mike carey

3.14159265359

[MEDIA=twitter]1200283516782596096[/MEDIA]

Expatriate Australian writer, poet and broadcaster Clive James has died in England at 80. He was diagnosed with leukaemia about 10 years ago. He has spent the years since then reflecting on his life and death. His 2014 poem is one poignant meditation on his impending death. 'Japanese Maple’ Your death, near now, is of an easy sort. So slow a fading out brings no real pain. Breath growing short Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain Of energy, but thought and sight remain: Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls On that small tree And saturates your brick back garden walls, So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls? Ever more lavish as the dusk descends This glistening illuminates the air. It never ends. Whenever the rain comes it will be there, Beyond my time, but now I take my share. My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new. Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame. What I must do Is live to see that. That will end the game For me, though life continues all the same: Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes, A final flood of colours will live on As my mind dies, Burned by my vision of a world that shone So brightly at the last, and then was gone. He had been a literary critic at The Observer and in that capacity he wrote of a biography of Brezhnev: On Brezhnev - A Short Biography: "Here is a book so dull that a whirling dervish could read himself to sleep with it. If you were to recite even a single page in the open air, birds would fall out of the sky and dogs drop dead."

Yes, have a great Thanksgiving (whatever that is*) to all of you below the 49th*. I read today that the authoritative correct time to have the Thanksgiving meal is at 2pm. My considered opinion on that, based on Christmases past, is that the correct time is when the turkey is cooked and not a moment earlier. Any delays are easily ameliorated by copious amounts of champagne*. (* That was a joke, don't @ me, or send me wiki links explaining the holiday. * And above the Rio Bravo del Norte * Or other sparkling wine. An Australian sparkling shiraz would be delightful)

I've met Russ, and this is not an image of him that rings true. I have no idea if he's used steroids, but he isn't a 'roid rage' guy. He couldn't have been more obliging and engaging, but he is a bit reserved. Any issues I had were of my own making not his. As with any companion, you need to say what you want, some will push the envelope, others will wait for your lead. Russ has a great body and I loved being enveloped by it.

I couldn't possibly comment on which was the 'correct date'. My original comment was an oblique way of saying we don't do Thanksgiving, not a challenge to those who do.

I think there is a broader underlying question. 'Porn' is a subset of erotica, and we don't need to assume that the visual aspect is the important one. I consume both porn and erotic literature, and I don't assume that one is superior to the other.

I was not. I know there is a correct date in North America, and the 'other date' in some parts of the continent.

The secret of this event's success is that it has a small number of dedicated organisers who do the hard work every year to make it happen. Even other attempts to have similar events elsewhere in the US haven't shared the success of the Palm Springs weekend. The only other one that has any traction is a gathering in Washington over the Martin Luther King Day long weekend in January, and it is less well attended and hasn't happened every year. (The likelihood of below zero weather [that's below freezing in American temperatures] probably doesn't help.) Two other factors in its success are that it is a known quantity—people know that it's fun and presents a great opportunity to meet other forum participants (and hire some of them)—and that there is a critical mass of forum members for whom it's a realistic weekend trip. There is unlikely to be such a critical mass of forum members for whom a weekend in the Med would be compelling (even if it were combined with a week or so elsewhere in the area), so this might not be the best place to organise such an event.

What is this 'Thanksgiving' of which you speak?

He should have been a singular twink. https://rent.men/Luxury_XLtwink/

My problem is I haven't yet worked out what I am an expert in!

Possibly (if 852 is indeed a NY phone code, and it's not in the Wiki list of that state,s codes), and it seems odd that this guy has a Hong Kong phone number. That said, HK has 8-digit phone numbers and numbers beginning with 6 are allocated to mobile phones.

Sorry for having been imprecise. I meant that once I had been authorised to access semi-private photos they all appeared together with the 'public' photos.

For the fuel efficiency reason, and because it's uncomfortable to have open windows at speed, I drive with the windows up on the open road. I sometimes wind* them down when the speed limit is 50 or 60 km/h. Today I was driving from Melbourne to my small home town, about seven hours, and when I stopped for a sandwich and coffee I wound both front windows down while I was parked and eating. I didn't have the engine running, just the key* in the ignition turned to the first stop so the radio worked. * Yes, I know they are electric, so I don't actually 'wind' them down. * None of this new fangled proximity 'key' stuff in my 10 year old car.

In my experience it has always worked that way.

I have an unfair advantage on that, the main ferry wharves in Sydney are at Circular Quay. Which isn't circular or even an arc of one.

A river-front public development in Perth is called Elizabeth Quay. It is often referred to as Betty's Jetty.

Yep, we are. I suspect we see the 'landscape' in this question differently and our views are in part a product of our healthcare 'environments'. For me the government part of healthcare is much larger, and the government health bureaucracy (that sees my GP visits and any tests they order because if funds them, at least in part) looks more like 'healthcare' than 'government'. The part that is purely government differs between our countries too. The county clinic referred to in the OP is a small government run facility answerable to a county government so its purpose in asking the question is not clear. There is no analogue to that in this country. Here, it would be NGO run (say, the AIDS Council perhaps with some government funding) or a sexual health clinic overseen by the state health department and you would assume, probably correctly, that the data was being collected for a genuinely health related purpose.

Since I've previously posted on this subject in this thread I'll continue to do so. The second research flight landed this afternoon, non-stop from London to Sydney, roughly the same time as JFK-SYD but about 1500km further (tail winds). https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-centenary-celebrations-take-off-as-direct-london-sydney-research-flight-lands/ Tomorrow (Saturday) is Qantas' 99th birthday and the aircraft is in a commemorative livery for the airline's hundredth year. As the article notes, early next year the Royal Australian Mint will issue a commemorative $1 coin into circulation.

That's the difference. You are talking to your primary health care doctor, they need to know about this for your care. A sexual health screening service does not need that information (in most circumstances that I can think of). I disagree, it's got nothing to do with whether it's public or private. Your GP needs to know, whether they are publicly or privately funded. An STI testing service, public or private, does not need to know that detail of who you have sex with.

Stroessner was mentioned briefly, but only in the context of advancing the use of Guaraní. I was interested that Australian colonists in Paraguay were featured in the images shown but not in the narrative. New Australia was established by William Lane as a utopian socialist project in 1893, with about 230 people. It was intended as part of a white English speaking movement, rather at odds with wider Paraguayan society, but it was only short lived. Many of the settlers stayed there after the experiment ended, when I first read about it the descendants were more likely to speak Guaraní than Spanish, and certainly not English, and there was an unusual number of Kennedys (for example) in some parts of rural Paraguay.

They are variously called 'mileage', ''frequent flyer' and 'loyalty' programs. None of these terms is strictly accurate. Number of miles isn't everything, number of flights can be trumped by other statistics, and flying with another carrier doesn't disqualify you from a loyalty program. They are what they are. At the most basic level, one overseas return trip will probably give you enough points for a short domestic flight (hello, @azdr0710). To me, that was enough to justify joining but I can understand why others wouldn't bother. As can I understand why some posters here no longer want to bother about UA Premier 1K. News flash, they are marketing devices for the airlines aimed at getting you to have as many, and as expensive as possible BIS miles. It's your choice whether the baubles they offer are worth the extra $100, $1000 or 5,000 miles you have to spend or travel to get them.

Or perhaps a 'role reversal' meeting. Wouldn't turn away the smart-assey version either.