donning the fake-copycat-cake

Idiot trump is in the big house now and he and his team are classic dims. One of the few highlights this year will be watching trump make a bigger fool of himself - it will be a daily event because he really is a self absorbed dickhead. He has no style, he has no class, and his team are worse than him.

The cake episode is a good example

Amid the glitz of President Donald Trump's inaugural festivities, one item stood out in particular late Friday night: a spectacular nine-tier cake that the new president and Vice President Mike Pence cut into with a sword.To pastry chef Duff Goldman, the cake seemed a little too familiar - because it looked almost exactly like one he had made years earlier for Barack Obama's second inauguration as president.

Oh dear - but could it actually be almost exactly the same?

On Saturday morning, Tiffany MacIsaac, owner of Washington's Buttercream Bakeshop, stepped forward to say she had been the one to create the much-talked-about cake.She said that the order came in while she was out of town, and that the client had brought in a photo of the cake from Obama's inauguration asking her to recreate it."They came to us a couple of weeks ago, which is pretty last minute, and said, 'We have a photo that we would like to replicate,'" MacIsaac told The Washington Post by phone. Her bakery tried to encourage the client to use the photo as "inspiration," as they do with many others, she said."They said, 'Nope, they want this exact cake. It's perfect.' And we said, great," MacIsaac said.

EXACTLY the same - why the hell would you do that unless you lack imagination and a few other things - so indicative of trump and his team - just like Melania plagiarised Michelle Obama speech and rick astley's song. Trump is just going through the motions - he is a liar. And he can't take the ridicule he so justly deserved - so that is where some of my fear comes from - as trump is ridiculed he will turn viciously on those who score points off him. And yep I'm talking really nazti. There will be blood on the streets before a month is out imo.

Back to this copycake though - the funniest and most poignant aspect is this

MacIsaac said the attention caught her by surprise partly because, per the order, the Trump cake was intended to be more of a prop: All but a three-inch slice at the bottom was inedible."It's just a Styrofoam cake. It's not for eating," she said. "I wasn't expecting it to be seen on TV."

It is a fake cake for a fake president. So fitting.

translations of funny

You've got to laugh - I've never looked up policeman on the excellent Māori Dictionary but it has all changed now into a more 'accurate' description lol.

NZH

Lee Baker, who moved to New Zealand from Britain 11 years ago, said the sentence showed a disdain for authority and could be misconstrued as police-bashing.

Original
pirihi
(loan) (noun) policeman, police.
Ki te kitea te pirihi, he kawe tamana mai, warena hopu tangata ranei, ka kikia atu te kumu, ka pakarutia te warena, ka panaia atu ia.
If a policeman is seen bringing a summons or an arrest warrant, he'll be kicked in the backside, the warrant screwed up and he'll be thrown out. See also pirihimana.

New
pirihi
(loan) (noun) policeman, police - word now obsolete.
Ka mau aua tangata i nga pirihi, a kei roto aua tangata i te herehere i naianei.
Those men were caught by the police and they are in prison now. See also pirihimana.

It is great Lee that you are teaching your children te reo Māori, well done! But the original was funny and the response from the police to this is also very funny

A spokesman said, "While such comments are unhelpful, the police strongly value their relationship with Maori and our focus continues to be on building positive relationships with tangata whenua through our work in communities across the country."

That's a real "yeah, nah" on that one police spokesperson.

instead of a handshake

Sometimes the bigots are so over the top that they parody themselves and just sound funny and well a bit idiotic and such is the case with a recent visitor, "the right-wing (Krarup is a member of parliament for the Danish People's Party, which is described as a very right-wing party by political commentators)" Danish politician, Marie Krarup.I added all the bits together to get the point across - this is from a "an opinion piece in Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende",

Stuff

" ...dubbing the powhiri an "uncivilised" ritual, and marae a "grotesque" mark of multicultural worship." "When we came to a naval base, we were not received with a handshake or salute by uniformed men as usual," she wrote. "No, we were welcomed with a Maori dance ritual, with a half-naked man in grass skirt, shouting and screaming in Maori." and she said the man performed "strange rituals and poked his tongue out."She said she felt like an "idiot" when giving a hongi, When it was time to sing, Krarup said the waiata sounded like a Danish children's song about a happy ladybird. She said it was accompanied by a "kindergarten-teacher-guitar-accompaniment".The marae, or "Maori temple", was a form of cultural self-destruction, according to Krarup."It was decorated with God-figures with angry faces and large erect penises," she said."It's a mystery to me how the poor naval officers could endure both the ceremony and the surroundings."

a happy ladyird - hmm okay, large erect penises - hmmmmm oKay now we get it. And it is quite alright for this Danish person to have her views - who cares - it is just funny to see them all in a pile, sitting together, stacked up. It is also useful to know that these extreme right wing funny thinking people are in many countries not just here.

