What has happened to the youth of today?
Brilliant. Some generous soul has started transcribing Ronald Smythe and H. Westfolds’ “letters to the editor” to a blog.
Between them, Westfold and Smythe have cornered the market on curmudgeonly grumpiness, making their output, naturally, some of the best comedy writing to be found coming out of our fair city. Says Smythe…
What has happened to the youth of today. It is a rare occasion indeed when I am shown politeness and respect by the younger age groups. Good manners have flown out the window, along with dress sense and decency.
I presume today’s public schools are partly to blame, although parents are no doubt shirking their responsibilities also.
…and H. Westfold, channeling, it would seem, Grandpa Simpson…
Your March 15 item about that lovely 1963 Studebaker and its manufacturer evoked memories of my adolescence in the late 1940s. You see, it was Studebaker which pioneered the “New Look” analogous to that of women’s fashions just then. It was in late 1947 or early 1948 that just a few of the latest Studebaker model appeared on our Taranaki roads, one of those cars being owned by a farmer near my hometown, Inglewood. For a short while, their profile made heads turn – a car’s front and rear ends both looked like front ends as we’d known cars for many years!
…and so on.
Read more at the aptly named I am of the Opinion.
[Hat-tip to Alan for actually un-earthing this.]
Help Fight Gnomelessness!
Cool prezzie alert – Locally made Gnome Homes & Gnomaloos. Hand cast by a master blacksmith in the Hutt Valley (who also does a good line in Roman Armour, and let’s face it, who doesn’t like dressing up in Roman Armour?, and a few other ideas he’s working on which I’ll report on when they come to fruition, but which must remain under wraps for now so as not to give away his ideas to competitors.)
I just got a couple of Gnomehomes & matching Gnomaloos for my nieces, they also come, I’m told, in camouflage colours for the boys, and in various combinations – Gnome Village, and the bulk pack which I guess could constitute a Gnome City.
You can get them through this site, or by emailing Murray (click on the little Murray figure for the email link), or through numerous retail outlets, including Christopher’s Crystals in Cuba Street.
Star Boating Club “Row-A-Thon”
Here’s a bit of fun to be had – the Star Boating Club (that’s that cool place by the lagoon that you’ve probably attended more than a few weddings at, or other occasions & got yourself completely trashed & may or may not have ended up in the water in your dinner suit or ball gown…) in conjunction with Wellington Girls College, Queen Margaret’s College and Wellington College, is holding a 20 hour Row-A-Thon to raise funds for the current season of races, regattas & camps.
It takes place at the Reading Complex Foyer (Courtney Place) between 4pm Friday December 8, and Noon Saturday December 9.
And what is a Row-A-Thon when it’s at home? Well… they’re putting 3 ERG machines (that’s shorthand for Rowing Machine apparently – I’m not sure if it is acronymous, or if it represents the noise the average person makes while being subjected to operating it), one will be operated continuously for 20 hours by the boys’ teams, another by the girls, and the third dear reader, is for you to have a go at.
The rowers have been diligently scouring their neighbourhoods, families, and families’ business colleagues getting sponsorship, and on the day, those not ERGing will be shaking tins & persuading punters to part with a little Xmas dosh. All for a good cause – those ERGs & the boats don’t grow on trees you know.
So head on down for a look – 91FM & the Black Thunders will be down there at 4pm Friday dispensing cheer & freestuff – or if you happen to be passing, please do donate a little spare for, as I may have mentioned, a very good cause.
And of course, you have the opportunity to try an ERG for yourself. It has to be good for you right?, and there is almost no chance you’ll end up in the lagoon. Bonus.
Wellingtonista Awards 2006: the results
Drumroll, please!
(Almost) Live, from Mighty Mighty, we relay to you the results of the First Annual Wellingtonista Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence!
Compered (and commentary) by Wellingtonista’s own Jo Hubris!
1. When I am not having a martini, I like to drink a:
There were clearly only two real contenders for this award, although various stay-at-home type people thought that their write-in results were more worthy. Perhaps it wasn’t clear enough that the category was basically “best cocktail” as people nominated venues without a specific drink. In the end, it came down to a one point difference. The runner-up was a Falling Water at the Matterhorn,
And the winner is: a caipirinha at Havana.
2. I spent all my rent money on dinner here, but at least when the bailiffs beat me to death I will die blissfully:
If the Wellingtonista ever goes in pursuit of the almighty advertising dollar, we probably don’t want to let on what some of our readers rated as an expensive eating experience. In the end, the result wasn’t too surprising. The runner-up was Francois,
And the winner is Logan Brown.
3. I found $20 in my flatmate’s room, so it’ll be dinner at:
People who nominated their favourite Malaysian restaurants got counted as a vote for Malaysian anywhere, because there are so damn many Malaysian places in town. Not that we’re complaining about that. The runner-up, Sweet Mother’s Kitchen had a good showing, but in the end was obviously defeated by those damn Asian criminals that Deborah Coddington believes are invading New Zealand.
