Â
“Hey Britney, you say you wanna lose control”
Armed with nothing but a copy of Who Weekly and a bad memory, I give you a list of some of the most important stuff from 2007:
1. Anyone whoâs anyone (Britney and Lindsay) went into rehab and then got out of rehab and then went back into rehab and then, err, did drugs.
2. The behaviour of the Spears family – the von Trapps for Generation Y – meant that the expression âwhite trashâ? went from being a term of abuse directed at indigent folks lacking an education and decent housing to a description everybody wanted to wear.      Â
3. (See above) The hottest look in 2007 was the one that involved getting out of a posh car in a way that ensured everyone could see your Aunty Minge. Â
4. Paris went to prison, but kept her Aunty Minge to herself.
5. Maxine McKew nearly showed her Aunty Minge to the former Prime Minister, John Howard. The press claimed it was McKewâs âSharon Stone momentâ?, while the former Prime Minister said that he wanted ”…to wish Mr Rudd well”. Â
6. Memorable movie moments included:
- my friend turning to me during the 10th hour of Lady Chatterley and declaring âWhen does it finish?â? with all the anguish of someone who has been taken to see a very long French film;
- chatty old Hugo Chavez testing out his English on John Pilger (âDo you want coffee with that constitutional reform which is completely in the interests of the indigent folks lacking an education, comrade?â?);
- those weird seals with the frilly heads and obnoxious vocalisations who scared away the cute seals in Planet Earth. If global warming just impacted on ugly animals it wouldnât be a problem; and
- âSpider Pigâ? and the Dixie Chicks.  Â
7. Favourite music moments included:
- getting an iPod and not downloading anything released this year because Iâm now at an age where I can whinge about the music industry ânot making songs like it used toâ?. Performers I did download included The Carpenters, Rodriguez, Leonard Cohen, Seal (not the cute one), the Sex Pistols, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Krall, and the aforementioned Chicks; and
- the Sex Pistols reforming and thus ensuring chiropractors are kept in work for a long time as old punks attempt to pogo like they used to in the good old days when the music industry made songs like they used to. Â
8. Best TV times included:
- it hasnât been on in Australia yet, but the Extras Christmas special promises to be brilliant; and
- Summer Heights High proved that Chris Lilley is as much a comedy clever chap as Ricky Gervais.    Â
9. Facebook revealed that people with educations can procrastinate as much as dumb bogans who use MySpace. On Facebook, you can do such morally uplifting things as chuck snowballs at your âfriendsâ? and find out whoâs interested in you. After getting sick of people chucking snowballs at you and discovering that the sort of people interested in you are middle-aged blokes from regional Victoria, you can remove the relevant applications.
10. There was an election in November.
Miss Darlene, I enjoyed your post but one thing puzzled me: your constant reference to ‘Aunty Minge.’ Is she from your mother’s side or your father’s?
Excuse me for asking but breeding to horses is very important. Many a horse has ended up holding a dovetail joint together because they had the wrong connections.
Darlene:
Three mighty cheers for the infinity variety of humanity!! There is not a single item on your list of the most important stuff in 2007.
L-O-L- r-o-a-g.
Compliments of The Season to you and yours Darlene [and more molasses with your hay too, Pyzo]
[oops. what happened there?]
Should read ….” there’s not a single item on your list of the most important stuff in 2007 that matches matches my own list.
A Year in Review – my goodness.
Politics . 1.Going to my first Socialist Alliance State Conference in New Castle, listening to comrades sing The Internationale from beginning to end;and seeing the Pasha Bulka from a distance.
2. Finding LP.
3.Losing John Howard.
Nonsense Stuff. 1. Finding Richard Reid on the Today Show, thereby never being out of date on Hollywood gossip again.
2. Watching the expressions on the faces of the Sports Junkies at Channel 9, the day Richard Reid arrived at Channel 9 studio in a visit from Hollywood.
Movies. 1. Watching all of Lord of the Rings at one sitting on DVD.
TV. 1.TV turning purple and green etc.
2.Channel 10 scrapping that Dr. Who spin-off whose name I forget mid-season.
Books. 1. Discovering American historian Gary B. Nash.
2. Finding and buying a copy of out of print biography of John Paul Jones by Samuel Eliot Morrison.
Seal?
After a particularly steamy and memorable summer spent frolicking with her borther, I have since eschewed the charms and allurements of “Aunty Minge.” Though I will concede, should push ever come to tongue again, I would insist she be shorn.
It’s kind of off-topic but does anyone know a sort of U.S. equivalent to LarvatusProdeo? I’ve become irrationally fascinated by primary season, but none of the U.S. blogs like DailyKos attract in depth discussion like this little Brisbane blog. The SmirkingChimp used to be excellent until it was redesigned a while back and lost its charm along with most of its members.
@yeti,
what about HuffPost? an interesting mix of posters, both L&R, and most (if not all?) posts allow discussion. that said, it can get a little busy sometimes…!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Yeti, Metafilter is always good value.
http://www.metafilter.com/
Pyzo, every girl has an Aunty Minge. Do you have a blog about horses, Pyzo? How very Saddle Club.
