoentics) should be used, one works on some better than others, and later they combine to help read quickly. (pretty sure that’s what she said).I think the sounds of letters helps me with knowing how to spell and where to double letters when it’s needed.

      Of course, sometimes I fail that!

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 03:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. #6 Probably phonetics then Stackja.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 03:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. I’m glad we learnt by phonetics (showing my age) but my kids were not so lucky as the ‘whole word’ method was the standard. Fortunately, reading to them from an early developed their skills to read and comprehend.

      O/T what do you guys think of Kevni’s upcoming conference of the 1000 best and brightest to solve our 10 most pressing problems.

      Another wanktalk fest that will cost heaps and achieve…well ???

      Posted by mindfree on 2008 02 03 at 03:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. #8 She’s probably right too Kae. Phonetics worked for me.

      One of the schools down here got sued because the mother of one of it’s students found out that he couldn’t read, because he’d only memorised the words through whole-word, and apparently the phonetics approach was never even attempted.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 03:35 AM • permalink

 

    1. kae I think #7 just read your story about wives.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 03:37 AM • permalink

 

    1. #10 Hawke did this earlier. Did he not?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 03:39 AM • permalink

 

    1. whole-word sounds like having gypsies bless your money.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 03:43 AM • permalink

 

    1. #13 Yeah stacka and that cost heaps and achieved…well ???

      Hawke was into consensus. I’m getting this feeling that Rudd is borrowing a bit here and there from our last few PM”s…witness mee-too with JWH but a return to ‘consenus’ and populism with the labor mates…sounds familiar not to mention signing Kyoto and the ‘Sorry’ scam which would warm the hearts of the now bitter and twisted freaks like Fraser and Keating

      Posted by mindfree on 2008 02 03 at 03:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. #11
      I’m sure she’s right. She’s been teaching tackers to read since about 1953.
      I could read before I went to school and she taught me by saying the sounds of the letters and putting them together.How can a kid just know how to say a word unless they know the sounds the letters make?

      Flash cards and whole word stuff came later for me.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 03:57 AM • permalink

 

    1. Hey, Stacka, it also happened in a previous thread…

      been there, done that.

      Pay attention…

      (though sometimes people don’t really have time to read all the threads so… hey!)

      er, have you seen the advert for Jihad Sheilas on ABC?

      I want to watch it, to see how stupid these women are. But then I don’t want to watch it to see how stupid these women are.

      It’s not good for the blood pressure to be shouting at the tv screen.

      arrgh. my email provider has karked it. probably hit by lightning.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 04:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. Gumdale, south of Bris, is flooding. They’ve had 8 inches of rain today!

      No wonder the cricket got damp!

      It’s been reasonably dry here today, just a few little showers.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 04:02 AM • permalink

 

    1. How can a kid just know how to say a word unless they know the sounds the letters make?

      Thus why I don’t really like the whole word method Kae. I suppose it’s alright for short common words like “the” and “and”, but phonetics seems to have a much more practical application.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 04:03 AM • permalink

 

    1. 17 kae I come and go myself. Now if connections stays.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:04 AM • permalink

 

    1. 15

      Rudd makes Epstein chief of staff, May 29, 2007 – David Epstein was chief of staff to former party leader Kim Beazley from 1997 to 1999 and a senior staffer to ministers in the Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The 44-year-old played key roles in Labor’s 1990 and 1993 federal election victories and headed Labor’s National Media Liaison Service until Mr Keating lost office in 1996. Rudd has already employed the services of Walt Secord, who was former NSW Premier Bob Carr’s spin doctor.

      Deja vu all over again.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:10 AM • permalink

 

    1. Has anybody noticed. Another Labor government and another ‘Summit.’ This one is called 20/20 or something. All the ‘brightest/ideologically correct’ minds in the country are to gather and give ideas for the next decade. One can imagine the make-up of some of these ‘bright minds.’ I mention whales, sorry people, warmanists and so forth, who no doubt will be in the mix.
      WARNING: Prime Minister Lu Kewen has made it clear that they are not to challenge his ideas for this parliament.
      If he can’t do the bloody job, just say so!

      Posted by BJM on 2008 02 03 at 04:12 AM • permalink

 

    1. cricinfo reports:

      18:08 local, 08:08 GMT So India are all out for 192 in their 45 overs. Lee takes the ball and holds it up to the cheering crowd as he walks off. The covers are back on. Players head off to get dry. Drizzle continues.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. #22 He will quit and Gillard will take over. Then she will quit and … you get the idea.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:17 AM • permalink

 

    1. Hi guys, sorry I’m late.

      I just got out of jail; they caught me breaking into a 2nd grade classroom last night…

      I know– it’s terrible– but that’s what happens when you’re Hooked On Phonics!

