mike carey

A sweet comment, nothing that surprises me from you. I hope that all providers who have, ahem, a challenging endowment are as thoughtful as you are, Maus!

I think you have hit on an important point there, and not just overseas. If a client is travelling a significant distance they will want to lock in a time in advance. I have done so, sometimes for a particular time, but also for a window of a few days with a specific time agreed closer to the day.

Totally off topic. John Eales was the Wallabies captain (Australia's national rugby team) in the 1990s. His nickname was 'Nobody'.

Sign me up for some of that. I assume there's a 'recovery' session after the hurty bits, but that was deleted because it was too long for this video.

If only he were so concise! I too enjoy his interventions and I'm sure he'll be back.

At the risk of repeating myself (I know I have commented on Josh in other threads), he is one of the reasons for me to resent our closed borders. No, I haven't met him, but that's not something that I worry about. I have chatted with him on line and that, and the other comments I have read are enough to convince me that he's the real deal.

Gotta love the 'descamisados'! (Literal meaning, not the perjorative connotation.)

The question posed here was what's your type, not what's your preference!

Being offended by people having sexual fetishes is not something I would have thought to suggest of @Benjamin_Nicholasof all people. Perhaps I'm just a bad judge of such things.

Bon anniversaire!

I wouldn't be doing my hemispheric geographical duty if I didn't add some suggestions for you to look at once you get into the swing of this snow thing. I was never bitten by this bug, so disclosure there. Don't leave out Bariloche and Queenstown. I won't add places in Australia, it's cheaper for us to go to NZ and ski Queenstown than it is locally.

It's not just you!

Yes, 'off-duty flight attendant' means someone who's not working on the flight, not someone who is on a break during the flight. They still have to uphold company standards, and since they have to be in uniform they can easily be held to account. In an emergency they could be called on to assist the rostered crew (as could an off-duty pilot if they were certified on type). I won't add to the commentary on what Wolf did.

Fair point, I didn't fact check the tweet I had read (and did cite Twitter, not an original source). I'm not an uncritical fan-boy, but I've liked Novak since his early mimicry days (not just that, also his tennis, to be clear). Regardless of what he said and when, the fact that a connection was made with Biles is a warning to people who make comments meant to refer to themselves that timing can result in the comments being interpreted as applying to other things that have occurred at the same time. And to the media, and other commentators, that they should be careful in drawing attention to perceived links between things that are unrelated.

I saw a tweet here (in Aussie twitter not in the forum) quoting him as saying, 'Pressure is a privilege' in relation to Simone Biles.

Disappointing, although as @BSRnotes Olympic tennis is not a really big deal, much less the doubles, but Novak has backed out of the bronze medal game in the mixed doubles. A consolation medal for Ash Barty.

Love it!

All that is true, but I doubt that the Japanese broadcaster has the same sway as NBC over the IOC, or that the Tokyo Organising Committee would be able to influence scheduling to suit Japanese audiences. As you pointed out earlier, NBC pays a shit-tonne of money for the rights, and although US tennis players are few now, they would likely not have known that when scheduling decisions were made. Will the IOC be flexible if players complain? I doubt it unless it's going to affect their bottom line, they don't give a f**k about athletes, only money. (BTW, I wasn't suggesting that NBC's influence is a bad thing, just making the obvious point that it is a thing.) Sitting here one hour ahead of Tokyo time, they'd have to try really hard to make live broadcast times inconvenient here.

The issue is more the insistence on the games being in certain months, irrespective of weather. The Sydney games were, like Seoul, in September (daylight saving started in August that year). Spring in Sydney can be pretty nice. Part of the reason for the IOC's schedule is that it has picked its window in the global sporting calendar. Another part of the puzzle is NBC, 11am in Tokyo is 7pm PDT. Swimming usually has its heats in the morning and finals in the evening. Except in Beijing and Tokyo. Morning finals mean US prime time viewing. (I can't remember if Sydney was the same.)

Leaving aside the fact that I didn't address you at all, I would never address you in the third person, that would be unspeakably pretentious, and rude. But I think luluwhammydingdong protests too much. Oops, I just did it.

True and not true simultaneously. Using them when the gender of the person is known or assumed is not all that common. They have, however been used that way frequently since at least Shakespeare's time. Few people would even think before making a public address announcement along the lines of, 'Someone has left their car lights on in the car park.' Your wider point that any change will only happen when people choose to adopt it is correct. On this basis, I don't see any of the made-up pronouns catching on. Soi-disant grammatical purists (aka pedants) can fulminate all they like, but the future of gender neutral third person singular pronouns will not be decided by them.

I considered typing 'bert mah rahts' but figured that may have needed subtitles even in this forum. 😁

Pita now has the opportunity to hang around for an Olympic games in the city where he lives. It's only 11 years away!

There is really no holiday that is considered to mark either the beginning or the end of summer here, I was just playing with the fact that our Labour Day is at the start of October (well, it is in NSW, SA and the ACT, other states and territories have it in March (first or second Monday) or May (link to May Day). Australia Day (26 Jan) is seen as the end of the summer holidays, and return to school, to serious government processes and serious business, but that is not the end of summer. The switch between football and cricket seasons is probably a better proxy for season change. Melbourne Cup Day, first Tuesday in November is sometimes considered the start of the summer 'silly season' when much of the country 'turns off' until Australia Day. Canberra has a couple of quirky 'rules' (popular currency only, nothing official) to mark seasons. Heaters should not be turned on until Anzac Day (25 April) because doing so would be soft in our relatively cold climate, and tomato seedlings should not be planted before Melbourne Cup Day because of the risk of frost. In northern Australia, summer and winter are not significant as seasons, the big distinction is between the wet and dry seasons. From an indigenous perspective in the Top End (of the Northern Territory) there are six seasons. https://www.experiencethewild.com.au/?p=Birding-Info-Weather-Seasons (Europeans are called Balanda by first Australians there. It is derived from Hollander.)

Whether it's the result of bullying or complicity, there are politicians state and federal in the US who have resisted or declined to use or even allow proof of vaccination. But with the Canadian border the 'But mah rights' crowd face a different circumstance, a foreign government (or to be precise, a foreign border official) who tells them that their right not to carry proof ends at the border, and they have a simple choice, show proof or climb back on that plane and go home.