"Australian kids are failing at maths"

 

 

I just read this headline in the ABC online news - click here - which continues, "Australian schools require an investment of one and a half billion dollars over the next decade and an overhaul of 'faddish' teaching practice to reverse the nation's chronic maths failure, according to new research."

What's so bad about chronic maths failure? It goes well with chronic reading and writing failure! I don't know about 'faddish' teaching practices; perhaps we could save ourselves the investment of one and a half billion dollars by simply burning certain kindergarten books.

And while we were at it, we could also put a match to John Howard's autobiography, "Lazarus Rising", "Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM", Mark Latham's "The Latham Diaries", Julia Gillard's memoir, "My Story", and anything Albanese may be planning to stitch together about his deprived Housing Commission childhood.

 

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A long night followed by a long day

 

Perry Street Cinemas

 

We went and saw "The Friend" at the Batemans Bay cinema last night, but we might as well have stayed home. as it was a pretty forgettable kind of a movie. It was 'nice' but not the sort of movie you take something away from after two hours, which is what I expect after having spent that much time with a movie or a book. It certainly wasn't worth the forty dollars we spent on the two tickets - mine was 'Concession' after I flashed them my Seniors Card! - and after we had stocked up on drinks and popcorn. We always spend a little more when we go into an empty restaurant or café because we feel sorry for the slow trade they are having, and 'slow trade' it was for the cinema as we were the only two!

 

 

Today we drove twenty-five clicks south to Moruya to Padma's GP for a bloodtest, and then fifty clicks north to Ulladulla for lunch and to visit our favourite op-shops, of which there are four: The Uniting Church, Vinnies, SALVOS, and the Lions Preloved Bookshop, although I should point out that it is not the bookshop that is preloved (as the sign seems to imply) but the books in it, of which I bought nine (see below) for thirty dollars, which is less than the price of one as yet unloved book.

 

 

The SALVOS had sprung a surprise on me: all their books were divided into male and female authors, which somehow made my selection easier as I hadn't read anything interesting by a female author since Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (who shortened it to Miles Franklin to help her overcome the kind of bias I am displaying here). Among the 'Male Authors' I spotted a book by Robert Dessaix who is a homosexual and has been living with HIV for a long time but who, with current medication, should, I hope, write many more books, as I enjoy his way with words.

 

 

On the way out, I offered the SALVOS lady my usual ten-dollar donation in addition to the pittance she asked for the books - among them Daniel Klein's "Travels with Epicurus" which I would like to give to a friend as a present - and the suggestion that she should start a separate shelf for transgender authors lest she runs foul of the woke mob. She promised to have it in place before my next visit which won't be until next month.

Oh, and I did find a six-CD audiobook of Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman", written before her only other published novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird", which was also made into a movie with Gregory Peck.

Am I all set for the weekend? You bet!

 

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• "Woe is I - The grammarphobe's guide to better English in plain English" by Patricia T. O'Conner
  
• "There Are Tittles in this Title - The weird world of words" by Mitchell Symons
  
• "The Story of English in 1000 Words" by David Crystal
  
• "The History of Britain Revealed - The shocking truth about the English language" by M.J. Harper
  
• "Origins of the Specious - Myths and misconceptions of the English Language" by Patricia T. O'Conner (another one by her!)
  
• "Alphabet Juice - The energies, gists, and spirits of letters, words, and combinations thereof" by Roy Blount Jr.
  
• "The Word" by William Lane
  
• "The Harbour - A city's heart, a country's soul" by Scott Bevan
  
• "Departures & Arrivals" by Eric Newby
  

(I have been known to spend the whole seven hours of a Sydney-to-Bali flight reading a book about words and getting drunk on it, while my compatriots on the same flight got absolutely stoned on the real stuff and ran the risk of being deported before they had even arrived. So after another word-lover had donated his books to the Lions Preloved Bookshop, I was happy to re-home seven of them. "The Harbour" and "Departures & Arrivals" nicely counterbalance all that wordy reading.)

 

The Little House in the Prairie Country

 

 

This old black-and-white picture - taken in the late 50s - of the "Landheim" (country cottage) belonging to the "Fahrenden Gesellen", a "Wandervogel" group I belonged to as a youngster in Germany, brings back many memories.

It was just 28 kilometres outside my hometown Braunschweig and I walked, hitchhiked, and cycled to it a hundred times (and a couple of times by train to a small "Dorfbahnhof" - Rietze? - from where I hiked along the "Alte Heerstraße" to reach the "Celler Landstraße" and "Kilometerstein 28,6" where I left the road to walk across "Spargelfelder" to arrive at the "Landheim"), alone or with "Kameraden", and the weeks and weekends spent there are forever part of my memories.