      (Ohmigosh did I say that? So sahri, it wuz supozed to bee a joke!  It helps if u watch amerikan teevee commershulz…)

      Posted by zeppenwolf on 2008 02 03 at 04:27 AM • permalink

 

    1. Aussie in line as next England gloveman. Huh?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:29 AM • permalink

 

    1. #5
      Ash,
      I had to learn German and Hungarian in primary,
      if not for the phonetic method, I prob. would be without the ability to write (rite?),spell (now that conjures up a few things) a word correctly. (A bit of latin helped too, but it’s of a kind of a little knowledge being dangerous)

      Posted by LouMac on 2008 02 03 at 04:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. 25 Well whole-word spoken.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. 27 I have enough trouble with English.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. #27 The phonetic method is excellent, in my view. English is my second language, but because I learned in phonetics in my first, it didn’t take too long for me to pick it up.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 04:46 AM • permalink

 

    1. #30 Glad I was taught correctly.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 04:51 AM • permalink

 

    1. It’s Phonics, rather than Phonetics, isn’t it?

      Sorry for the pedantry.

      Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 02 03 at 04:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. #32 Both seem to be about speech sounds.

      phonetics: the scientific study of speech sounds and how they are produced.

      phonics: reading method involving letter recognition: a method of teaching reading in which people learn to associate letters with the speech sounds they represent, rather than learning to recognize the whole word as a unit.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:01 AM • permalink

 

    1. #32 TMass,

      phonetics is the disgusting way they allow kids in school to spell. If it sounds like the word, that’s close enough.

      For example, periforal, perifery, boks, sampel, bottel, rite, rong, wile, to, to, and to, nife,

      Phonics is actually the old fashioned use of the Alphabet.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:02 AM • permalink

 

    1. Also T mass,

      never apologise for pedantry. I would rather have my prescriptions written out by a pedantic doctor, than one who thought near enough is good enough.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:04 AM • permalink

 

    1. #34 Me, old fashioned it seems.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:04 AM • permalink

 

    1. #33,

      absolutely right Stack!

      BTW, how are you?

      I started school twenty or so years after you. Fortunately, they were still using the old way of teaching us to read.

      I taught my son to read before he went to school, so that he wouldn’t have to rely on the “whole” word crap.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. I seem to recall that phonetics involves a whole range of specialised characters to represent sounds.
      My younger sister, when she was younger still (around kindies and 1st class), was forced to learn from a something called a “Downing Reader” which incorporated some of these glyphs. Later her class went on to standard spellings, so she had to learn to read twice.
      I agree that phonics works better than whole-word method (which seems to depend upon being familiar with a whole lot of words in the first place). Whole-word is some bonehead’s theory, embraced by people wishing to seem profound and knowledgeable. Its out and out failure is only a fact, and thereby easily ignored.

      Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 02 03 at 05:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. All good pedagogues.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. 37 Talking about crap is that where today’s music comes from c-rap. I am really showing my age.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:19 AM • permalink

 

    1. The subject of learning to read has risen before, and I was corrected because I used “phonetics”, instead of “phonics”. But you knew what we meant.

      (and I’d forgotten!)

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 05:19 AM • permalink

 

    1. It explains the spelling of the SMS generation.

      Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 02 03 at 05:20 AM • permalink

 

    1. 42 UR corekt.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:22 AM • permalink

 

    1. Sorry Kae.

      Did not mean to be petty.

      Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 02 03 at 05:27 AM • permalink

 

    1. Mark this as the day the waterfront went back to normal.

      Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2008 02 03 at 05:28 AM • permalink

 

    1. I flatly refuse to use the shortcuts when I text or email. I loathe them.

      I also don’t give a rat’s arse if it is quicker.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:29 AM • permalink

 

    1. #41 Yep, our bad. It’s a good thing we’re among friends here Kae!

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 05:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. #44 T Mass,

      Kae knows you weren’t being petty. She’ll tell you herself.

      We all of us get it wrong every now and then. If someone doesn’t correct us occasionally, we may forget.

      We all correct each other every now and then.

      I would always rather someone pointed out a mistake I had made, because then, I can fix it!

      And stop saying sorry!!! You haven’t done anything wrong!!! 😉

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. #45 Mole,

      Oh SHIT!!!