Thanks Graham. What about point 10? I thought some folk would think that’s important. I just chucked in there for that purpose ; ).
Yes, thank heavens for the infinite humanity thing. Good on you. Hope you had a good Christmas.
John G, you pre-feminist sod you. Hope you had a good Christmas. Look forward to your ongoing contributions to this blog: the infinite variety of humanity and all. ; )
Paul, you are still alive after watching the whole Lord of the Rings?
Good job. Interesting mix there. The Socialist conference and Richard Reid. Never thought I’d see those in the same comments.
Miss Darlene, I’m trying to form an intellectual bridge between equines and homo sapiens for their mutual advantage. I am getting a mixed response but mostly favourable. I think it’s hard for some humans to consider a member of another species as being on similar level to them. Must be their programming!
Thanks for explaining about Aunty Minge. It must be a very popular name!
P.S. Miss Darlene, sorry to worry you but I registered a gravatar but it doesn’t show when I comment. I’ve checked with Gravatar and everything checks out O.K. Is the problem related to L.P.?
Oh no, technical questions. I am just a girl. I have got one registered as well and it is not coming up. None of them seem to be.
I will have to leave that with LP’s tech heads, I’m afraid.
Are you an animal liberationist disguised as a horse? Novel way to get the message across.
No, Miss Darlene, I’m just a horse who is sick of dogs being man’s best friend (sorry, Mr Growler) and want horses to come out of the closet and take their proper place in the scheme of things. A horse was made Emperor once, did you know?
Given the state of the world and society, perhaps humans have lost the plot and a bit of horse sense mightn’t go astray.
Thanks for the explanation, Mr Pyzo.
As indicated in my post, I only like cute animals like my pussy cat and little tiny puppies.
Horses are smart animals…..
As a middle aged bloke from regional Victoria may I say I find you a lot less interesting than yr aunt D? Show us a picture of her please.
Bravely covering for Divine Missy Miranda, a posteriori prophet and âCalender Boyâ? Gerry, rues loss and reviews year.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/a-year-of-fear-and-loathing-and-failed-prophets/2007/12/26/1198345078217.html
January: Pilgerâs a yenter and Kellâs a bludger (and Gerry hasnât even gotten warm yet)
February: Gerry displays ignorance of Lysenko and expresses confusion over existence of Sep-style Creation âScienceâ?.
March: Gerry denies global warming(again); chips Choc.
April: Gerry stumbles at Sociology 101. Blusters on.
May: Rocker Gerry slags off Dago Mods. Hissy-fits foe Marr.
June: Clive Hamilton wears white shoes. Gerry suffers from sub-acute Poorly Punctuated Constipation Anxiety.
July: The ex-minister for Hiding Behind His Amnesty International Badge is not a facsimile of disgraced USAG, Abu Gonzales.
August: Gerry fails to foresee Osama Bin Chaser. Nonplussed, Gerry looks up to observe Michael Kirbyâs wit pass overhead.
September: 9/11 was Rodent heaven. Paleo-conservatives rule OK.
October: Jesus was not a meteorologist. Johnny was robbed in War Of The Worms.
November: Jackie Kelly was simply a Merry Prankster. Get over it.
December: Cementing his status as Doyen of Irrelevance, Gerry breathlessly assures us that although El Rodente might have been a bit strict at times, he definitely wasnât a Nazi. And that pesky Bob Ellis is a serial exaggerator.
———————————————————
Security Overview: (on a need-to-know basis in the national interest)
MI6: âWot a bleedinâ tosser!
CIA: âHereâs a guy who plays with himself nights.â?
ASIO: Fair * fucken * dinkum! This blokeâs a dead-set wanker!
—————————————————————–
For Auntie Minge, who got me where I am today. EC.
Gerry is a really happy bloke, don’t you reckon?
Good joy, EC. Gave me a chuckle, as did Gerry’s attempt at reviewing the year.
Some of the fillies I know think I’m very cute, Miss Darlene. In fact, I got the idea, where I cannot recall, that most females thought that big was better.
I’m very big (compared to a puppy)!
Darlene,
Am still alive after watching all 3 Lord of the Rings movies at one sitting. And it was the extended version.
Recovered from memory lapse. Serties junked halfway through by Channel 10 was Torchwoos, I think. Suffered earlier memory lapse in a response to Grahame Bell on another thread. Had to look up demagogue in Thesaurus.
Richard Reid is a True Socialist Guru. He chronicles the collapse of a decadent capitalist society on a daily basis.Also pays out on Ch.9 Sports Junkies but it goes over their heads he’s so subtle.Or maybe its just my twisted mind.
Gerry got one thing right – it was the Howard Fascist Era.
18. Sertie = series.
Torchwoos = Torchwood. Sorry.
