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Category: word power

Word Power: on humans acting irresponsibly, idiotically…knowingly

Published November 6, 2024 by Pelidoug

Word Power: on humans acting irresponsibly, idiotically…knowingly

 

 

This post is a pointer to two opinion pieces.

Both are particularly worth reading in light of the re-election – as leader of “our” planet’s most powerful “democracy” – of an incorrigible liar, felon, bully, ignoramus, narcissist, jingoist, misogynist (probably, also a “sex offender”) and racist.

Just published by ABC News, Carrington Clarke’s is an immediate response to Donald Trump’s victory.

The October 2024 edition of The Monthly published Tim Winston’s more finely-crafted essay, which makes absolutely no direct reference to the American presidential election.

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Word power(lessness): fatuous sentence of the year award

Published December 12, 2023 by Pelidoug

It is hard to imagine how anybody could top ABC News Director Justin Stevens’ latest  contribution to the ever-burgeoning array of managerial weasel-speak.

Today, when announcing the “difficult” decision to axe The Drum, “as part of a wider restructure which would see a programs team on the ABC News Channel disbanded and one executive position abolished”, Stevens delivered this 100% pure nugget of fools’ gold:

Stopping things does not diminish their previous value or contribution,

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Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

Published November 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

 

 

 

“Our” world is so oversaturated with sensationalism, misrepresentation, haranguing, intolerance, name-calling, “cancelling”, “virtue signalling” and the “100% this versus 100% that” school of argumentation.

It has become an increasingly rare pleasure to read a measured and sensible newspaper article, devoted to a highly contentious topic.

The relevant piece was published this week in the Australian edition of The Guardian.

Fully cognisant of cats’ devastating impact on Australian wildlife, it addresses this question:

can we have cats (as pets) in a sustainable and ethical way?

You may be surprised to know that the answer is yes, albeit yes, if…

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The Quality of Sprawl: flower power/ word power

Published September 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

The Quality of Sprawl: flower power/ word power

 

 

The moment I saw this exuberantly “bird-ready” example of Western Australia’s floral emblem, I suddenly remembered one of my favourite Australian poems.

Les Murray (1938 – 2019) never became a Nobel Laureate.

Depending on my mood, I find that fact “puzzling” (at his best, Murray was so very obviously – for much of his adult life – one of the greater 20th century poets) or “utterly predictable”. (his verse was so overtly Australian, and his views were not always “palatable”)

The Quality of Sprawl’s opening verse:

 

Sprawl is the quality

of the man who cut down his Rolls-Royce

into a farm utility truck, and sprawl

is what the company lacked when it made repeated efforts

to buy the vehicle back and repair its image.

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Quirky moments (#12 in series: subcontinental signage)

Published August 27, 2023 by Pelidoug

Quirky moments (#12 in series: subcontinental signage)

The roadside billboard pictured above is in the foothills of the Nilgiri Hills.

It hopes to lure travellers into what is in fact merely yet another of the world’s millions of franchised purveyors of junk “food”, “soft” drinks, and lousy coffee.

What’s actually on offer is drearily “global”, but the billboard-hyperbole has an unmistakably Indian flavour.

Where else would a brand name even attempt to associate its burgers, pizzas, sandwiches and fizzy drinks with drug “trips” and rock music’s first “supergroup”?

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Word power: Natalie Merchant and Walt Whitman

Published April 4, 2023 by Pelidoug

Word power: Natalie Merchant and Walt Whitman

 

 

Natalie and Walt have just unwittingly delayed the promised leopard post!

(it will be the next one, I promise)

The photo alludes to one of my favourite Walt Whitman poems, from Leaves of Grass.

Most printed interviews with musicians are time-wasting, publicist-driven piffle.

A notable exception is The New Yorker interview, published today – worth reading, whether or not you admire/know Natalie Merchant’s singing/songs.

There aren’t a lot of people writing love songs to Walt Whitman.

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Word power: Timothy Snyder on Putin’s Russia v Ukraine

Published November 29, 2022 by Pelidoug

Word power: Timothy Snyder on Putin’s Russia v Ukraine

(Yale-based historian Timothy Snyder is best known as the author of Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, a book which profoundly enriched/jolted not a few readers’ understanding of “The Holocaust”, this reader’s included)

What European history really shows, and quite powerfully, is that in order to become, quote unquote, a ‘normal’ European country, you have to become post-imperial, [meaning] you have to lose your wars.

Snyder’s words, quoted immediately above and below, are from an article published in today’s Australian edition of The Guardian.

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