      I read that earlier today.
      F**K ;(

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. #44
      Toiling, no need to apologise!
      It’s better I’m corrected than I make the mistake… but I’ll probably forget again, my remember is broken!Stop saying sorry, or I’ll have to make it $tick!

      The reason kids today don’t learn how to speak correctly and spell and so on is because they are NOT corrected!!

      Toiling, can you tell me what you are a toiling mass of? Just wondering…

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 05:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. #32, should that not be fonetic ?

      Posted by curious george on 2008 02 03 at 05:40 AM • permalink

 

    1. We are told, by Alexander Pope:
      To err is human; to forgive is divine.I am very human.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:41 AM • permalink

 

    1. #50 Kae,

      you’d want to know what he is a “roiling mass of”, wouldn’t you? 😉 heheheeh

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:43 AM • permalink

 

    1. #52 Stack,

      I never forgive anyone.

      Do I have to give up my dreams of Divination?

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:44 AM • permalink

 

    1. #51 Curious George,

      CORRECTAMUNDO!!!!

      According to the FONZ!

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:45 AM • permalink

 

    1. #54 Divinity/Divination only happened once. Too late for the rest of us.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. #55 “Happy Days” are here again.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:52 AM • permalink

 

    1. My email server is MIA.

      *sigh*

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 05:53 AM • permalink

 

    1. I don’t remember how I learned to read, for all I know I was born with it. But then I would always sit in the back and read when math or any other subject came up, getting me Cs and Ds all through schrewel. So now I drive a truck. Apparently, reading is overrated.

      Posted by dean martin on 2008 02 03 at 05:56 AM • permalink

 

    1. #56 Stack,

      oh good! That means I’m still okay!!! woo hoo!!!

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 05:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. Meanwhile match delayed by rain in Brisbane and radar shows more rain. Time to play cricket where the drought is bad. Enough to go around surely?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 05:59 AM • permalink

 

    1. #59 Reading is overrated, depending on the material. But I say that only after having read a book by Gore Vidal.

      At least you sing very nicely.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:00 AM • permalink

 

    1. #60 But the once who only happened once may not agree with us.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:02 AM • permalink

 

    1. #59
      Isn’t that shcruel?

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 06:03 AM • permalink

 

    1. cricinfo
      19:56 local, 09:56 GMT This rain doesn’t look like going away. I’d be surprised if we resumed. Just looking for weather forecasts online. Like I said at the start, rain is expected throughout the night. Not promising.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:04 AM • permalink

 

    1. #62 So did Jerry Lewis.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:06 AM • permalink

 

    1. #66 Stack,

      mwahahahaha hehehehe woo hooo!!!

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:09 AM • permalink

 

    1. I see Andrew reports that in EngDhimmland, the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, faces death threats.  Well that fits with the concerted action of all those Presbyterians I suppose.

      For example across the pond, in Canada I’ve been following the adventures of Ezra Levant with his trials before the so-called Alberta Humans Rights Commission for publishing the motoons two years ago. Mark Steyn’s turn is still to come.

      And also over in the US is Lionheart who has had the temerity to write things on his blog in the UK about Presbyterians again in his home town of Luton.  Now he has been told that he will be arrested on his return to the UK on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.  Whether you agree with the flavour of his blog is one thing, but apparently he is to be arrested and, depending on the findings of his interrogation, will either be released or charged in which case he may be held in custody. Apparently he could be gaoled for up to seven years.  He is contemplating applying for asylum in the US.  Now that would be an interesting turn of events.

      I do see two common threads to these events – Lefties + Presbyterian Action – a ruthless combination for any poor bastard that happens to get in the way, that is unless people wake up.

      We’ll need to be particularly vigilant here over the coming years lest we have these sorts of ‘laws’ foisted on us.

      Enough – back to the cricket.

