I *heart* Aspic

I may have mentioned before my love of The Gallery of Regrettable Food. As an op shopper of many years I've spent countless happy hours browsing old cookbooks and snorting at the horror of the "food styling". This morning I found a bunch of people who have gone one better: The Mid-Century Supper Club. These folks not only goggle at the unbelievable pictures, they actually make the recipes and photograph them for Flickr. What a wonderful world.

A Sore Point

If I were a little more narcissistic I would see a link between my comment on Cheryl's blog about Brisbane's February being unusually mild and the temperature suddenly rocketing up to 40°C. However, it's only my universe that revolves around me, so I don't presume to claim responsibility for the entire South East corner suffering such a wiltingly hot day.

After suffering 34°C yesterday I decided that we needed to make an escape to somewhere a little cooler. Keeping two babies happy and sane in a hot box of a house is a taxing day-long task -- not to mention keeping my own tantrums under control -- so we headed up to breezy Bribie to visit Little Sister and her brood, and have a sanity-saving swim.

As I sat in the public pool with my kids I watched a woman bobbing around nearby in the piss-warm water. She was covered in open sores. That's right, open sores. How strong is my faith in chlorine? And is this itch I have all over my body anything to be concerned about? Thank god it's only going to be 31°C tomorrow.

Suburban Surfin'

Are you addicted to Google Earth yet? Of course you are.

To help you along with your filthy habit, a few sites:

Google Sightseeing
I'm quite enjoying this site. I can't imagine how long it would have taken me to find the Tellytubbies' house on my own, for example. Or the Austrian town of Fucking.

I haven't had quite so much of a look at the following two, but they look quite worthwhile just the same.
Google LatLong - news and notes by the Google Earth team
Google Earth Blog - All about Google Earth: news, features, tips, satellite photos, and applications.

While we're on a geographic theme, a list of amusing place names from Wikipedia. A few faves:
Cunt, Turkey
Foulness, Essex, UK
Fresh Kills, NY, USA
Gland, France
Head of Grassy, Kentucky, USA
Howlong, NSW, Australia
Indented Head, Vic, Australia
Moron, Switzerland
Penis, Uruguay

.....a-a-a-a-and so on and so forth.

It's remarkable, you know: I barely get any time to myself at all these days, and yet I spent some of it on that.

Other sites I've visited of late that I can recommend are the Victoria and Albert Museum, utterly superb for anyone of a creative bent, and Literally, a Web Log, for anyone of a pedantic one. Happy surfing.

Sorry

Tomorrow the Prime Minister will issue an apology to the indigenous people of Australia for past mistreatment. Finally. The previous PM was singularly pig-headed about doing this, and would go no further than a statement made under pressure of "deep and sincere regret".

As I understand it, the actual word "sorry" is important to indigenous Australians because of its connection to the term "sorry business", which relates to mourning. Quite obviously, indigenous Australians have much to grieve for.

I'm awaiting Big Kev's words with no little anxiety. I hope, hope, hope that he doesn't use some tricky set of phrases that wriggle us out of actual responsibility for the terrible things our nation has done. It's an historic day, and he needs to be very careful not to blow it. I feel that we only have one shot at this.

And it would be easy for him to do a bit of wriggling. I heard Roly Sussex, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Queensland on the radio recently talking about the various meanings and connotations of the word "sorry", and it was food for thought. Will Kevin use the "I regret what's happened, but it's not my fault" version? Or will he do the right thing and use it to accept responsibility? Fingers crossed.

Another point Professor Sussex brought to my attention was the apology that the Canadian government made to that nation's indigenous people. I've been trying to find a transcript of that apology this morning but sadly haven' t been able to produce it. From memory it started with "Canada apologises...". I can only hope that we get something as bold. It doesn't say "the parliament apologises.." or "the Canadian government apologises...". Canada. The entire nation. And "apologises" is unambiguous.

The topic has been all over the radio over the past few weeks, and I've heard it mentioned several times that some people are uneasy taking responsibility for the actions of their predecessors. I understand that, but consider this: we still benefit today from their actions. The land I've currently got my capacious arse parked on was not paid for, or negotiated for, nor was the land I shop on, socialise on, browse at art on or walk the kids on. The broader Australian community needs to wake up and realise that. Sure, we can't just pack up and go home -- this is my home -- but to say that it's simply in the past and we need to just move on is not only ridiculous, but callous.

Brendan Nelson has been whining on about wanting to see the wording before he'll lend his support; what a damn cheek. The Libs had 11 years to make this move, and if they had bothered they would have had total control over the wording. It's Labor's turn now, so it's their call.

Let's hope they get it right.


Edited to add: Here's the wording here. And it looks pretty good.

ABC Online's Apology page for further information.

The F Word

Gotta love a sisters' brother. From the unspeakably lovely Dave at The Galloping Beaver.

Feminism is a poorly labelled , "ism". Too many people view it as a "womens'" issue. It isn't and I have been a personal benefactor from the feminist movement. I shouldn't have to explain why, but suffice to say that I would be leading a much more spartan and miserable life if feminists hadn't fought for the right to equal treatment. They, and they alone, exposed how humans were being ill-treated in various walks of life. The demand by feminists to be allowed to pursue any calling pulled the shroud off some of the poorest treatment experienced by men.

That men aren't recognizing that, in droves, is reprehensible.

Perhaps the greatest womens' issue is her right to choose how to deal with her own body in the way she determines is best for her. The FSM knows, that if men at this point in our history were faced with the same thing, there would be blood running in the gutters. If men were told they had to accept, as a condition for having sex, that they would endure 18 to 20 years of unplanned poverty, anguish and heartache, they would not do it. Particularly so, if they had an option not to.

Believe me, if men can get out of something, they will. That's not a knock, but it is reality. Strange then, that men will not provide the same option for women. There seems to be this artificial constant that women are the tools men use to reproduce themselves, despite the will of the other equal contributor to that effort. And then the wholly unequal physical impact assumed by women.

Engrish Alert

Lofty brought this box home from work recently; I'm sure I don't need to explain why. It housed a piano stool.

More Bloody Baby Photos

The kids had a bit of nuddy time in the back yard today.




It looks as though the rain is due to set in again over the next day or two, so you have to take the opportunity to get out in the all-together while you can.