Mike Crowl's Blog, page 6

Hard Truths

 My wife wanted to go and see Hard Truths at the movies yesterday. We'd seen the trailer, and it looked interesting, and it stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste whowas the wonderfully serious daughter in Secrets and Lies way back in1996. Both of us had enjoyed that film all those years ago and it had remainedin our minds partly because of Brenda Blethyn’s constant, ‘Sweet-art’ (witha great slide down on the ‘art’ syllable, and because it was an enjoyable movie.

Hard Truths –another Mike Leigh film...

Ickle-Uckle

 Ickle-Uckle

First published in Column 8, date unknown, but sometime in the 1990s

There are days when Iwish I'd been an etymologist - that is, a person who chases after the meaningsand derivations of words. (As opposed to an entomologist, a person who likespulling legs off spiders and wings off flies.)

I'm always intrigued by thepeculiarities of English, the way it interconnects with other languages, andthe curious gaps we have in it.

A particular gappage problem struck methe other da...

Large birds mangled with a weapon?

 Large birds mangled with a weapon?

Firstpublished in Column 8, date unknown at present, but some time in the 90s. Since this was written a few decades ago, some of these crosswords may have disappeared. The Otago Daily Times, my home town of Dunedin's daily paper, now has a cryptic that alternates between a stinker and one that might be solved. Both are more difficult than the cryptic they used to publish daily. 

 
As I've mentioned before, we have a tradition onholiday of doing the cryptic cr...

On Vicars

 On Vicars

 First published in Column 8, some time in 1994

65 English clericscriticized the Bishop of Chichester recently when, while doing his job, hesacked a vicar who said he doesn't believe in God. And why did they criticizethe Bishop? Because the clerics claimed the Church of England has along-standing tradition of tolerating and valuing a wide range of views.

Somehow I believe the clerics are alittle confused, though I know they're not alone in their thinking.

If I joined a Harley...

Clothes

 Clothes

 

First published in Column 8, date unknown, but some time in the 1990s

 

Stress is a fact of mylife: opening the lid of the rubbish bucket and being greeted by somethingalive. Hearing a piece of music in one ear that's a semitone different to, andout of kilter with, the music forced into the other ear. Putting milk intocoffee and finding I'm drinking liquid Parmesan.

Finding that in spite of all my carefulcalculations, the cheque book still manages to sink into overdraft while I'...

Tinā - mother

 Tinā may follow a lot of the tropes of the underdog makes good story, especially the one where a teacher takes on a bunch of kids and turns them into something spectacular (think one of Whoopi Goldberg's stints from the Sister Act series), but it's made considerably more effective by having a wonderful Samoan actress at its heart: Anapela Polataivao as Patricia. 

After her daughter is killed in the larger of the two Christchurch earthquakes, Patricia is hit hard by depression, goes solitary and ...

Graphophobia

 Graphophobia

First published in Column 8, date unknown, but some time in the 1990s

As we grow older it'seasy to develop irrational phobias, or fears of things that the majority ofpeople have no fear of at all.

Fear, courtesy of Robbie GrubbsUp until recently I had little fear thatthe subject matter of my column, if written up before the deadline, would turnup in someone else's column. However, now thatMiles Singe* has on at least two occasionsunwittingly snaffled my ideas, I could easily ...

Questions

 Questions

 

First published in Column 8, date unknown at present, but some time inthe 1990s

 

Two things make a tripto the University Bookshop's* upstairs permanent sale worthwhile. Firstly, the arrayof books that appear to have no market. A book of dedications? A book of bitsleft out of other books?

Secondly, the way in which customerscan discover minor gems, books in the Trivial Pursuit mode.

I came across just such a one in theholidays: volume 2 of Notes and Queries, a collection of ...

(Artists and) Responsibility

 [Artists and] Responsibility

  First published in Column 8, date unknown at present, but some time in the 1990s.

When I spoke about censorship inanother column, I said I was puzzled at some of the comments made by NewZealand's chief film and television censor.

The problems withcensorship in our generation, however, go further along the line than thepeople dealing with the end product; the problems go back to the creators offilms, books and plays themselves. The responsibility of the arti...

Profane but PC

 Profane but PC

 

First published in Column 8 on the 17th May1995

 

At one point in Shakespeare’s King Lear the King (witha bit of huff and puff) asks his Fool: ‘Dost they call me fool, boy?’ The foolanswers: ‘All thy other titles thou has given away; that thou wast born with.’

Court jesters spoke the truth others couldn’t speak, throughhumour. When, like politicians, courtiers suffered under a form of politicalcorrectness, fools could deflate the pompous behaviour of kings, as well astha...