      Posted by Wand on 2008 02 03 at 06:09 AM • permalink

 

    1. #66 True, but I’ve always liked Dean Martin more than Jerry Lewis.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:10 AM • permalink

 

    1. #52 Pope! Timon’s Villa: something about “trees shaped like statues, statues thick as trees.” Dunciad: “Mad Mathesis alone was unconfine’d, too mad for mere material chains to bind.”
      I think the readers here would appreciate our great poet Alec Derwent (A.D.) Hope, who wrote many things, but one in particular fits right into the bacchanale/sumerian mead narrative.
      Elegy. (an extract)
      Come, leave the bed; put on your dress; efface
      Awhile this dazzling armoury of grace!
      Flushed and rejoicing from the well-fought fight
      Now day lies panting in the arms of night;
      The first dews tremble on the darkening field;
      Put up your naked weapons, the bright shield
      Of triumph glinting to the early stars;
      Call our troops home with trumpets from their wars;
      And,as wise generals, let them rest and dine
      And celebrate our truce with meat and wine.
      See, the meek table on our service waits;
      The devil in crystal winks beside our plates;
      These veterans of love’s war we shall repay
      And crown with feasts the glory of the day.Think no disgrace if now they play a part
      Less worthy of the soldiers of the heart.
      Though these we led were granted, even as we,
      Their moment’s draught of immortality,
      We do but snatch our instant on the height
      And in the valleys still live out the night.
      Yet they surrender nothing which is theirs.
      Nature is frugal in her ministers;
      Each to some humbler office must return,
      And so must we. Then grudge it not, but learn
      In this the noble irony of kind:
      Those fierce, quick hands that rove and clasp must find
      Other employment now with knife and fork;
      Our mouths that groaned with joy, now eat and talk;

      Posted by blogstrop on 2008 02 03 at 06:12 AM • permalink

 

    1. Andrew Bolt – I guess he was right, then:
      The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, is under police protection after he and his family received death threats over his claim that parts of Britain had become ”no-go areas” for non-Muslims…

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. #68 We’re going to pay a big price if people don’t wake up to what’s happening all over the world.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:14 AM • permalink

 

    1. #68 Oh my God!! Wand!!,

      Is Lionheart still on the run?

      Surely it would be better if he came here, to Oz?

      We would look after him.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. #68 pipped me.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. #70 Blogstrop!!!

      That was beautiful!!!!

      Where is it from?

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:20 AM • permalink

 

    1. #72 Do not worry, nothing much came of those noisy up-starts Hitler and Tojo.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:20 AM • permalink

 

    1. #76 Yeah, they weren’t helped at all about people ignoring the warning signs either, were they?

      I don’t know how people can be ignoring or excusing what’s going on.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:22 AM • permalink

 

    1. 75 Google says
      http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1628.html
      Agree #70?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:22 AM • permalink

 

    1. #77 No skin of my nose they all say.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:23 AM • permalink

 

    1. Meanwhile:cricinfo

      20:20 local, 10:20 GMT The ropes are clearing the dew on outfield, says Nagraj now, and the covers are completely off. Play should resume at 8.30 local time. Thats ten minutes from now.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. #73 Pogria

      It’s all on his website – scroll down to the Utube videos.

      #72 Ash – I agree.

      Posted by Wand on 2008 02 03 at 06:26 AM • permalink

 

    1. #79 That’ll change soon enough, then they’ll blame the Government for not doing something to stop it.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:28 AM • permalink

 

    1. #82 what else, “always blame the Government for not doing something to stop it”.
      Like who voted for who?

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:33 AM • permalink

 

    1. Meanwhile: cricinfo

      20:30 local, 10:30 GMT Time for tee-off. Players are back out. Ishant has the ball. One more downpour and we will have to call this show off. Hopes is joined by Ponting. Australia need 141 from 132 balls now.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:34 AM • permalink

 

    1. #81 Wand,

      I had read his earlier posts about being on the run because of his having given information to the police, and how, his writings were then turned around into being construed as hate speech.
      I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t given him a thought over the holiday break. It’s very easy for those of us that are cocooned in our easy lives.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:37 AM • permalink

 

    1. More for you Pogs –
      Those chief commanders, too, without debate,
      Sink to the lowliest service of the state.
      Only our eyes observe no armistice;
      Sparkling with love’s perpetual surprise,
      Their bright vedettes keep watch from hill to hill
      And, when they meet renew the combat still.
      And yet to view you would I linger on:
      This is the rarest moment, soonest gone.
      While now the marching stars invest the sky
      And the wide lands beneath surrendered lie,
      Their streams and forests, parks and fields and farms,
      Like this rich empire tranquil in my arms,
      Seem lovelier in the last withdrawing light
      And, as they vanish, must enchant the sight.
      Still, let me watch those countries as they fade
      And all their lucid contours sink in shade;
      The mounting thighs, the line of flank and breast,
      Yet harbour a clear splendour from the west;
      Though twilight draws into its shadowy reign
      This breathing valley and that glimmering plain,
      Still let my warrior heart with fresh delight
      Rove and reflect: “Here began the fight;
      Between those gentle hills I paused to rest,
      And on this vale the kiss of triumph pressed;
      There, full encircled by the frantic foe,
      I rode between the lilies and the snow;
      And in this copse that parts the dark and shine,
      Plundered the treasures of the hidden mine;
      Down those long slopes in slow retreat I drew,
      And here renewed the charge; and here, anew
      Met stroke with stroke and touched, at the last breath,
      The unimagined ecstasy of death.”
      (aint edjercation wunnerful?)