“Richard Reid is a True Socialist Guru. He chronicles the collapse of a decadent capitalist society on a daily basis.Also pays out on Ch.9 Sports Junkies but it goes over their heads he’s so subtle.Or maybe its just my twisted mind.”
That’s very funny. Perhaps Richard is working within the system to bring the system down. Mmmmm. My mum likes Richard.
Darlene,
He is certainly working within the system. The coverage of his week at the Melbourne Cup was equal to anything that happened in the English fin-de-siecle of the 1890s. Wilde and Beardsley would have taken him to their breasts in an instant.
Darlene
My dear, I can assure you most emphatically I am POST/BEYOND feminism.
But whether you should be is another question, John G.
So you treat women as equals in every way, sweet?
I am reading a book about the conflicts within feminism at the moment. Interesting, but I am left wondering what feminism means today. And I say that as a feminist.
Darlene
No, I do not! I treat women (generally speaking), as i treat men, and animals; as individuals.
My qualification of “generally” is quite deliberate. While I totall reject antedeluvian ideas that women are biologically sillier blah, blah, blah, I am sufficiently self-aware to realise that I do bring to any INITIAL encounter with any person (male OR female) a degree of stereotypical assumptions, which I will willingly dispense with if the actual data I receive following that first encounter forces me to do so.
For example, I am more likely to hold back on using crude/aggressive language when I first meet a chick. Mind you, the language used by many of the sheilahs in my posse make even me blush!
There is a whole lot more to contribute to this line of discussion, but rather than bore/overburden you with a whole thesis, how about we start with this relatively anodyne example and see where it leads us?
When women were feminine, Knights on White Horses regularly used to rescue them (excuse the plug) or so I read in my foal’s story books. Exciting it was.
The Knights have gone but what about feminine women, Miss Darlene?
“I am sufficiently self-aware to realise that I do bring to any INITIAL encounter with any person (male OR female) a degree of stereotypical assumptions, which I will willingly dispense with if the actual data I receive following that first encounter forces me to do so.”
That’s an honest assessment and true. We all do, I reckon. Of course, we all should be aware of what the consequences of that can be. Usually the consequences are fairly harmless, but other times not. Mind you, I think we are far less willing to admit the level of socialisation we have had in relation to race, gender etc
The data you receive. Are you an IT guy (cough, cough, geek)?
Well, pyzo, no knights thus no need for feminine women or is it the other way around?
I don’t buy into traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity, although I do think there are a few ways in which men and women are different (and I don’t mean the obvious).
IT guy!!!??? How DARE you!? Wash your mouth out with soap!
By data, I mean sensory data – visual, verbal, etc. For example, if a lecturer of mine said, “oh, you really should contact a colleague and old friend of mine in the US, she is very good on this topic, and she is in Australia, at the moment” I would write a solicitious email starting “Dear Professor…” If she emailed back, and said let us meet for a coffee/drink, I would at some level presume:
1. This is a woman, and a Professor, and an American, so I should not get drunk before I go, and I should be prepared to use careful language and never swear because not only is she a woman, but an American woman, and Americans tend to be much more puritanical than Australians.
2. If when she actually arrived, she was wearing a pair of black jeans, a nice singlet, greeted me warmly with a firm handshake, a soft-hug, and said with a broad Australian accent, “fuck me dead, I’ve forgetten how bloody humid Sydney summers can be. What’s ya poison? A schooner’s always fine by me.” most of the assumptions I made would vaporise, and I would switch into a totally different conversation style.
Fuck me dead, John G, so you’d be nicer to the uptight yank than you would be to an Aussie lady.
I take your meaning, but what you’re talking about is not the same thing as admitting biases due to gender etc
Bloody Nora. You must be still at school or uni (your lecturer). I thought you were way older than that. A cranky old bloke, I thought you were.
Darlene
I am a dreaded mature-aged student, but I am most certainly not an OLD bloke – cranky or otherwise!
And, in the example I gave why do you conclude I would have been “nicer” to the Yank? Or are you using “nice” in the non-flattering sense? 
Ah, love makes fools of us all!
Argghh, a mature-age student. You probably study and everything. You should be studying now.
Because you didn’t you bad language with her, but you did with the Aussie. Just because a sheila swears at your doesn’t mean you can swear at her. It’s the only double standard we girls have.
It does, Pyzo, it sure does. Right from the horse’s mouth.
That should have said, didn’t use bad language.
Darlene
Actually, I am the very lamest example of a mature-age student. I carry on more like an 18 year old, than the 18 year olds themselves. Skip classes, go to the uni, sink schooners, gasbag on my mobile. But I do do a LOT of research for my Essays, which is why I get great grades for that part of the courses. I rarely go to lectures (except Maths), and rarely will attend a humnatities tutorial. Why? They are too crowded and becuase our universities are so huge, the quality of the students is too broad. I sympathise with the tutors who have to “give everybody a go” but I just can’t hack them. The exception is those third year pre-honours seminars, where you have to have a 70% average to be able to take the course. They’re OK.
