DO YOU REMEMBER THIS? ...

... from The Godfather.

Michael Corleone taking Apollonia out on a 'date' and the couple followed by the chaperoning family.

 

Robert posted a photo of him out on a date in The Philippines. I was struck by the similarity.

WELL, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

 In the comments on Richard's latest post, Robert said:

"Have you been to confession? There were plenty going after Mass this morning. No one would have noticed you if you sat next to the lady with the restless child."

I replied with:

"Is The Lady With The Restless Child another of those paintings or statues of The Virgin Mary?

Later on I wondered if there ever had been something like that and, blow me down found this:

The painting is 'La Vierge au lys', also known as 'The Madonna of the Lilies' - an 1899 oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 

Its main claim to fame is this according to Google search:

"The classic spoof painting commonly referred to as "Our Lady of the Restless Child" is actually a real, unedited 1899 oil painting titled La Vierge au lys (The Virgin of the Lilies) by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
While intended as a serious, beautiful piece of religious art, the painting went viral on social media as a meme because of the baby's funny, hyperactive expression and aggressive stance.

Why the Painting Became a Meme
The "Restless" Energy: While Mary looks completely serene and at peace, the infant Jesus is squirming out of her arms with his arms flung wide and a wild look in his eyes.
The Relatable Parenting Humor: Parents widely share the painting to jokingly describe the struggle of trying to hold a hyperactive, wriggling toddler who is determined to escape.
The Contrast: The ultimate humor comes from the dramatic contrast between traditional, solemn religious imagery and the universal chaos of everyday parenting"

I always knew that Robert's posts and comments were strange but now it seems that they are stranger than fiction.

A QUICKIE SATURDAY MORNING POST

 I took my foot for a test run this morning - actually a walk - as It was feeling less sore.

I did about 6 kms but then decided to get a bus back home so as not to aggravate it.

In Cuba Street I felt like an ice cream but Duck Island was closed and the other one I went to didn't sell ice cream at all. Note: a bit of advice here. Peaches 'n' Cream is NOT an ice cream shop (maybe an "I scream" shop). The readers should not make my mistake and go there although Richard would be OK as he's going to Hell anyway but Robert would have to spend the rest of his mortal life in Confession.

WHEN YOU'RE (NOT YOUR) THAT GUY

I like this apart from its (not it's) obvious Americanism. It reminds me of someone ...

People who fix other people's grammar are often called pedants, nitpickers, or grammar Nazis.

It's (not its) annoying because:

• It misses the point.
• It interrupts the flow of the 'conversation'.
• It can be arrogant and bullying. 

If a message is understood then criticising a simple typo shows you care more about showing off than actually listening and the interruption can be construed as being rude.

What's funny though is that the grammar Nazi often misspells a word or messes up their own punctuation in the very same comment that they publish.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING INTERESTING*

 * "Thank you for your post.
 Now, with the next post, you just need to work on making it interesting."

- RICHARD OF RICHARD'S BASS BAG

Well, be careful of what you ask for.

I guess most of you will be familiar with the Moving House and similar TV series.

I've watched a few programmes and found the huge trucks and the developing technology interesting.

We had a closehand view of it last night when two huge trucks moved two large classroom buildings from the school across the road from our house. They had to manoeuvre them out the school gate, beneath trees to make a tight right hand turn onto our narrow street with cars parked either side. As far as I could see no damage was done and they get away alright. The exercise took about 40 minutes.

Now that was interesting.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE *

 * Not that trite platitude that Americans have been using for the last 10 years relating to US servicemen and which, unbelievably is being used in New Zealand by fools who do everything by rote even platitudes. It's up there with "Have a nice day" and "Missing you already". Robert's silly Catholic "I love you" is just as bad.

Now Richard will probably accuse me of being an old moaner and wanting to pick fights with everyone like Mike at the tennis club, inconsiderate drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, telecom industry personnel, bank employees, tradesmen, supermarket cashiers, other supermarket shoppers, people who use their phones at the cinema and many others including bus drivers who I mentioned in this recent post here: NO THANKS

Talking of bus drivers, this morning, as it was raining and because my foot is still sore I decided to take a bus to Willis Street. I walked down to Thorndon Quay, crossed the road to the bus stop and luckily saw a bus coming along. I and a woman at the bus stop waved at the driver to signal that we wanted him to stop but he just sailed past without making any effort to pull into the official stop. It was in service, displayed a number 3 destination and had passenger onboard. Bastard!

I'll be thinking twice about thanking the bus drivers as I exit the buses in future.

Sheesh!

THE ONE TRUE RELIGION

 

I watched this film last night on Netflix. It's quite good and well worth a look.

Robert might have to get approval from the Vatican to watch it but, given that it exposes Catholicism along with all other religions as nonsense then that permission is unlikely to be granted.

It's a psychological horror film about two Mormon missionaries who pay a home visit to a man who showed interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). He debates (lectures) religious history with them before things take a nasty turn.

In a way it's a bit like Richard and me discussing with Robert the inconsistencies of Christianity and Catholicism in particular without of course the 'nasty turn'.

You readers will like the heretic's (Hugh Grant) overview of the 'big three' religions - Catholicism, Islam and Judaism and the connecting the dots he does.