      Posted by blogstrop on 2008 02 03 at 06:37 AM • permalink

 

    1. I am off.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 06:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. #83 Good point, I should refine that.

      If something happens to threaten those who don’t support actions to stop either terrorism or forced permissible thought, it’ll be George W Bush’s or John Howard’s fault for not preventing it.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 06:39 AM • permalink

 

    1. #86 Blogstrop,

      Please tell me who it is??

      I have not googled it. That felt obscene to me. If I had time, I would look it up at the Library.

      Is there more??

      It seems familiar.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:53 AM • permalink

 

    1. #89 Blogstrop,

      Oh crap!!!

      I just went through the earlier piece.

      I know who it is.

      My only defence is the imbibing of copious quantities of Cab-Merlot. I am SO sorry.

      I will print those pieces and keep them close.

      I will definitely read more Alec Derwent.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 06:57 AM • permalink

 

    1. Dean Martin you bust me up. You and son of a pig and a monkey.

      Posted by mehaul on 2008 02 03 at 07:01 AM • permalink

 

    1. Dear Pogria, thanks for your interest.
      A.D. Hope, Australian poet, died 2000. Started writing in the 1930s.
      That poem is called The Elegy (Variations on a theme of the Seventeenth Century).
      No doubt drawn from John Donne, but it makes Donne’s “Elegy: going to bed” look crude.
      I have to thank the late Dorothy Green for trying to teach me something of Australian Literature.

      Posted by blogstrop on 2008 02 03 at 07:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. #92
      Dorothy Greene done good, blogstrop!

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 07:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. Blogstrop,

      this is not from a poem, it is from one of my favourite stories of all time. These are a few lines.

      “He had fair hair, blue eyes, and a thin old-fashioned face—a face that would scarcely alter as he grew to manhood. His costume consisted of a pair of moleskin trousers, a cotton shirt. and one suspender.

      “Isley!”

      “Yes, father.”

      “Send down the bucket.”

      “Thet ain’t half enough,” said the boy, peering down. “Don’t be frightened to pile it in, father. I kin wind up a lot more’n thet.”

      “Isley!” called his father again.

      “Yes, father.”

      “Have you done that writing lesson yet?”

      “Very near.”

      “Then send down the slate next time for some sums.”

      He was digging out pictures from a past life. They were not pleasant ones, for his face was stony and white in the dim glow of the candle.

      They take the brother away, handcuffed. Manslaughter last night. Cause—drink and jealousy.

      Horses’ feet again! Here comes Nemesis in mounted troopers’ uniform.

      Trial and disgrace follow, and then other misfortunes, pleuro among the cattle, drought, and poverty.

      And now the fossicker seems to see a vision of the future. He seems to be standing somewhere, an old, old man, with a younger one at his side; the younger one has Isley’s face. Horses’ feet again! Ah, God! Nemesis once more in troopers’ uniform!

      The fossicker falls on his knees in the mud and clay at the bottom of the drive, and prays Heaven to take his last child ere Nemesis comes for him.

      The boy ran to the shaft, rested his hands and forehead against the bole of the windlass, and leant over to hear what his father was saying.

      Without a moment’s warning the treacherous bole slipped round; a small body bounded a couple of times against the sides of the shaft and fell at Mason’s feet, where it lay motionless!

      Presently Isley gave a gasp and opened his eyes.

      “Are yer—why—hurt much, Isley?” asked Bob.

      “Ba-back’s bruk, Bob!”

      “Not so bad as that, old man.”

      “Where’s father?”

      “Coming up.”

      Silence awhile, and then

      “Father! father! be quick, father!”

      Mason reached the surface and came and knelt by the other side of the boy.

      “I’ll, I’ll—why—run fur some brandy,” said Bob.

      “No use, Bob,” said Isley. “I’m all bruk up.”

      The child turned and stretched out his hands to the silent, stony-faced man on the other side.

      “Father—father, I’m goin’!”

      A shuddering groan broke from Mason’s lips, and then all was quiet.

