Life

A 1950s Alternative Universe

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on Saturday night I found myself watching a late-night 1950s black and white movie – something I haven’t done much of since the demise of Bill Collins and Ivan Hutchinson’s shows. Oh, how I used to love those old black and white movies (cue massive eyeroll from the kids). Some of the interest lies in a mixture of plot points which appear to have been written while dropping acid combined with gender and class expectations which are all too real.

Observations from West End, Brisbane

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You might have heard, Brisbane and huge parts of Queensland have gone under water in a catastrophic flood. To put that in perspective, this is an area of land the size of France and Germany combined affected by the floods. Brisbane, which is the capital of Queensland is the fastest growing city in Australia and rates third for size in the country. As you might imagine, some absolutely tragic events have been unfolding in this flood.

I had to leave work in a bit of a hurry as I work right in the CBD, which was a surreal feeling; but apart from that my own family has been safe from the flooding, although we have no power for the foreseeable future and have had to be adopted into someone else’s home.

Something wrong in the wiring.

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There must have been a glitch in my wiring then, somehow I got the ‘male’ wiring and I am obviously an affront to nature or at least to motherhood. I don’t want to be a ‘house-wife’ and I think that is a pretty awful term with a nasty stereotype “what did you do all day?” attached and doesn’t reflect the reality of unpaid work whether you have children or not. ‘Working mother’ is a tautology, because it doesn’t matter whether you are paid or unpaid you are still working. Bloody hard I might add.

carcharias taurus, Maroubra, Sydney, by Doug Anderson, CC BY-NC

Endangered Sunday: grey nurse shark

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I’ve been in the water with a lot of sharks: leopard sharks, wobbegongs, Port Jackson sharks, grey and white tipped reef sharks and grey nurse sharks. What’s a scary thing I’ve encountered diving? That dreaded apex predatory homo sapiens. Homo sapiens is of course the big threat to today’s Endangered Sunday species, the grey nurse shark or carcharias taurus.

Otterday! And Open Thread.

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The photo was taken in the Pforzheim wildlife park (English translation) in the Black Forest, Germany.

Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires.

BFTP: Friday Hoyden – Eleanor of Aquitaine

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Another Summer Slowdown blast from the past post from the archives.. A long time e-friend in 2006 welcomed the arrival of his second daughter, to be known as Eleanor.

I love that name, as Eleanor of Aquitaine (at various times Prince of Aquitaine as ruling Duchess, Queen of France, Queen of England, Queen Mother and Regent of England) is my favourite historical hoyden. EofA is, indeed, how I judge the quality of any encyclopaedia I encounter.