As a consequence, it is rare for me to get more than 10/20 for ture “attendance.” And the academics are absolute fascists. They mark the roll and everything. FMD, it is worse than High School!
I think you read my gender tits-up. The person doing the swearing is the Aussie sheilah professor, not me. Please re-read and submit by 9 am, or I will penalise you 10%!
What? Tutorials with more than 12 students? Impossible!
Anyway, Darls, I’m the one doing all the dishing here. Time for you to share with us your gender-neutral utopia.
Paul Burns
12!!!??? ROFLMAO. Try sitting in an Ancient History tute with TWENTY FIVE! I kid you not. It’s a fricking scandal, and an insult to everybody concerned.
I’m not even going to ask how one manages to have an intelligent discussion about differing interrpretations of contentious historicsal points for which all opposing arguments have some validity.
25 students is for the fairy floss stuff you learn in secondary school, not serious learned debate.
Music wise, Crowded House touring was the highlight for me.
“I carry on more like an 18 year old”
Only one extra digit this time. Maybe repeated exposure to sexually mature and confident adults online is finally starting to socialise you.
“And the academics are absolute fascists.”
So what do you call members of ruthless totalitarian political cults that torture and exterminate anyone who doesn’t toe their line? Sarcastic Tutors?
You do realise you’re carrying on just like all those PC strawfolk you love to abuse for intemperate and imprecise attitudes?
Oh yes, the Year in Review.
My personal high and low lights are:
- putting on 5 kilos in weight;
- visiting Delphi, the navel of the world;
- getting my Godson hooked on Tintin;
- creating an electropunk opera;
- the Samuel Beckett exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Even better than the Kubrick expo at ACMI;
- not buying my flat again;
- cruising the wine-dark Aegean sea (Larry Durrell was spot on about Greek isles looking like sleeping dragons);
- exchanging mutually entertaining emails with Alan Moore, initially over CSIRAC being programmed to play ‘Colonel Bogey’;
- having sex on astroturf for the first time;
- the official launch of the Australian Synchrotron; and
- spending over a grand on a decent tux that can finally accommodate an extra 5 kilos.
“sex on astroturf”
I’ve just been informed that was actually the name of some newfangled cocktail – that then eventually led to fornication in a rooftop gutter. Whatever. I prefer to dream of what could be rather than what was what was.
Nabs – funny you should mention Beckett. I’ve just made a booking for a Broadway show of some of his shorter bits starring Barishnakov and the music of Phil Glass. I have even less idea what to expect than you might think.
Beckett, Baryshnikov and Glass. Sounds like a hot boutique “creative representation” agency.
I have no idea what could come of that either but you are talking about three artists for the ages, at least two of which are demanding extra tix for their entourages, about to attempt something that should be really bloody different. America’s great like that.
Also both Mikhail and Philip have got very Beckettian faces these days.
Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, ALBRECHT! Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, ALBRECHT! waiting, waiting, waiting for Sam.
I, for one, am stunned – nay, amazed – by this Earth-shattering discovery. I’d always assumed you were an immature aged student.
But Greenfield, by not going to tutes you are possibly missing out on going from a 5 or 6 or whatever to a higher grade. If you want to do honours it helps to have a higher grade.
The inference was that you’d swear if the professor swore (and apparently only lady Australian professors swear).
I don’t believe in a gender neutral utopia you nong. Read my comment again or else I will tell the lecturer you didn’t hand in any work.
Tony D, sorry forget to answer your question. Seal is an English soul/pop singer who had a beautiful song out a few years ago called “Kiss from a Rose”.
Speaking of beautiful songs, Crowded House do it so well. It was a highlight, Supun.
âI am a dreaded mature-aged studentâ?
The “dreaded” bit hangs there as obviously ignored as a fart in the International Space Station.
I hope you are looking after you Godson’s spiritual needs, Nabakov.
I’m cranky now because I obviously missed the Kubrick exhibition. Arrghh.
If you needed a tux (and an expensive one at that), it’s probably because you play in one of those RSL bands. Love a good oldie band.
Might have been easier to lose the 5kgs and buy a suit from Best and Less.
I bet everyone in the politics tutes know who John G is, and immediately shout out “luvvie” when he walks in the room. Good on you, Mr G.
Darlene, you may want to back off here for a mo. Both M. Fyodor and m’self smell green blood in the water. It’s not gonna be National Geographic happy dolphins pretty what happens next.
http://www.starstore.com/acatalog/Dolphins-poster-l.jpg
Doublefeckin’ HEH, Darlene!
I was being ironic and silly and foolish, “She’s a naughty Darl”.
Come on, I think if John G was gone, you’d all miss the old bugger.
“I think if John G was gone, you’d all miss the old bugger.”
About as much as I’d miss a crap hot dog the morning after the night before. And there’ll always be more where his kind comes from. Anyway it’s all about the the thrill of the chase.
No it’s not.