      “He never knowed.”

      “What does it matter?” said Mason gruffly; and, taking up the dead child, he walked towards the hut.

      “Go in; don’t be afraid,” he said to his companion.

      The stranger pushed open the creaking door, and stood-bareheaded just inside the doorway.

      A billy was boiling unheeded on the fire. Mason sat at the table with his face buried in his arms. “Father!”

      There was no answer, but the flickering of the firelight made the stranger think he could detect an impatient shrug in Mason’s shoulders.

      For a moment the stranger paused irresolute, and then stepping up to the table he laid his hand on Mason’s arm, and said gently:

      “Father! Do you want another mate?”

      But the sleeper did not—at least. not in this world.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 07:16 AM • permalink

 

    1. #42 TM, I call the SMS generation Gen Whine or Gen WhyMe.

      Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2008 02 03 at 07:25 AM • permalink

 

    1. #92 Blogstrop,

      nothing of what you just said made any sense to me.

      The poem itself is enough to send me searching for more.

      I love Australian writing. Not the stuff that tries to imitate the rest of the world, but the stuff that is peculiar to Australia itself.

      Especially the earlier writings.

      I’ve read all of Ion Idriess. I have a particular affection for his telling of the story of John Flynn and Sidney Kidman.

      I have a deep love for Henry Lawson. I know he was a rabid lefty, but having lived and worked on the land for many years myself, I know he had a deep appreciation of how hard it is for a farmer to make a decent living for his family.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 07:30 AM • permalink

 

    1. #42

      It explains the spelling of the SMS generation.

      It doesn’t explain why they still send me resumes, in Microsoft Word format, which have spelling errors in them, as indicated by the red underline.

      Not only are they telling me they can’t spell, they are telling me they are too damned lazy (or stupid) to check their own work.

      I try to be paperless as much as possible, but tend to go to the trouble of printing those resumes, so I can have the tactile satisfaction of binning them.

      I have a friend who is responsible for manpower at an independent stationery wholesaler. He gets any number of resumes sent to him annually, boasting of the authors’ experience with all kinds of “stationary”. Needless to say, talent for standing motionless seldom gets them the job.

      Disclaimer:
      Daniel’s Law: Any pedantic post or comment to a blog accusing others of sub-literacy, will contain spelling errors.

      Posted by Dan Lewis on 2008 02 03 at 07:37 AM • permalink

 

    1. #97 Which reminds me, I still have to send you that “Cirriculam Vitay” I got sent.

      Thanks for the reminder. I’ll send it tomorrow.

      Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 03 at 07:43 AM • permalink

 

    1. #97,Daniel’s Law: Any pedantic post or comment to a blog accusing others of sub-literacy, will contain spelling errors.

      And a good and just Law it is.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 07:45 AM • permalink

 

    1. SMS speak stinks.
      I get enquiries from students about, things, and they are entirely written in that shorthand.
      It’s fine for your mates on the mobile, but not when you’re formally requesting information – don’t they get taught this stuff at school?I suppose they spend so much time on stolen generations, and global warming, and how we killed all the aborigines by poisoning their flour and water holes, that there’s no room for that sort of thing.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 07:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. #100 Kae you’ve nailed it. I have the same chat with my four children. They’re all bright but they punch the surface like slow moving yeast. It’s not their fault.

      Posted by mehaul on 2008 02 03 at 08:02 AM • permalink

 

    1. New thread dudes!!!

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 08:04 AM • permalink

 

    1. #97

      Daniel’s Law: Any pedantic post or comment to a blog accusing others of sub-literacy, will contain spelling errors.

      It became a tardition on usenet that the author of any such post actually had to ensure such a post contained errors.

      Posted by Burbank on 2008 02 03 at 08:08 AM • permalink

 

    1. about phonics. Here’s a brief version.

      Phonics is a method for teaching reading that is quite old. However it can be rather tedious for the children, especially if not done well.
      Boomers saw phonics as part of an old-fashioned , cruel educational mindset that also included a lot of rote learning and punishment for mistakes.
      Learning should be fun, they said.
      THey threw the baby out with the bathwater, and introduced whole-word reading. This dispensed the need for boring lessons on what sounds the letters make. All you had to do was have fun with the kids, reading them books and so forth, and everything would just fall into place.

