New Zealand Listener Issue 45, 2022

Sixty years ago, as I came off air after a Radio 3XC Timaru breakfast session, my boss, Angus Millar, handed me a cyclostyled form. “You’d better sign that. It just says you accept a new employer – the NZBC.” Very soon, things were buzzing. I transferred to Wellington to work in public radio and TV in the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation’s pioneering days. We took risks, learnt skills, and followed the models of other public broadcasters to “inform, educate and entertain”, working flat out to meet the hunger for news about our own country and people. Maybe it’s an echo of our hopes, then, that makes me determinedly optimistic about the RNZ-TVNZ merger. Perhaps it is our last chance of hauling TVNZ back to the aims the NZBC began with – a…

WINNING CAPTION Ed Porter, Auckland FINALISTS Caption: Putin calls it a team-building exercise, but he is really checking that none of his lackeys have any warm blood. – Bill Grant, Napier President Vladimir Putin: “The Ouija board indicates: tomorrow we all ride naked on white horses!” – David Scott, Gisborne Caption: Vladimir Putin realises comrades have taken his order to stick together too literally. – Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Putin: “Old proverb: Many hands make fight work!” – Steve Godsiff, Timaru Putin: “You put your right arm in, you put your right arm out …” – Sara Keen, Geraldine Putin: “Contrary to popular opinion, I’m not the short straw.” – Mike Hamblyn, Dunedin Caption Competition {listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo at right to listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz, with “Caption Competition No 485” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be…

Sadly for an academic, Nigel Roberts (Upfront, October 29) is, like most of our Western commentators, selective in his facts on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. He doesn’t, for instance, mention Russian unease about the near-identical threat from US Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which were removed following the deal. And how is Vladimir Putin’s unremarkable, but quite serious, reminder of where the continual escalation of the current proxy war could lead in any way more of an active threat to use nukes than that regularly made by US leaders (“All options are on the table”) during such crises? The missing ingredient in today’s terrifying time is not a different Russian leader – Nikita Khrushchev’s rhetoric was as bad, if not worse, than Putin’s – but a cool, calm Jack Kennedy as POTUS.…

“Well, I had a long flight coming here from Hong Kong. It’s like a 15-hour flight. So I learnt [English] on the plane.”– actress Michelle Yeoh on being told she has good English“The fact that Liz Truss didn’t last as long as the lettuce highlights the issues within the government, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”– Seen on Twitter“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”–Spike Milligan“The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.”– Charlie Chaplin“Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”– Peter Drucker“I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain.”– Lily Tomlin“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.”– Isaac…

1. The inability to remember the names of people and objects is: □ Anosmia□ Anomia□ Dysthymia□ Xerostomia 2. Paris has no ‘stop’ signs. True or false? □ True□ False 3. Which actress plays the wife of Harrison Ford’s character in the original film of The Mosquito Coast? □ Helen Mirren□ Goldie Hawn□ Cher□ Glenn Close 4. Director Frank Darabont bought the rights to The Shawshank Redemption from Stephen King for what amount of money (in USD)? □ $5000□ $10,000□ $15,000□ $50,000 5. A “hand” as a measure of the height of horses is equal to: □ About 100mm□ About 150mm□ About 200mm□ About 250mm 6. How many planets in our solar system have rings? □ Two□ Three□ Four□ Five 7. The HDMI connection standard stands for: □ High Density Magnitude Interface□ High Definition Multimedia Interface□ High Data Modal Interface□ Heavy Data Massive Interface 8.…

In a few days, the US will probably experience the biggest turnout ever for a midterm election. And although the electorate has perhaps never been more divided, pretty much everyone who votes will share one common feeling: that of having swallowed a live chicken. You see, we’re a wee bit anxious over here. The smart money has US democracy making it through the 2022 election, bloodied but upright. But all bets are off for 2024, especially since the smart money will have been earmarked for anywhere-but-America getaways for the democracy lovers among us, just in case the orange-headed halfwit manages to win or cheat his way back into the White House. But progressives like me aren’t the only ones shaking in their voting booth boots. MAGA Republicans have so many things to…