Yeah, no...

We all do it. I do it. I've heard teenagers do it, I've heard my ancient and withered Mother do it. I've heard gays do it, straights do it, I've heard grooms and broom...pushers do it. I've heard our Prime Minister do it - a lot. I've heard Rodney "Skeletor*" Hide do it, I've heard that Miss Universe woman do it. But I haven't heard bumblebees do it. I'm not talking about breathing - oral, nasal, or anal. I'd say about the only Kiwis who don't do it are those who weren't born here, although I have heard a Chinese woman, with a strong accent, do it. Well... say it. Get a Kiwi into a situation of having to ask a direct question, and the first two words to come out of his mouth will immediately mark him as a New Zullunder. he'll say "Yeah, no..."

V1: Excuse me, Harry, but do you smoke?

V2: Yeah, no, well I used to, but gave it up, oh, June 1956.



V1: Hi, Sonha** - tell me: when did you stop beating your husband?

V2: Yeah, no, really! You do say the most awful things.


There aren't many verbal tics that we can count as our own, but that's definitely one. Right? Yeah, no, I'm not kidding....


* He does, doesn't he? Rodney Hide looks like Skeletor. Especially when he smiles.

**Sonha: a new and inventive way of spelling Shona. Or Andrew.


60 Years Old. In two days time I'll have a brother who is 60 years old. I have the brother already, but he hasn't quite crossed that threshold. It's a decidedly odd feeling. It was cool when my sister turned 60, a couple or three years ago, because her turning 60 meant that I was still in my mid-50s. But Jeff turning 60 means I am now in my late 50s.

Jo: I have thunk upon my quandary of the other day, and I know that Jo has probably wanted to visit violence upon my greying and increasingly enfeebled head. I have concluded that Jo is a concept. Mercurial, shifting, shiney, quick, vibrantly intelligent, and questing. She ain't finished, and hopefully she won't get to be a finished person for a good many years yet. Fleetingly, she appears to be a work of art - but W's of A tend to be fixed, finished, and static. Even Pollock, whose work is vibrant and mobile.... but it's a fixed thing. Mondrian? Fixed, with angles... and a limited palette. See what I mean? Meet Jo, and you will. She, however, will hopefully never know... or consider it important enough to spend any more than a Jo-second* on it.

*A Jo-second is a double Milly-second. A Milly-second is the period of time it took Paul Holmes' daughter to excavate her brain with crystal meth. A Jo-second is the amount of time it takes for Jo to make a wry observation. Guess which is more fun to watch?

LISTENING TO: Johnny Winter, "Johnny Winter". God, I do love the blues.
READING:Hmm. Don't know. I'm not really fixed on anything right now. To busy dithering about age.
WORD OF THE DAY: Shocking. As are, and will be, most of the puns about the latest Melbourne Cup winner's name.

NO RATS TODAY: I'm doing this on a different computer, and don't have access to the file.