It’s all about beating up that wanker at school who wanted attention but could only attract it by being irritating and obnoxious. In the movies and novels, such twats go on to show them! Yeah! really show ‘em! Just like Napeolon Dynamite or Holden Caulfield.
Not in real life though. They just stay wankers until they die.
Or the other way round.
*Settles down happily in ringside deckchair, mojito and opera glasses to hand*
FMD, Darlene, you say that like it’s a bad thing…
Oh, absolutely. Nabs is right – Mr G’s sort tend not to last. That’s why I’m enjoying him now. Carpe dillem etc.
Crap hot dogs, reminds me of my last visit to IKEA at Richmond. They sell IKEA hot dogs. Alas, I was sober/not hungover at the time.
I take your point, Nabakov.
Really, I don’t think John G would use words like “luvvies” in the real world. It is a way of getting attention, and it works to some degree, I guess. He’s not mean about the way he goes about his blogging comments (and, like Rob and all of us, he can change). Surely many of the people who blog or comment on blogs are the kinds of people who got beaten up by the cool kids at school.
Revenge of the Nerds….never seen it, but it was mentioned in that movie about the graphic novelist, Harvey Pekar.
No, it’s not a bad thing. Being ironic and silly and foolish is “me” (perhaps not the irony bit because I don’t know what it means).
“*Settles down happily in ringside deckchair, mojito and opera glasses to hand*”
Anything on the menu takes your fancy madam?
Darlene, he’s a complete prick. Trust me on this. I’m one myself. But I’m also willing to suck it up and present m’self as adequately socialised and presentable in polite company.
He/she/it started out here foul and abusive for no reason whatsoever and deserves to be treated in similar coin. Maybe you want to try to redeem the Greenfly but personally it’s a full time job for me stopping me from ending up as repulsive and rebarbitive as it.
And I have no patience left anymore for people who can’t dance with others. It’s not like the art of civilised engagement is some kinda Skunk Works ultra top secret stealth tech.
Saving John Greenfield, a tragic tale of one woman’s fight to redeem a “complete prick”.
Certainly agree with the idea of civilised engagement, with a bit of humour and ratbaggery chucked in.
It occurs to me that people get offended or angered by very different things on this blog (and in life), and that balancing that is a challenge.
As a female and given to personalising everything, this year I’ve been told (among other things) to get counselling, been called Madame La Farge and been accused of being pre-feminist. Those people expressed their opinion, and life goes on.
Of course, there’s a vast difference between calling me Madame La Farge and being a rude and aggressive sod.
John G’s comments don’t offend me particularly, but nor do I find them engaging as they could be if he wasn’t trying to offend the luvsters.
I’m not sure if treating him “in similar coin” is the way to go….
Darls
I did not say I would swear, I said I would change my conversation style.;) But I am being pedantic. The professor example was a bad one, because regardless of the gender issue I would always be deferential to a professor, as I still carry one of those old-fashioned respect for teacher/student thingies. That is, unless they are demonstrably a lazy nong, which all of us have experienced at least once.
You are indeed correct about the tutes. It has meant the difference between a High Distinction or Distinction/Credit a number of times. Being older, I’m not that worried about my WAM. But I will be like a machine in the honours year, obsessed with squeezing every 0.1 of a percent possible!
56 Wricky Wrong <a href=”http://alizaybak.net/Dec 28th, 2007 at 8:36 am
The fraudulent Fyodor is back, just in time for an end of year bash. Sounds like you been right up the “sort” that would last, going by the way you drool over “adorable, lisping” “Nabs”. You two phoneys were made for each other.
Paul Burns
Thirty students is the standard number for tutes at my uni. I am also a mature-aged student and in my golden youth it was between ten and twelve, tutes didn’t come with a stupid carrot attached, and there was some decent debate.
Now, up to 10 to 20% of marks or even entitlement to submit assessment items may be conditional on so-called “participation”(= about two coherent sentences for a student to get full marks). This condition both ensures both that the people who need every mark they can scrounge to pass will be there for no other reason than to get marks and makes ‘serious learned debate’ is impossible. Precious tute time gets taken up, too, even at second year level, with things like grammar basics, e.g., how to write a sentence and where to put or not put apostrophes. The pressures must really be on to get as many people as possible over that 50% mark by whatever means will do it.
Other worrying signs are a move towards fortnightly rather than weekly tutes and substitution with assessment of ‘on-line debate’ using software which is about five years behind what LP and other blogs offer!
Yes folks, that was Jack Strocchi’s year in review. Soggy, unfocussed and pointlessly bitchy.
Say Jack, you going to BIO2008 in San Diego? If so I can get you a photo op with Arnie. Should impress your fellow van drivers.
“Saving John Greenfield, a tragic tale of one womanâs fight to redeem a âcomplete prickâ?.”
Go for it babe. If you succeed I’ll be there with a firm dry Australian sportsman’s handshake. If not I’ll SMS the coordinates for a 1000 lbs area denial munition.
But basically I give as much of a shit about this as a cat with a butterfly.
