Comments for Terence Blacker

Comment on The green welly wallies have won by Roberto

Roberto — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:55:26 +0000

I was told by someone I used to work with who had lived in Stoke Newington all her life that there is an north by nelthwosterry arc for the professional hipster: Start in Hoxton/Shoreditch in early 20s, move up to Stoke Newington in late 20s for first batch of children, over to Crouch End and Stroud Green for when they have to start school, and finally into a pile in Hampstead when you’ve got a full compliment of grown kids and also have presumably made it’. This would certainly account for the weird lack of children over the age of 7 in Stoke Newington; the schools are, for Stokey mums, simply frightful. Apparently the only way to get into much desired Stoke Newington School is to buy a flat in the catchment area and leave it unoccupied while you carry on living in your house down the road. Alright for some!

Comment on Look back in anger management by Kyoko

Kyoko — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:29:00 +0000

I might buy it if it was expanded a bit. The resaon I say this is that my job involves failed marriages, and there are certain patterns and behaviors I see over and over and over. I need to know the why behind various stimuli and responses. One of the resaons I come to this site is because I’m looking for answers about the behavior I see. Your post about BPD was very enlightening, for example. What I want to know is why are some people unable to stand up to PA folks, and what it would take for them to deal with such people so that their lives aren’t so miserable. I see people spending decades with people who make them miserable (in more ways than just PA behavior), and I keep thinking life is too short for that crap. If your book focuses on recognizing these people and their behavior and strategies for dealing with them–and by dealing with I mean neutralizing them–or avoiding them, I would want to read it. Here is what I have noticed: a lot of those on the receiving end of unjustified anger (not just here, in the cases at work, too) react by giving in. And they seem to think that bending backwards for that person will make them magically become nicer. That’s what I don’t get: why do people think this? It never works (or maybe it does, I only see the failed marriages after all). I didn’t realize PA behavior was a woman’s thing, because the first time I learned of it a man was being diagnosed with it. I simply classified it as being a jerk. If this truly is disproportionately a woman’s defect, then you definitely have something there. I think I’m a little wary about a book from that perspective (as opposed to a strategy perspective), because it seems that these days, spelling out a given defect is used as an excuse for bad behavior as in, “Oh, sorry, I’m PA! Can’t help myself,” and then it’s like the latest victim-fad rather than a jumping off point for self-reform. I’m not sure how you can avoid that side effect, though. –Tyrian Purple

Comment on Do we really want to host the cut-price Olympics? by Maribel

Maribel — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:48:18 +0000

1. Have you heard? It is now under a year before the Olympics sipnrg into action in London and the countdown has seriously begun. I heard Eddie Izzard on Chris Evans Breakfast Show this morning inspiring the nation to join in and get excited about this once in a life timea0occurrence: the Olympics happening in our backyard.a0a0What of Social Media though, what can we expect for the Olympics? a0For the first time ever the Olympica0Committeea0are encouraging athletes to get involved via social media to share their experience of the event. There are of course some guidelines and suggestions for the participants which you can read more about over at SocialStrategy1.

Comment on The new British way of mourning by Elvira

Elvira — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:40:04 +0000

Janet,Thank you very much for your comment. I alywas wondered how the whole thing started and thanks to you and twitter now I know. It is my intention to come to Wootton Bassett at some point this year, although I don’t know when as I am still having some health issues.I have several friends in the armed services, or recently retired. From them and others I learned of the absurd lack of equipment our troops had, long before the story broke in the media. It is testament to the spirit of these people that they didn’t moan, but merely went to the shops to buy desert camo gear and even bullet proofs in one instance. The standard of equipment some units were supplied with was a very unfunny joke. Afghanistan wasn’t much better organised by many accounts. Despite these unnecessary hindrances our troops go and try and do the best job they can and then some desk jockey in London decides to slate the Army, or the armed forces generally. It makes my blood boil. If certain journalists were as quick to find out the facts and expose what was really going on then maybe more lives would have been saved.I really wish that people could separate criticising foreign policy from criticising the people whose job it is to try and carry those policies out.Best wishes to you and all your townsfolk.Dave