      The problem is that they were wrong. And when I say that, I mean that the empirical, scientific research on this is unequivocal. Phonics is as close to a sure hit in terms of teaching kids to read as you can get. Whole word might work, or it might not work.
      The kids it works with are… anyone? Yes, that’s right, the middle-class kids from high SES families, who would have learned to read anyway.
      The kids who end up illiterate from all this whole-word fun are, on the whole, the ones from poor families.

      But why doesn’t whole word work? The logic was this: “well, we learn to talk just by exposure to people talking, so the same thing should happen with reading.”

      But the problem is that we are biologically hard-wired to learn verbal language because of millions of years of evolution (or if your bread is buttered that way, because God made it so, whatever). We’re not biologically wired to read.

      Whole word reading sounds like learning with the boring bits taken out. The truth is, that’s a formula for illiteracy and institutionalised poverty.

      Posted by daddy dave on 2008 02 03 at 08:15 AM • permalink

 

    1. Well said, Daddy.

      It is how I learnt to read, and it worked for so many.

      It still worked when I was reading to my friend’s kids.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 08:31 AM • permalink

 

    1. “sound the word out”

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 08:32 AM • permalink

 

    1. #104 Daddy Dave,

      that’s the Nail right on the Head there!!

      If the,
      “well, we learn to talk just by exposure to people talking, so the same thing should happen with reading.”,

      actually worked, we wouldn’t need Medical School training for doctors. All Med students would need to do is follow an experienced doctor around for a year or two and they’d be ready to operate.

      Electricians and Plumbers wouldn’t need to do their one day a week at Tech. A Dentist need only buy a couple of drill bits and some Polyfilla at Bunnings or Mitre 10.

      Watching other people speak, teaches us to SPEAK. We emulate the way they use their tongue, their lips, the way they use their face to produce the sounds they make.

      If we want to learn how to knit, sew, cook, build, shoot a gun, light a fire and god knows what else, the ones who taught us, would take us through it all, step, by step. They would show us how each of the separate pieces worked together to become complete in their own right. THAT, is how we learn.

      You don’t show an apprentice chef a Beef Wellington and then say, “that’s what it looks like, make one for table four”.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 08:38 AM • permalink

 

    1. There’s an empirical term for inheriting language. I can’t remember it. But I’m sure you out there will know it.

      It means that when you choose the person to talk the incoming train lingo for all incoming train people they hear the Queens’ English not some back tracker saying ‘Liverpool Station next’

      I heard it recently in England and France. It’s clear. It’s lucid. It’s how you want your children to speak. It’s not how the hags on Jetstar and Virgin welcome people with their nasle twangs hurting everyone’s ear drums without realising it.

      I’m not being class conscious, just doing with the vocal chords what we all wish the nation’s athletes do in Beijing with their running, swimming, jumping things.

      Posted by mehaul on 2008 02 03 at 08:50 AM • permalink

 

    1. #108 mehaul,

      Amen.

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 08:58 AM • permalink

 

    1. God dammit, blogstrop!

      I’m scrambling through the metaphysical poets to find anything like those verses. A rhyme that could almost pass as PG 15+ yet positively celebrates bone-banging sex!

      All I could come up with was John Donne, The Flea.

      Pawned!

      Posted by splice on 2008 02 03 at 09:03 AM • permalink

 

    1. #110 splice,

      don’t pick on blogstrop.

      The poetry he posted tonight had me “swooning” like I were seventeen again. *blush*

      Posted by Pogria on 2008 02 03 at 09:13 AM • permalink

 

    1. #111 Swooning, that’s exactly it, pogs… all our minionettes are belong to blogs!

      I think I’m a little bit jealous.

      Posted by splice on 2008 02 03 at 09:25 AM • permalink

 

    1. #69—Same here, except for the vacuum scene in “Who’s Minding the Store?”

      Phonics—Heck, I tought myself to read before I was four, breaking into a neighbor’s house to read his comic books.  Aquaman, Atom, Blackhawk, Batman, Cave Carson… I hit a stumbling block in my education, though, before Marvel came out with Fantastic Four and got me into the higher consonants.

      Give a kid the least chance to read and they will learn.  It takes a village and a TV set to stop them.

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 02 03 at 11:06 AM • permalink

 

    1. #113 richard

      …the vacuum scene in “Who’s Minding the Store?”

      that totally sucked.

      Posted by splice on 2008 02 03 at 11:41 AM • permalink

 

    1. Blogstrop – thank you so much for putting up those poems. I have not heard of AD Hope for YEARS and had no idea he wrote like that! Swoony stuff indeed.Here’s another couple I found:

      THE GATEWAY

      Now the heart sings with all its thousand voices
      To hear this city of cells, my body, sing.
      The tree through the stiff clay at long last forces
      Its thin strong roots and taps the secret spring.