Bored now. Do you have anything that goes “ping!”?
What are you planning to study for honours, JG?
Thirty students in a tute is hideous. How could everybody but the loudest most annoying m/a student contribute?
Thanks for that insight from inside the uni system? Good to see a few mature age students here.
Jack’s year in review was a lot like mine, then.
Please pay attention, Mr G. The Strocchibot here presents an exemplary lesson in how not to conduct yourself online. Think of him as the Marley to your Scrooge and you just might avoid becoming the laughingstock that is the Strocchiverse.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Jack, Soggy? Well, I suppose his Decline of the Wets “thesis” is living the life aquatic at this point, and he has been accused of wettism in the past…
Darlene
I AM that loudest, most annoying. BUT, it has been twenty years since Carol Gilligan’s In a Different Voice, and woe betide any tutor who dares to give even one second extra to males in the tute than females!
Personally, I think this a a vast improvement on the olden days of shy chicks and bully boys.
But it is really bad when some of the “kids” are you know, Arts/Law students with UAIs of 99.5, did 3 Unit Ancient History for their HSC, and are grade-hungry, some are mature-aged, and some are common garden variety Arts dtudents with UAI of 75.
Try having a tute on ‘the extent to which late 4th century BCE New Comedy provides evidence for an evolution in attitudes towards women in Greek society compared to gender representations of gender in fifth century Sophocles and Aristophanes that we covered in Weeks 3 and 4!”
WAFTAM.
If you don’t care about it, Nabakov, why did you bother bringing it up? I wouldn’t have bothered responding if I knew you were just having a lark until you could declare that you were “bored”.
If you’re bored, perhaps you’d like to have a look at these pretty dolphin pictures:
http://www.hitech-dolphin.com/image-files/pictures-of-baby-dolphins-480.jpg
And some cats like chasing after butterflies.
Sorry, now I am in a cranky mood, going against my thesis not to personalise things.
I apologise for being grumpy, Nabakov.
John G, what a hideous subject (no, not true). I recommend doing politics subjects with words like pleasure and gender and in them.
I once wrote an essay in the library the morning it was due (mature age student and all) about feminist responses to pornography or something and got a really good grade. I think it was the word postmodern that did it.
Actually, wouldn’t it be good if a generalised education at uni meant just that: a general overview of a range of topics, including history, politics, philosophy?
Oh, and can I point at that the lovely womenfolk at Hoyden about Town are running a The best of ’07 Femmobolsho competition.
http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1236
Punters have got until the end of the month (I think) to nominate their best femobolsho posts of the year.
Darlene
Actually, you are so wrong. The subject is fucking fascinating, stimulating, exciting, and HARD. That is the whole problem.
“John G, what a hideous subject (no, not true).”
That’s what I said, John G.
Femmobolshos? Never heard of them. But I suppose that’s because I only read Naomi Wolfe and Germaine Greer nowadays. I have read others, but it was quite a while ago and I can’t remember their names. Once read a few pages of a book by Mary Daly.
Darls
On honours, I am pretty torn. I am doing double Arts/Science degrees, and am equally attracted to Pure Maths and Ancient History. I started off thinking I would go into Neuroscience, designing new wonder drugs for dementia or the CIA!
But I quickly realised that at the end of the day, lab work is just not part of my makeup. I’m still doing Psych as the Science minor,coz I’m still really interested in all the cognition/memory/language stuff, ESPECIALLY after I have been exposed to all the pomo Luvvies banging on cluelessly about ‘The Other.’
Being an old-codger tha Maths probably makes a lot more sense from a career point of view – more bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time. OTOH, the more I learn about ancient History, the more I become familiar with the ancient languages, the more all sorts of amazing possibilities about where we came from, teh modern world, how this connects to that, becomes intoxicating.
One of the great thing about Classics/Ancient History is that the data set is extremely limited compared to say Nazi Germany, and so the “fun” becomes more abstract and cerebral very quickly than modern history.
Well, I think the Hoydens are basically looking for any posts of high-quality of a feminist bent, Paul.
Did you read Naomi’s last book?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_America:_A_Letter_of_Warning_to_a_Young_Patriot
Last one I read of hers was Fire with Fire, an interesting enough call for a new type of feminism or at least a break with an old kind of feminism.
The Beauty Myth is no doubt even more important than it ever was because things have just gotten worse in that regard.
Darlene
Are you are a mature-ager also? On topics such as gender, we have an advantage over the ‘kids’ coz we’ve rooted more people, seen more changes, cried more, fallen over and grazed our knees more, worn drag, etc. than the 18 year olds. Except for the girls from Catholic schools, of course, who arrive at university either already bigger sluts than Courtney Love, or with their L plates on
Just for you, JG:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm
They’re on the lookout for maths teachers, always. Arts/Science is a good mix. The psych stuff is fascinating, and always changing to some degree. Ideas about why and how we use language and the nature of memory (which relates back to dementia to some degree) are interesting. Memory can be so unreliable and so patchy, but yet contain some of the most important hints as to why we are the way we are. Of course, old mum nature has got something to do with that as well.