 

 

They, the "Fahrenden Gesellen", recently celebrated their 100th anniversary which they commemorated with the publication of a "Festschrift" of old photos, stories, and documents which I promptly ordered.

"Es lebe der Bund!"

 

Das Landheim

 

From the book "100 Jahre Fahrende Gesellen - 1909-2009", page 49:

"In den 1950er Jahren entdeckte Heinz Radtke 30 km nördlich von Braunschweig eine alte Spargelbude, umgeben von kleinen Wäldchen, Heidefeldern und Äckern, die nun leer stand und verfiel. Für 40 DM im Jahr wurde sie gepachtet und von den Jungen über zwei Jahre lang an jedem Wochenende ausgebaut, denn aus den Wänden des Fachwerkbaus war viel herausgefallen, ebenso schaute durch das Dach der Mond. Es wurde gesägt, gemauert, gehämmert, gebastelt, neu verputzt und das Dach gedeckt." [Translation]

 

Einweihungsfeier

 

"Endlich konnte die Einweihung gefeiert werden. Neben Gaugrafen und Bundesleiter hatte sogar die Stadt ein Ratsmitglied geschickt. Es wurde ein schönes Fest, ohne Alkohol! Man trank Kaffee, lachte, sang Lieder und kratzte sich, denn die Mücken eines nahen Sumpfes waren uneingeladen auch gekommen. Den Gästen konnte ein Raum mit drei Fenstern gezeigt werden, 5 x 3 m groß, mit Tisch, Stühlen, Schrank, alles umgebaut nach unserem Geschmack. Ein Kochherd und sogar eine Pumpe waren da. Über dem Tagesraum war der Dachboden mit Matratzen zum Schlafen eingerichtet." [Translation]

 

The last "Fahrende Geselle" I am still in contact with in Braunschweig, Armin Stiller, marked the probable location at the top of the map with "Lan"

 

"Viele Jahre diente dieses Landheim den Jungen und auch manchem Altgesellen zur Erholung vom Großstadtlärm. Hier wurden auch Gau-, Mannschaftstreffen und Osterlager veranstaltet. Nach zehn Jahren lief der Pachtvertrag ab, und ab Anfang der 1970er Jahre gab es auch keine Jungengruppe mehr in Braunschweig." [Translation]

 

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P.S. More links here and here and here.

 

Saint Jack

 

What a brilliant movie! Now read the book at www.archive.org

 

Politically, Singapore is as primitive as Burundi, with repressive laws, paid informers, a dictatorial government, and jails full of political prisoners." Which is how Paul Theroux ranted about Singapore in his 1973 book "The Great Railway Bazaar", by which time it had been his home for three years, from 1968 to 1971, teaching English at the National University of Singapore.

It was also the setting for his first Asian novel, "Saint Jack", published later that same year. It was good he was elsewhere when it appeared, because Singapore's government didn't like the novel or its author any more than he liked the government, and banned the book.

It sold moderately elsewhere, until Peter Bogdanovich turned it into one of his best movies, shot on a low budget and on location. A phony script for a film called "Jack of Hearts" was submitted to obtain the official approval and this is what the Singaporeans on the cast and crew were told they were shooting as the cameras recorded the true grit of the waterfront, street markets, and notorious Bugis Street. The film, of course, was banned in Singapore when it was released in 1979.

"Saint Jack" tells the story of an affable American pimp who helped American GI's find companionship while on R&R in Singapore during the Vietnam War. Theroux has never said he knew any such individual, but his years of residence in Singapore give the novel a ring of truth.

Watching it decades after I had visited Singapore repeatedly while stationed in Rangoon in what was then Burma, it has more than a ring of truth about it: it is exactly how I remember Singapore from my days there in 1975 and again when my Saudi boss sent me back several times in the early 80s to supervise his transshipments through Sembawang.

 

 

Since then the world has changed, and so has Singapore, but a kindly soul, Toh Hun Ping of Singapore Film Locations Archive, went to the extraordinary trouble of splicing together yesteryear's street scenes in "Saint Jack" with today's equivalents. Thanks for the memories, Hun Ping!

 

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Are you a "dog person"?

 

 

I agree with Mark Twain who said, "The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog", even though after the death of our two Maltese I can no longer use the possessive determiner. If you are a "dog person" like me, you can't afford NOT to see "The Friend", a comedic drama about a woman in New York who inherits a great dane she really does not want.

 

 

I don't think I can wait until the DVD turns up at Vinnies, so I checked with the Perry Street Cinema in the Bay and they are showing it there.

WHOO-HOO!

 

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