Quips & Quotes

“You’re on Wordle, I’m on my 30th attempt to guess my own password.” – seen on Twitter

“Everyone’s still talking about the amazing half-time show starring Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. Two legends of hardcore gangsta rap – or as the kids call them today, Martha Stewart’s friend and the headphones guy.” – Stephen Colbert

“Banning conversion therapy is a milestone for New Zealand, but that is not the destination. We must stop the erasure of queer people in all parts of the world.” – Shaneel Lal, founder of End Conversion Therapy NZ

“Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.” – Ricky Gervais

“I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.” – Phyllis Diller

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humour and hurt.”

– Erma Bombeck

“An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly is looking for a way to get out.” – George Jean Nathan

“When I see four men out to dinner, I’m like, ‘Who planned this?’” – seen on Twitter

“A date is an experience you have with another person that makes you appreciate being alone.” – Larry David the goodwill of others.

Our cessation of exploration could cause a major breakdown of society and perhaps needs to be reconsidered. The idea of more hydroelectric dams and even a large nuclear power station near Auckland should also be on the table.

Even the much-vaunted hydrogen will rely on burning hydrocarbons and increasing CO2 levels.

Neville Cameron

(Coromandel)

Amid the blame being trotted out for the closure of production at the refinery, including Robin Gunston’s misogynistic Upfront, in which he points the finger at the chief executive and Minister of Energy – gosh, how could those women possibly understand the blokes’ world of oil? – the fact is shareholders decided its fate.

The oil companies, currently Z Energy, Mobil and BP, are by far the biggest shareholders, with nearly 50% of the shares between them – in reality, a controlling interest. The finger-pointing should be directed straight at them.

Neil Anderson

(Algies Bay)

There was more than a whiff of misogyny about Gunston’s opinion piece. By characterising the refinery as a female baby, he cast the chief executive and minister as unfeminine, unnatural and savage. To Gunston,

I say, perhaps it takes the courage, the difference, of women to make better decisions for the common good over privatised profit.

As for the closure coming “before her time”, if you haven’t noticed, the world is on fire. Big fossils seek even now to extract profits; their time needs to be over. That happens by exchanging oil rigs and refineries for clean infrastructure and technologies.

Their names weren’t mentioned, but chief executive Naomi James and minister Megan Woods should be applauded for their courageous leadership.

Melissa Firth

(Auckland)

ARTIST’S VISION

Fred Muller ( Letters, March 12) says the Hundertwasser Art Centre is not true to the artist’s

vision, which was to refashion the old Harbour Board building it replaced.

We would have loved to refashion the building as it was, but it became apparent it was unsafe and impractical to do so. To maintain the artist’s ethos, almost everything recyclable from the old building went into the new building.

Andrew Garratt

Former project director, Hundertwasser Art Centre

(Whangārei)

REPUBLICAN SENTIMENT

Further to Stephen Davis’ fashionably Republican yet utterly dour piece on the Queen upon the discovery of a photo of him in Her Madge’s presence ( Reality Check, February 26), it struck me that every other person in that crowded shot was either ecstatic or awestruck.

And then there was Davis. I know he lives in Dunners, and that being jolly is probably a crime doon there, but please could someone give the man a hug and a warm mug of Ovaltine? Justin Abbiss

(Queenstown)

BUILTIN GREEN SPACE

Rather than Craig Williams ( Health,

March 12) hoping planners of intensive “suburban” housing will recognise the importance of accessible green spaces, perhaps it should be mandatory for such developments to have an outdoor green space for the occupiers. Especially for those with limited mobility, who would need to drive their car (horrors!) to a park to get their all-important green fix. Maureen Lee

(Auckland)

CORRECTION

Alec Waugh ( Letters, March 12) is from Richmond, not Christchurch.