Friday, February 24, 2012

Do you want fries with your Fryday?


The fourth biggest burger chain in the world has been accused of targeting poor New Zealanders. The basis of the complaint, from Wai Community Board chair Derek Battersby, is that Carl’s Jr. is opening stores in “deprived” areas such as Glen Innes, Takanini and Avondale. Oh? They can’t be all that deprived if they have a Carl’s Jr., Helensville doesn’t have one. Mr Battersby’s concern, and for this we can read assumption, is that low socio-economic groups—deprived groups—will be more susceptible to the high calorie intake/menu offered by Carl’s Jr., which boasts by the way a foot long cheeseburger. Mr Battersby recommends what today seems the all-too omnipresent panacea of all perceived ills: “a campaign to educate people about fast food.” Just another case, I suggest, of everybody wanting to teach somebody something. And like every other education campaign, other than Drink-Drive, unlikely to make one iota of difference. Anyway, Mr Battersby’s so-called deprived persons are not being targeted by Carl’s Jr.—they haven’t even opened a store in Hamilton—fast food is targeted by deprived persons—and most everyone else as well. It’s the way the world is. Mr Battersby may not like it, but there is little use in him not accepting it.


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Now playing: Kris Kristofferson - Broken Freedom Song
via FoxyTunes

Friday, February 10, 2012

The Con, The Com and the Kims


Two Kims have figured prominently in Fryday’s life of late, the first with pleasure the second vicariously. Our friend Kim Gordon and her husband Glenn gave birth to their first child, Lola. From the photographs I have seen Lola looks a delightful little baby and, even if she is giving a Kim a few sleepless nights that suggest the baby could be more aptly named Barry, Kim and Glenn are still wonderfully blessed. Congratulations.
The other Kim is also a baby, a big bear of a baby: Kim Dotcom. I knew nothing of him before the police raid on his Coatsville rented mansion, but I have taken a fascinated, vicarious and voyeuristic interest since. Who hasn’t? Go on, admit you have. This is not how the other half live; this is how the other 0.00007% live. Not for the likes of you and me. And am I full of envy? Of course I am. They say that money can’t buy happiness. That is so much BS. Of course it can; it can also apparently buy you a prison term but that is another story. One sidebar story was that Mr Dotcom has been refused bail because he posed a flight risk and allegedly had the resources to falsify the necessary documentation—presumably a passport. Hello? The guy is six foot zillion—are you going to tell me that Emigration won’t recognise the differentiation, discrepancy and distinction between the imposing figure in front of them and whomever the passport identifies? I am not saying let him out; but really this reason, if alone, is such a crock.
I am ambivalent about Dotcom. I know nothing of him, other than of his lifestyle. I have never used his on-line service—never knew it existed. I am in no position to judge him, nor would I want to. What I can say is that for however brief a moment Kim Dotcom added interest to an otherwise fairly dreary summer.
Kim and Glenn Gordon would not have thought it dreary I think; summer gave them the most blessed gift possible. But for the rest of us it’s somewhat worrying that Kim Dotcom and his mansionarial machinations are all we got.


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Now playing: Neil Young - Someone's Gonna Rescue You
via FoxyTunes

Friday, February 3, 2012

Whetu Calls: The gift that keeps on giving.


HE: Kia Ora Bro.
ME: Kia Ora.
HE: Happy New Year, cuz.
ME: And to you too, Whetu.
HE: Got the place lookin’ nice.
ME: Thank you.
HE: The old lady well?
ME: Yes. Yours?
HE: Dunno. Hasn’t seen her for days. You going to write about Waitangi this Fryday, Bro?
ME: Don’t see why I should. Doesn’t interest me really. Why?
HE: ‘Cause if you was I could save you sending the koha up there. I could collect it here.
ME: This is the koha that Maori are charging the media to write about the Waitangi celebrations?
HE: Not charging, bro; expectin'.
ME: Well I am not writing about Waitangi, so I am not payin'…paying.
HE: You are not writing about Waitangi?
ME: No not at all.
HE: You are not even going to mention it at all?
ME: No.
HE: Not once?
ME: No.
HE: Four times…
(PAUSE)
ME: How much?
HE: Fifty bucks should do it…Kia Ora bro.
ME: Happy New Year Whetu.


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Now playing: The Byrds - Ballad OF Easy Rider
via FoxyTunes

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