DOC heavy duty tramping nappies

New sign on Routeburn Track

"People walking the Routeburn track need nappies for the trip, according to bogus, yet realistic, Department of Conservation signs.

Printed on cardboard in the familiar green and yellow colours, the signs bear even the authentic department and Great Walks logos.

But that is where the similarities end, with messages advising people to wear nappies and directing people to a public toilet up a steep rock face."

I'm a fan of absurd humour. Good on you.

Routeburn view

Spammers use maori - they are low

Hasn't SPAM increased. Bloody hell - look at this one

"Hello marty mars

You received the following message from : emmanuelkona (emmanuelkona@hotmail.fr)

At: http://www.maori.org.nz/papa_panui/

Dear,

I take the liberty of writing you this very confidential mail. I implore you to give it your maximum attention as the contents are in absolute good faith.

For avoidance of doubts, my name is Barrister Kouevi Emmanuel Kona, I was personal attorney to late engineer Joseph Waikato Ngaha , nationality of your country who died in ghastly motor accident by running into a stationery Trailer without warning sign on December 26 , 2006.

After his death with members of his family,due process was followed to alert members of the public and any relation of his through Electronic Media Obituary Announcement both in the local television station here in Togo.

Right now his Bankers has written me requesting me to contact any of his relation for the purpose of transferring his estate in the sum of 10.2 million Us Dollars.Due to the pressure from the Bank I decided to present you as the next of kin to my said deceased client and to further ask your hand of co-operation under utmost confidentiality to claim the outstanding sum by presenting you as the Next of Kin of my late client.

Needless to reassure you that as a Lawyer and personal attorney to my late client, all the necessary information and documents that will sufficiently prove to the officials of the Bank that you are the next of Kin to the deceased shall be obtained legally from the probate section of the High Court.

I would therefore request you to give this letter serious thought and get back to me urgently at my private email emmanuelkona1@hotmail.fr

Regards.
Emmanuel Kona"

A couple of really irritating aspects to this one.

It came to me via maori.org (I don't blame maori.org)
They have worked out that maori are from here and are using fake maori names.

Whew - 10.2 Million US dollars - but I don't think i'll be responding to kona from Togo. I hope you don't either.

Humour from mr trotter's blog and indigenous Yanomamo

I feel a bit international today. I came across this post and I haven't belly laughed as much for a long time. Well certainly since yesterday when the comment from LukeH after Mr trotters poem really deserves to be in the top 10 classic comments of the year. I hope someone compiles a list that we, in the blogosphere, can all vote on.

Anyway back to the very funny post. And what was so funny about it? The superiority of the coloniser against the colonised is always assumed. But many indigenous people actually have a sense of humour and play the coloniser against their own prejudices and preconcieved ideas of superiority.

"1. Chagnon meets the Yanomamo:

My heart began to pound as we approached the village and heard the buzz of activity within the circular compound. Mr. Barker commented that he was anxious to see if any changes had taken place while he was away and wondered how many of them had died during his absence. I nervously felt my back pocket to make sure that my notebook was still there and felt personally more secure when I touched it.

The entrance to the village was covered over with brush and dry palm leaves. We pushed them aside to expose the low opening to the village. The excitement of meeting my first Yanomamo was almost unbearable as I duck-waddled through the low passage into the village clearing.

I looked up and gasped when I saw a dozen burly, naked, sweaty, hideous men staring at us down the shafts of their drawn arrows! Immense wads of green tobacco were stuck between their lower teeth and lips making them look even more hideous, and strands of dark-green slime dripped or hung from their nostrils—strands so long that they clung to their pectoral muscles or drizzled down their chins. We arrived at the village while the men were blowing a hallucinogenic drug up their noses. One of the side effects of the drug is a runny nose. The mucus is always saturated with the green powder and they usually let it run freely from their nostrils. My next discovery was that there were a dozen or so vicious, underfed dogs snapping at my legs, circling me as if I were to be their next meal. I just stood there holding my notebook, helpless and pathetic. Then the stench of the decaying vegetation and filth hit me and I almost got sick. I was horrified. What kind of welcome was this for the person who came here to live with you and learn your way of life, to become friends with you? They put their weapons down when they recognized Barker and returned to their chanting, keeping a nervous eye on the village entrances…

