Quips& Quotes

“Cholesterol: Democracy’s only hope.” – anti-Trump banner

“I love how all the solutions to NZ’s struggling media industry are just gluing two media companies together. It’s like, ‘Hey, Dick Smith is failing, but don’t worry, there’s an interested buyer, Video Ezy!’” – comedian Guy Williams

“The Big Mac is now served without the Big Cheese.” – the Financial Times on the firing of McDonald’s CEO

“Fair play to her because she’s the only mother ever to follow through on cancelling a birthday party for bad behaviour.” – blogger Sarah Duggers on the Queen cancelling Prince Andrew’s 60th birthday bash

“He certainly wouldn’t have got a visa.” – Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on Jesus

“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain

“Gardening is not a rational act.” – Margaret Atwood

“Press secretary Stephanie Grisham explained that Trump decided to get parts of his physical done early because he had a ‘free weekend in Washington’. Okay, that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. [Imitating Trump] ‘Hmm, let’s see, I’ve got the day off. I could spend it with my children – not really my thing. Uh, with my wife?

No, she hates me. Uh, my friends? All in jail. Uh, tell you what: I’ll just go to the hospital and have them stick me with needles, just to feel something.’” – Stephen Colbert

To meet a particular Paris agreement ... or protecting the lives of you and your communities?”

Has Muller forgotten the commitment to the agreement, which aims to limit greenhouse-gas emissions, made by the former National government? He should have told the protesting farmers that the Paris accord is crucial to protecting farmers’ lives, rural communities and New Zealanders. Dolores Janiewski (Highbury, Wellington)

The forests and grasslands of Portugal, Canada, California and Australia are on fire.

More than a generation ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change alerted humanity to what Greta Thunberg succinctly summarised with the words that “our house is on fire”.

The narrow and even temperature range of the Holocene enabled agriculture and civil society. The carbon-dense Anthropocene and its sharp temperature increase have interrupted and permanently put an end to that. Agriculture and civil society have run out of time – our house and our garden are on fire.

Glib intergenerational namecalling, party politicking and squabbling nation states are all inappropriate responses to this global existential crisis. David McGill (Aro Valley, Wellington)

FUTURE FARMING

The 2014 book Farmageddon brings to my mind an image from 85 years ago as if it had been photographed and filed. My father, in his Sunday suit, is walking his herd of six cows home for milking up an Irish country lane, one hand on the handlebar of his bicycle and the other resting between the horns of his old lead cow. She might have been 15 years old but she milked as ever and was loved as one of our family.

And I read with fear and horror of the megadairies proliferating in California and spreading worldwide, each with thousands of cows forcemilked to early deaths and disposal as hamburger meat

– if they can just walk to the saleyard.

We are at risk in New Zealand. We are lucky we have time, perhaps only short, in which to look where we are going. It is right that farmers be held to account, but only if we at the periphery of food production accept our responsibilities for the system in which we live. Change is certain. But change has many options and we can still choose. John O’Neill (Dargaville)

DRUGS ON THE BOX

It is incorrect to state that overactive bladder is a madeup condition that used to be called urge incontinence (“As seen on TV”, November 9). Urge incontinence is simply

one of several symptoms that may result from overactive bladder.

As a condition, overactive bladder is responsible for a major drop in quality of life for many principally elderly women. It is true that treatment with anticholinergic drugs such as detrusitol or the more recent solafenacin is imperfect, but they do play a useful role.

And contrary to the view that anticholinergic drugs are linked to dementia, leading international geriatric opinion says there is no convincing evidence of that, and it is just that dementia is common in the age group affected by overactive bladder. Patrick Meffan (Nelson)

The article on the issue of advertising prescription medicines was interesting, but in the end it comes down to something simple: the point of advertising is to increase sales and make money. The fact that we and the US are the only countries in the world to allow it tells you a lot. I think we have been negligent to have allowed it for so long. Yvonne Summers (Levin)

RATS TO THAT

In regard to Goodnature’s self-reloading rat trap ( Technology, November 9), the ability to check its kill rate from a distance is all very well, but what eats the dead? How many generations of pests are surviving on the carcasses?

My son-in-law has been setting 10 traps and checking them daily and disposing of the dead. In five weeks, he has trapped and disposed of 120 rats. Imagine how many other pests that number could have fed. Gaelynn Gibbs (Tongaporutu)

BLAIRY EYED

I enjoy and generally agree with Andrew Anthony’s take on UK politics ( Bulletin), and that was mostly true of his November 23 instalment on the choice between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

But I disagree with him on

Tony Blair as being Labour’s most successful prime minister. That accolade surely belongs to Clement Attlee.

The post-war Labour government’s domestic policies radically transformed Britain. It embraced internationalism, including presiding over decolonisation.

Attlee may not have won as many elections as Blair (three) or Harold Wilson (four), but by any historical analysis, his government’s achievements were far greater. Simon Tendeter (Wellington)

SONNY BILL’S HIGH TACKLES

I do not agree that in his last game for the All Blacks, the Rugby World Cup playoff against Wales, Sonny Bill Williams “gained new admirers and disarmed critics” ( Sport, November 16). What he did demonstrate, after a decade in rugby, was his inability to tackle legally when he made a head-high stop in the 55th minute. This deficiency was apparent from his first game of rugby, for Toulon in 2008, when he was yellow-carded for a shoulder charge.

SBW’s significant contribution to rugby initially was his ability to offload. But, for the past five or more years, many other players have been just as skilful at this. Take, for example, the many excellent offloads by Brodie Retallick. Doug Dallimore (St Heliers, Auckland)