Good luck with your studies.
Darlene
Maths teacher!!?? Quelle horreur sweetie!
Try hedge-fund trader or climate derivatvies! 
Darlene,
I read the original article the latest Wolfe book grew from, and did an Oz version of her 10 points as applied to JWH. He satisfied 9 of them. But it got to out of date too quickly to send anywhere. Or I might have sent it to Green Left Weekly, I can’t remember. If I did, I don’t know if they published it. She is positively awesome.
Darls
I used to be a Marxist. Even though I have abandoned it because because I simply cannot cop its utopian eschatology and providentialism, I remain a firm materialist, which largely explains my hostility to a lot of pomo/Luvvie stuff (though not all). Also, my heartbreaking decision to leave the Marxist hivemind, was one day looking around and taking a good long hard gander at the miserbale ghastlies I was making revolutionary honey with!
Can’t stand Naomi Wolfe. A dopier flakier bint would be hard to find. Without all that hair and bobbing melons, she’d be packing groceries. When I read The Beauty Myth in the early nineties, I was ranting to one of my friends, “this ditz knows nothing about ‘beauty’ or ‘myth.’ I am going to write a review called The Naomi Myth. Alas, I never did. Sorry, I also loathe Simone de beavior. What a sour po-faced turn-off she was. Marxism and Existentialism together? FMD. Who needs razor blades?
Give me Julie Burchill and Susie Bright anyday!
JG,
I think, once again, you’re being deliberately provocative. Loved De Beauvoir’s book on her Catholic Girlhood, and the one she wrote on Sexuality.Found the former very evocative.
Darlene,
Re the article. I remember what happened with the article I wrote based on Naomi Wolfs’ now. Howard did a few horrendous things I would have had to added to it before it could be ready for publication, sand my revolutionary spirit flagged,(it does sometimes, but rarely) as I was right into writing the prologue for a book I’m working on, and being too creative.So I gave up.
Besides, being me, I was plagued by the intellectual problems surrounding a definition of Fascism, (which are immense and depend on who you read.) There was a very stimulating debate going on on the web arising out of Naomi’s article – not right wing rants against her, but genuine considerations by historians in the field of varying definitions of Fascism. So I put it aside. And Howard lost. So it wasn’t necessary.
That’s interesting, Paul, because I thought Wolfe was dismissed as a reformist/liberal feminist by radicals.
“…utopian eschatology and providentialism.” Jebus, Mr G, talk like we regular folk.
Sour po-faced etc and one of the most important woman of the 20th century. Come on, read the introductory chapter to her seminal The Second Sex; that’s why I sent you the link.
But what can’t you stand about Naomi’s analysis re: The Beauty Myth? Surely it’s obvious we live in a culture that has indoctrinated women (and more insidiously, girls) into thinking they should look a certain way.
Her bobbing melons and hair are not of interest to me. Last I heard of Julie B was that she was off gazing at her religious navel.
Darlene,
Not at all. Naomi’s original article was circulated all over Australia by us, and commented on at length by e-mail, and used as a template to critique the Howard Government. The rads I mix with mostly were very excited by her ideas about Bush’s America, which I gather, make up her latest book.
JG: Hedge funds and climate derivatives? Is your pure maths to make you a guru with all the trading stuff then, Fibonacci numbers and the like will be a breeze. But isn’t trading a career for hip young gunslingers, and if you were frenziedly critiquing Wolf 15+ years ago you can’t be that young. Or were you a prodigy even then.
Anyway, I admit to being an old(ish) codger(ette), so where my late blooms in the Arts/Law field will take me, gawd only knows. Probably end up being one of the vile ‘tax eaters’ that the libertarian blogs foam on about.
Thanks for that, Paul. Well, perhaps when Naomi was more interested in “power feminism” (and was the classic liberal feminist) she antagonised the radicals.
I suspect that most of us are “tax eaters”. Did I just hear a “bird” (tweet tweet, the voters of Dobell got it right).
Darlene,
Naomi is now upsetting the neocons big time. ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend. Anyhow we in SANE [SA New England] got quite excited about her take on the US Government..In the end 3 of us were working on the article, but events overtook us and … you know how it is.
Darlene:
Way way off-topic but …. have a Happy New Year and a thoroughly relaxing, re-energizing break ….
Thanks Graham. You know I haven’t worked out how to put smiley faces into comments.
D’oh.
Look forward to reading your comments in the New Year.
Fave musical moments:
PJ Harvey – White Chalk (sublime white gothic)
Grinderman – Grinderman (raging against the dying light of youth)
Jeff Lang and Chris Whitely – Discoloation Blue (roots music without the cliches but still all the passion you need)
Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (cheating a little but wasn’t released in Oz till early 2007 I think. Modern classic rock).