      And the sweet waters without intermission
      Climb to the tips of its green tenement;
      The breasts have borne the grace of their possession,
      The lips have felt the pressure of content.

      Here I come home: in this expected country
      They know my name and speak it with delight.
      I am the dream and you my gates of entry,
      The means by which I waken into light.

      THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT

      What did I study in your School of Night?
      When your mouth’s first unfathomable yes
      Opened your body to be my book, I read
      My answers there and learned the spell aright,
      Yet, though I searched and searched, could never guess
      What spirits it raised nor where their questions led.

      Those others, familiar tenants of your sleep,
      The whisperers, the grave somnambulists
      Whose eyes turn in to scrutinize their woe,
      The giant who broods above the nightmare steep,
      That sleeping girl, shuddering, with clenched fists,
      A vampire baby suckling at her toe,

      They taught me most. The scholar held his pen
      And watched his blood drip thickly on the page
      To form a text in unknown characters
      Which, as I scanned them, changed and changed again:
      The lines grew bars, the bars a Delphic cage
      And I the captive of his magic verse.

      Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 03 at 12:13 PM • permalink

 

    1. Very tempting to write like that, but now if i use the word ‘tenanted’ in a poem i’ll feel I’m plagiarising!

      Ah, the travails of the page
      They continue in each age
      By hex or by text
      All the many-tongued fools whisper
      with their fingertips
      Words of love and hate
      Truncated
      Abbreviated;
      Not a loved syllable remains uncut
      By the texting blade.
      Each word is circumcised, is cut,
      Each a fish without its pulsing gut,
      Eyes marble-dead
      After the stopped thrashing,
      And at the wake we read messages
      That, printed,
      Seem swear-words.

      Well, an incomplete effort, but it is late.
      Cheers all.

      Posted by carpefraise on 2008 02 03 at 12:30 PM • permalink

 

    1. #46 I flatly refuse to use the shortcuts when I text or email. I loathe them.
      I also don’t give a rat’s arse if it is quicker.
      Well said, Pogria!  I agree wholeheartedly.

      When I first went to school, there were two parts to literacy.  First, you learned how the letters sounded, and you learned how they went together to make a word, and you learned what the words meant.  That was reading.

      After that, the teacher taught you how to spell, in English, with all its contradictions.  And I’m not about to give up those hard-won lessons!

      Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 02 03 at 01:29 PM • permalink

 

    1. #104 Part of the idea is that it is more “natural” for people to learn to read through being exposed to it. Consequently, if someone does not learn to read then it is merely the child’s natural progression and no one (not the parent, the teacher nor the student) is to blame when the kid can’t read. The class size or the quality of books or the school administration can be blamed but not those who have the direct responsibility to teach and learn.

      Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2008 02 03 at 05:51 PM • permalink

 

    1. All this swooning, and sex, and wooing, and stuff on Tim’s blog, and all I get is a poke in the eye.

      Story of my life!

      *sigh*

      I’m going back to the Bolt thread to read more poetic p0rn.

      Posted by kae on 2008 02 03 at 05:53 PM • permalink

 

    1. #118. Right. exactly.
      When the kid doesn’t learn, the educators say it’s because they “weren’t ready” or somesuch nonsense.Curriculums are good. That’s why I liked Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy. It was a bit doctrinaire and, you could perhaps even argue it was quite socialist in a top-down control-freak way, but at least it forced schools to actually teach stuff and be accountable for learning gains.

      Posted by daddy dave on 2008 02 03 at 06:07 PM • permalink

 

    1. 88 Ash, I just came back from the land of nod, Bush and Howard created all of the problems since Adam was a boy.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 07:14 PM • permalink

 

    1. Just heard story: British Scouts challenged on religion.

      Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 02 03 at 07:17 PM • permalink

 

    1. I still read AndrewB but I don’t visit the comments section anymore. The daily efforts by his resident leftards to shit over everything written and in tandem is tiring…hmm, I guess they win.

      Posted by Srekwah on 2008 02 04 at 10:41 AM • permalink

 

  1. Srekwah, you should read the comments.

    Often, the RWDB’s make mincemeat (figuratively, my Larvatus friends, not literally) of the Leftards.

    Except Reco. He’s too dumb to recognise an economist other than Ozonomics.

    Posted by Ash_ on 2008 02 04 at 02:08 PM • permalink