I see on-line that the film is receiving positive reviews although the churches are a bit miffed by it:

Church responses

The LDS Church released a statement condemning the film's portrayal of violence against women. They then posted an article on missionary safety, intended to "assist journalists and the public with questions and concerns regarding the safety and well-being of missionaries". A number of former Latter-day Saints praised the film as a realistic and nuanced portrayal of missionaries.

Writing in 'The Christian Post', the Christian apologist Robin Schumacher noted that Mr. Reed became "his own god and asserting control over those around him—something that is indeed frightening". Schumacher concludes that Mr. Reed's behaviour in the film was consistent with Fyodor Dostoevsky's dictum: "Without God all things are permitted." Schumacher did criticize the film, however, for Mr. Reed spouting the claims of the Christian myth theory. In the same vein, Bret Eckelberry, in his review for 'Plugged In', critiques 'Heretic' for presenting this "poorly evidenced fringe hypothesis widely rejected by both Christian and secular scholars" as "something new and shocking."

Watch it!

MISCELLANEOUS ...

 ...  Or, as those wi* from the "Nui would put it: 🚀 *.

Miscellaneous #1

New World supermarket.

Last week as I was buying groceries a pushy woman (PW) customer at the checkout behind loaded all of her shit close to my good stuff on the conveyor belt. There was no divider to put down. As I was watching the cashier scan items I saw that at the end of my stuff she had scanned the first of PW's stuff - a $9.95 charge for McCain's frozen pizza slices. Shit in fact. I make my own pizzas. I alerted the cashier and she put the item back amongst PW's crap and I assumed cancelled the entry. 

Yesterday when I found the till receipt in my jacket pocket I checked it and there was a $9.95 charge for pizza slices. I went on-line to request a refund but found the website process difficult and when I did manage to find a portal there wasn't enough allowance for characters for me to explain the reason for the refund request.

I then found a phone number to ring and after a long wait explained to the person at the other end what I wanted only to discover that he dealt with on-line purchase problems only.

I found another link to complaints and re-entered everything that I said initially on the website form and sent the request away. To where I don't know. It might as well have been to Mars as I received no acknowledgement of acceptance and today no follow-up email. Bummer.

Today I decided to go to the store in person (which I didn't do yesterday as my foot was sore.) Today I had to go out anyway to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy which isn't far from the supermarket. I was prepared for an argument only to discover that the guy manning the customer service booth was very helpful and immediately processed the credit to my bank card. He also told me that as the error was a scanning error on their part the policy is the credit double the amount so I received a $19.90 credit! Remember - it pays to keep take your receipt when they ask and keep it for a few days just in case.

Miscellaneous #2

The doctors.

Last week I requested a repeat of my medicines and, after a few days received a notice that the 4 items were approved and that they were available from the pharmacy. Last Friday I went to the pharmacy only to discover that 2 of the 4 items were dispensed. When I queried it they said I had to order again via the doctors. I went on-line again to the doctors via Manage My Health and requested again the missing items. On Monday of this week I received a reply from the doctors saying that the request was rejected as the initial request had been processed.

Yesterday I marched limped to the pharmacy with the copies of the initial prescription request (4 items) that were marked as approved, the prescription receipt from the pharmacy (2 items) and the rather snippy response to my second request from the doctor saying that the request was rejected AS IT HAD BEEN PROCESSED DAYS EARLIER! I spent a half an hour with the pharmacist and his assistants trying to get a resolution with no success. They said that they only received an order for 2 items and the doctors maintained that they had sent an order for 4.

I went next to the doctors surgery which fortunately is next door to the pharmacy. I then spent another 10 minutes explaining the situation and then had to wait to see a 'clinical' nurse. I explained it all to her and she looked up the details on the computer. This showed my initial request and the doctor's approval of 4 items and the order of 4 items to the pharmacy. It was then that the nurse said that they have been having problems with the computer system and glitches were occuring. She promised to request the prescription again, urgently from the doctor who was at that moment busy with a patient. "I'm more than a patient" I thought "I'm impatient" but thanked her and made my way home.

Today I received an alert from the doctors surgery and the pharmacy conforming the availability of the 2 items which I collected before going to the supermarket.

The result was positive but the downside in this in time and stress is unacceptable. It's just as well that I'm so easy-going.

* Half 'wits'

ATHEISTIC DEVIL MAN

Robert has taken a new tack and instead of going about loving everyone including sinners he has gone on the offensive like that old version of god who likes to drown people. In recent comments he has said:

"Bullshit. Get a life atheistic devil man."

"Get a life and start posting how wonderful atheism is."

He did say this and here's proof with screenshots as he will delete his blogs and comments soon:

I kind of like being called an atheistic devil man. It's better than "Hey you!" or "Stop thief!" I guess.

Apart from the interesting image it conjures up ...

...  the paradox in Robert's statement intrigues me.

He has mixed the religious representation of evil - the devil - with the platform of rejecting religion and the supernatural - atheism.

"Well done that man!" as Father McCann (a living manifestation of the devil if ever there was one) would have said. 

At least Robert is being consistent in his contradictions.

WHAT'S HAPPENNING AROUND THE BLOGS #2

"I went to confession and received Jesus twice. Feeling good and ready for Heaven"

- Robert 

That statement could be misinterpreted and you have to be careful with the spelling of his new blog name.