Comment on A nation in thrall to the tyranny of tears by Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 09 May 2012 00:18:54 +0000

Interesting. Good to see that there really is a push to raise awenerass of aspergers.But I know there will be disagreements out there but I see this as more a problem with the nature of employment, with wage labor & the treadmill; and the nature of currency, than with the condition of people with aspergers. The fact that much of civilized society seems to be built from a wage labor paradigm, doesn’t detract from the point. There is just something so wrong, so inhuman, about it.VA:F [1.9.17_1161]please wait…VA:F [1.9.17_1161](from 0 votes)

Comment on Trust teenagers to make their choices by Jefferson

Jefferson — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:33:05 +0000

I remember cynirg myself to sleep at the same age, tormented by dark-skinned children with wasted limbs and distended bellies and heads of alien proportion, who I knew, somehow, were a part of me. It’s easy to forget what it was like to see images like that for the first time and not be able to rationalise them away as we all do now to some degree.Nice review.

Comment on The snobbery and yobbery of our sporting culture by Auth

Auth — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:34:29 +0000

We’re talking about 2 very difnereft, equally great sports. We shouldn’t be running them both down. If you love American football, you should enjoy rugby. And vice versa.I think the key difference in this discussion is the element of surprise. In American football, blindside hits are a way of life. A QB looking for a receiver gets nailed in the back. A RB cutting back is met by someone coming at them with a 15 yard head of steam. A WR looking a high ball into his hands get nailed in the ribs by an attacking safety. Looking away from your potential tackler and/or blocker is a part of the game. When you do that, you are opened up to a surprise hit. And they are violent attempts to dislodge man from ball. In rugby, these same kind of hits do happen, but not with anywhere near the frequency of American football. The nature of the game & strategy puts your attacker in your line of sight most of the time. Allowing you to prepare better to be hit, & preventing a lot of the more devastating blows. Most American football could be played without pads & the result would be scrapes & bruises galore. A few breaks & what not, but there are those handful of plays each game, where the hits are so violent that, without protective gear, they are truly dangerous.One last thing for all you people who aren’t familiar with rugby. It is a sport for tough guys. No one is a skinny wimp like a lot of wide receivers or DBs. Even the smallest, fastest players are strong & tough as nails. I’ve got 2 words for you to look up on YouTube. Jonah Lomu. He would have been the #1 pick in the NFL draft almost any year. Check it out & see what you’ve been missing. Was this answer helpful?

Comment on New punctuation to hit the right note in these jazzy times by Raul

Raul — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:03:36 +0000

I absolutely agree with you, John. I have ylwaas thought there was something objectionable about adding punctuation marks to the quoted text when they are actually part of the quoting text or container. It’s just not right, there should be a law! Or at least a rule! Quoted authors should stand up together and say Stop it ! Or even Stop it! . There is a slight problem with deliberately breaking the rules, however, and it has to do with multilingual audiences and multilingual businesses. You see, there are languages such as German where the punctuation belongs outside the quotation marks (unless it is part of the quoted text). If you are in the business of writing or translating English and another language, let’s say German, you have to keep convincing the audience that you do indeed understand the rules and you’re breaking them deliberately and for a good reason. Otherwise you will end up in the league of da guys dat cant doo grammer good .BTW Along a similar line I have been know to deliberately split an infinite or two. But that’s another story, or thread.Erich

Comment on Of hedgehogs and attack dogs by Fitri

Fitri — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:44:30 +0000

You are going to LOVE Pippa! What an adorable face! My dogs are my babeis (two male Shih Tzus). I also love guinea pigs (my children’s books are about one), and my son had a pet hedgehog which was way cool. But nothing beats a dog.

Comment on Defeatism is stalking the classroom by niko

niko — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 03:34:28 +0000

So true. I grew up in a family that teendd to treat their children like they were’t quite people yet (I think this was a very common subconscious mindset for my parents’ generation). The thing is, that’s totally bogus, children are 100% sentient, fully autonomous human beings from the moment they are born. The one thing they lack from the adults is experience to understand “the why’s”.