New Zealand Listener Issue 2 2021

Much as 2020 often felt like the year of being huddled behind closed doors, it was overwhelmingly one of standing up to do the right thing. New Zealand’s management of Covid-19 was distinguished, with few exceptions, by people doing exactly what was asked of them to help save lives. Whether that meant staying home at risk of loneliness and depression, or going to work at risk of contagion to keep essential services running, people complied with remarkably little complaint. The prize for the inverse, however, goes to outgoing US President Donald Trump, whose resolute minimising of Covid’s dangers has allowed his citizens to die at world-leading rates. Far from being a Good Samaritan, Trump will go down as one of history’s greatest bystanders. He has simply walked by on the other side…

Shame on me that my hardworking grandchildren are confronted with house prices (Editorial, November 28) that are a hundred times what their grandmother and I paid for our first home in 1967. We have brought this about by declining to train our own people while building a derisory number of homes. In Blenheim, we’re erecting a palatial $20 million library when what we needed was satellite housing on less-expensive land in nearby Seddon, which, crucially, is linked to us by rail. This would have revitalised one of our rural communities so it could regain a post office, police station and other essentials of small-town life. The homes would be rent-to-buy and also, crucially, prefabricated. In the age of 3D printing, why are we still building houses by methods that have not altered…

WINNING CAPTION Bruce Elliott, Auckland FINALISTS Man on right thinks: Time for the earmuffs – he’s about to whistle.– Terry Delaney, WellingtonJoe Biden: “Ah, the sweet smell of victory!”– Robert Morey, DunedinBiden: “I ain’t just whistling Dixie, Donald!”– Susan HallBiden: “He’s gone! It’s safe to come out now!”– Mike Hamblyn, DunedinBiden: “We’re colour-coded: black for Secret Service, blue for Democrats and nothing for an orange buffoon.”– Andrea Levarre-Waters, AucklandBiden: “Yesss, Trumped ya!”– Alys Turtill…

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”– writer James Dent“When Rose Matafeo won the best comedy show award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New Zealand Prime Minister sent a congratulatory tweet. That’s the New Zealand Prime Minister for you – busy, busy, busy!”– English comic Jimmy Carr“I do not want to see Trump go to prison. Mostly, because if you put Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit, it’ll look just like he’s naked.”– The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah”Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.”– leadership guru Robin Sharma“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start.”– motivational speaker Nido Qubein“For last…

“Have I read this page before?” The first person to give an explanation for déjà vu – the spooky feeling that something seems oddly familiar – was St Augustine of Hippo. Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, because he lived a life of debauchery and partying before giving it all up to become a monk. He thought déjà vu was caused by “deceitful spirits” who were trying to sow confusion. Perhaps this was because, for him, any flashbacks might be related to his sinful past. The phrase “déjà vu”, which translates as “already seen”, was coined by the 19th-century French philosopher Émile Boirac, who was the president of Dijon University but spent most of his time doing experiments on clairvoyance and mysticism. He believed déjà vu was due to emotions, and…

1. True or false? It’s possible for some people to live for months without a pulse. ❑ True ❑ False 2. True or false? Online supermarket shopping was available before the World Wide Web was invented. ❑ True ❑ False 3. Which of these best defines the word “pulchritude”? ❑ Physical beauty ❑ Terrible stench ❑ Gaudy decoration ❑ Layer of slime 4. In chess, which of these pieces has the highest relative value? ❑ Rook ❑ Bishop ❑ Knight ❑ Pawn 5. Which gothic novel’s alternative title is The Modern Prometheus? ❑ Dracula ❑ Wuthering Heights ❑ Frankenstein ❑ Jane Eyre 6. Which of these is not one of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492? ❑ Pinta ❑ Santa María ❑ Niña ❑ San Salvador 7. Which movie includes the lines: “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.” ❑ Wall Street (1987) ❑ The Social…