As we walked down the path to the boat, I pondered the wisdom of having decided to spend a year and a half with these people before I had even seen what they were like. I am not ashamed to admit that had there been a diplomatic way out, I would have ended my fieldwork then and there. I did not look forward to the next day—and months—when I would be left alone with the Yanomamo; I did not speak a word of their language, and they were decidedly different from what I had imagined them to be. The whole situation was depressing, and I wondered why I ever decided to switch from physics and engineering in the first place. I had not eaten all day, I was soaking wet from perspiration, the bareto were biting me, and I was covered with red pigment, the result of a dozen or so complete examinations I had been given by as many very pushy Yanomamo men. These examinations capped an otherwise grim day. The men would blow their noses into their hands, flick as much of the mucus off that would separate in a snap of the wrist, wipe the residue into their hair, and then carefully examine my face, arms, legs, hair, and the contents of my pockets. I asked Barker how to say, ‘Your hands are dirty’; my comments were met by the Yanomamo in the following way: They would ‘clean’ their hands by spitting a quantity of slimy tobacco juice into them, rub them together, grin, and then proceed with the examination.

2. The Yanomamo make a fool of Chagnon:

At first I tried to use kinship terms alone to collect genealogies, but Yanomamo kinship terms, like the kinship terms in all systems, are ambiguous at some point because they include so many possible relatives (as the term ‘uncle’ does in our own kinship system). Again, their system of kin classification merges many relatives that we ’separate’ by using different terms: They call both their actual father and their father’s brother by a single term, whereas we call one ‘father’ and the other ‘uncle.’ I was forced, therefore, to resort to personal names to collect unambiguous genealogies or ‘pedigrees’. They quickly grasped what I was up to and that I was determined to learn everyone’s ‘true name’, which amounted to an invasion of their system of prestige and etiquette, if not a flagrant violation of it. They reacted to this in a brilliant but devastating manner: They invented false names for everybody in the village and systematically learned them, freely revealing to me the ‘true’ identities of everyone. I smugly thought I had cracked the system and enthusiastically constructed elaborate genealogies over a period of some five months. They enjoyed watching me learn their names and kinship relationships. I naively assumed that I would get the ‘truth’ to each question and the best information by working in public. This set the stage for converting my serious project into an amusing hoax of the grandest proportions. Each ‘informant’ would try to outdo his peers by inventing a name even more preposterous or ridiculous than what I had been given by someone earlier, the explanations for discrepancies being “Well, he has two names and this is the other one.’ They even fabricated devilishly improbable genealogical relationships, such as someone being married to his grandmother, or worse yet, to his mother-in-law, a grotesque and horrifying prospect to the Yanomamo. I would collect the desired names and relationships by having my informant whisper the name of the person softly into my ear, noting that he or she was the parent of such and such or the child of such and such, and so on. Everyone who was observing my work would then insist that I repeat the name aloud, roaring in hysterical laughter as I clumsily pronounced the name, sometimes laughing until tears streamed down their faces. The ‘named’ person would usually react with annoyance and hiss some untranslatable epithet at me, which served to reassure me that I had the ‘true’ name. I conscientiously checked and rechecked the names and relationships with multiple informants, pleased to see the inconsistencies disappear as my genealogy sheets filled with those desirable little triangles and circles, thousands of them.

My anthropological bubble was burst when I visited a village about 10 hours’ walk to the southwest of Bisaasi-teri some five months after I had begun collecting genealogies on the Bisaasi-teri. I was chatting with the local headman of this village and happened to casually drop the name of the wife of the Bisaasi-teri headman. A stunned silence followed, and then a villagewide roar of uncontrollable laughter, choking, gasping, and howling followed. It seems that I thought the Bisaasi-teri headman was married to a woman named “hairy cunt.” It also seems that the Bisaasi-teri headman was called ‘long dong’ and his brother ‘eagle shit.’ The Bisaasi-teri headman had a son called “asshole” and a daughter called “fart breath.”

And so on. Blood welled up to my temples as I realized that I had nothing but nonsense to show for my five months of dedicated genealogical effort, and I had to throw away almost all the information I had collected on this the most basic set of data I had come there to get. I understood at that point why the Bisaasi-teri laughed so hard when they made me repeat the names of their covillagers, and why the ‘named’ person would react with anger and annoyance as I pronounced his ‘name’ aloud."

Classic indeed!

Very funny link

This is very funny.

and interesting because i have been wondering about the LHC and what is happening there - deafening silence/science!

Thanks Will.

Shatner speaking

I'm a trekie (1st series) and anything of the others without that picard guy. William Shatner is underrated from his colourful name, his acting, his music and back to his acting again. All the while his unique line delivery set the tone.

His voice is worthy of an international talk like William Shatner day. Bugger the pirates arrrwww lets go Shatner.