And the winner is Malaysian anywhere.
Make the society pages with us
By now you’ve either cast your votes for the First Annual Wellingtonista Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, or you’re still trying to decide whether you <3 Good Luck or San Frindigo more. You might want to get a wriggle on with that, as voting closes at 5pm on Thursday.
Thanks very much for voting, it’s very choice that you got involved. If you’d like to get even more involved with us (ooer!), please come along to our awards ceremony at Mighty Mighty (above Mr Bun in Cuba Mall) on Friday night.
Drinks will start out at 6.30pm and the awards themselves will probably kick off around 7pm.
If you haven’t met us yet, you’ll be able to spot us easily as we’ll be the ridiculously attractive people patting ourselves on the back.
We’ll be drawing names for prizes then too, but as we are good people your attendance is not mandatory in order to win. However, what possible reason could you have for not wanting to attend?
If you would like to buy us drinks, naturally a dry martini would be the standard, but we imagine that we would drink pretty much anything you gave us.
It should all be a frightfully good time, and we look forward to seeing you there.
First Annual Wellingtonista Awards Voting
It is with great pride and pleasure that we announce the nominees for the First Annual Wellingtonista Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.
The Wellingtonista have sweated and slaved over the categories, and now it is your turn for action. Step up and send us your votes before November 30. The awards will be announced in an elaborate* ceremony on Friday December 1 which we would love for you to attend.
Why should you vote? Because your opinion counts. And so that you’ll receive an invitation to the awards. And because you’ll go in to the draw to win awesome prizes, including but not necessarily limited to goodies from Babylicious, signed copies of 101 Stories That I Want To Tell You, tasty salads from Kapai (disclaimer: we wrote nice things about them before they offered up prizes), stunning tshirts, signed photos of The Dropkicks and lifelong Country Club membership.
The categories are after the jump, and nominees are suggestions only – you’re free to write-in your winners.
Silicon Welly – the sequel
Remember that article in Idealog that Noizy wrote about last month? It looks like the name was too good to pass up, because some of the high-tech companies featured in the article have got together and formed a Silicon Welly website to help keep you up-to-date with techy developments.
One of the more prominent of those companies, ProjectX, is about to launch a new version of their ZoomIn interactive mapping and community site. Rumour has it that there’s a now lot of exciting functionality and local data on the way, but if I told you I’d have to kill you.
Kai in our puku
Recently we asked you where the best places to eat on Lambton Quay are, and naturally, the internet word-of-mouth answered: Kapai Salads in Lambton Square.
There’s plenty of reasons to love Kapai, including:
- Whānau: Everyone knows someone who knows the owners, hence the mass emails and bulletin board postings about the shop.
- Mata: Your salad will be freshly made right in front of you, and you will get to choose the ingrediants yourself. No droopy lettuce and skankyass grated cheese here, no no.
- Taiao: The soup is served in bowls made out of bread, while salads are served in potatopaks (which you probably wouldn’t want to eat, although technically they’re safe enough to), minimising environmental damage. Plus, the coffee’s fair trade.
We’d like them to offer lists of available ingrediants and make it a little clearer which are the gourmet ones that’ll set you back an extra $1.50, but when you can get a rocquette, falafel and feta salad with aioli in less than five minutes and feel good about doing it, you’ll definitely be going back.
Crazy Intersections of our time: #31
This week, the stretch of Adelaide Road where it intersects with Britomart Street/Herald Street, and then, a little further up the road, with Luxford Street.
As you can see on our hastily assembled little map on the right there, North-flowing traffic splits into two lanes once it gets past the Britomart/Herald intersection, so right-turning traffic gets its own turning lane into Luxford.
Now, this would work fine if there weren’t a couple of 5 minute parking spots (outside a dairy) in the straight-ahead lane (photo 2). Cars parked in that 5 minute spot (indicated by blue in the graphic) act as a roadblock, so once the turning lane hits a red light, traffic quickly backs up to the point where no-one can actually get into the straight-ahead lane (photo 3).
Muka
The Settlers Museum is hosting the MUKA YOUTH PRINT EXHIBITION 2006.
The exhibition features a collection of forty original lithographs by twenty prominent artists from New Zealand, Australia and Europe.
The exhibition is unique in that it is only open to young people aged 5 to 18. The idea is that young people are given the opportunity to see, select and buy an art work that they like, uninfluenced by adults or the name of the artist. All the works reflect the normal style of the artists and there is no “talking down†to the children.
The uniform low price means that this is an excellent way for young people to get real works of art into their hands.
Settlers Museum
The Esplanade
Petone
25 and 26 November
12 noon – 5pm