Allison Krauss and Robert Plant – Raising Sand (a strange pairing but their vocals blend well and some great songs)
and
AC/DC – Plug Me In (live anthology showing why AC/DC has always mattered as a live band. They may be old now but still can blow most bands off the stage as 2003 footage shows. But they were untouchable in the late 70s on stage. No-one else at that time had a chance)
Dear pyzo,
I think that as a thoughtful and imaginative equine, you might find this link interesting.
Sorry, I forgot to leave the link.
http://www.tawse.com/html/ponyback.html
Miss Liz, your thoughtfulness in providing this link is moving. It is a perfect illustration of the flaws in, and the perversity of, human nature.
Every reader of L.P. should visit this link!
P.S. At a horse show, none of the naked human fillies would even make it to the quarter finals!
Liz,
The Pony Club is yet further proof that the English have got eccentricity down to an art form – whether high or low art I’m not sure.The possibility of how this might be taken up by other LP-ers on this edition of Saturday Salon boggles the mind.
Sorry, I meant Year in Review.
Why suggest it is only the English that are involved in depravity, Mr Burns?
Depravity? I said eccentricity.
Humans have an amazing array of words which assist them to avoid confronting the harsh truth about themselves, don’t they, Mr Burns?
Humans who write in English as a profession as I do are very exact in their use of the English language, Mr. Pyzo.If I had thought or meant depraved, I would have used the word ‘depraved’. Unlike horses we do not have an extremely limited vocabulary, but have the benefit of the use of a very beautiful, subtle language, which used to its fullest extent can soar to the heights. Unlike horses we also have a wonderful sense of the ridiculous and can recognise a joke when we see one.
I thought the main occupation of Australian women was redeeming useless pricks.
Darlene is a team player and old hand like most of us.
Have a good holiday Darlene, and see you back here in 2008.
Year in Review: Howard Govt tossed out. Howard loses election. Howard Govt no longer in office. Howard Govt not returned. Howard gorne….and never coming back.
Ah, Mr Burns, now you are playing the semantic ‘pea and thimble’ game, one embellished with a bit of human ‘put-down’ for good measure.
I may only be a horse, Mr Burns, but I am a literate one who decries all form of elitism whether from animals or humans.
Besides, if humans had any sense of the ridiculous at all they would see the joke that they themselves are much more clearly.
Pyzo,
You were the one who used the word depraved, mate. In the eye of the beholder, so to speak. I’m not going to respond to any more of your comments so don’t waste your time.
To get back on thread,more on the Year In Review .
Vast dollops of most enjoyable schadenfreude as Howard went down the gurgler.
Vast disappointment that Howard didn’t lose it in his concession speech and start abusing Australian voters.
Delight at seeing Gerard Henderson accept that we have lived through eleven years of the Howard Fascist Era.
More schadenfreude caused by thinking how horrible the Howard’s Xmas must have been.
Utter delight at seeing Brendon Nelson change from a Rottweiler to a very confused little puppy.
More delight at watching Nalcolm Turnbull turn into a cruising shark every tinme he comes near Brendon Nelson.
Relief that Rudd turned out better than I thought he ever would and ecstatic joy at the distinct possibility that he may very well turn into one of Labor’s greatest Prime Ministers. (I hope I’m right here.)
Wonder that Rudd made an unpublicised visit to a homeless shelter where he helped hand out Xmas dinners, and was only sprung because one of the workers there blew the whistle on him.
Some wonderfully indescribable emotion that we really have got our country Australia back after eleven of our darkest years.
Ah, what’s the favourite occupation of humankind? Shooting the messenger of course (and anyone else who happens to be in range).
I deliberately chose the word ‘depravity’, Mr Burns, because I felt that it better represented what I saw on the link. After all, humans have been using the word ‘eccentricity’ for centuries to hide aspects of their darker side.
Enjoy your self-imposed exile from Pyzo’s unique world, Mr Burns. And please take good care of yourself.
Self-imposed exile from this psrticular discussion, Pyzo, which I thought was going in circles and getting slightly narky, which I try to avoid (which I’m not doing very well at today, if you look on other threads.) I enjoy your imaginative efforts though I doubt I would have the endurance to keep it going as long as you have, being a horse and all. I thought I had a pretty dark vision of the world, but yours is positively black.
As for making moral judgements about what other people do, having been an unsuccessful actor, and a reasonably successful writer, I’ve bheen trained and trained myself to avoid them. After all, you can’t really get inside the head of some one bad if you immediately assume they’re bad, or depraved or whatever, can you?
Newsflash:
“Out of control Britney busted!
Staight-jacketed (well, not quite), carted off to nuthouse for drugs; alcohol bloodtests after erratic refusal of access of cops, social workers to mansion for child visits to ex spouse.”
Whoaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Photie in Murdoch tabloid has wonky Brit loaded onto stretcher in anticipation of being carted off for apparently seeming to be off face.
It’s all happening; stay tuned for updates…
Talk about a hatful of monkeys.
The starving masses in places like Kolkatha and Kinshasha will be of their faces with excitement at world-shattering events of such a magnitude.