Havent you heard? I'm the king of NY! (news thread)

[RavingLunatic]

I thought I'd missed it when I heard the guy at :13 say, "I wanna die." Then I saw it fall. Wow.

[elpollodiablo]

I watched the same storm roll through here at an uptown bar a couple hours ago. Wild.

[Greg Nog]

I thought I'd missed it when I heard the guy at :13 say, "I wanna die." Then I saw it fall. Wow.

It's "I don't wanna die"

[Nick Ink]

David Starkey apologises for his recent racist comments on Newsnight

The original interview is here.

[Anne the Man]

The Rugby World Cup organisers want everyone to abstain from sex for the duration of the cup. What the flying fuck. Also, apparently over 60% of people who answered a poll said they'd rather give up sex til October 23 than lose another cup. As if it's a zero-sum thing! What is wrong with this country...argh I'm really worried that some people will do it (or not do it rather). As my friend said, perhaps we could have an "abstain from really high levels of domestic violence" campaign instead.

Also Marinus emailed an article to my work! Small internet is small! Marinus, darling, you need more paragraph breaks

[Babar]

Sometime I read somewhere that the whole "no sex before the big game/fight" is a myth, that is, it doesn't have ill effect on one's performance the day after. I mean, if you're not straining your ankle during sex I would think it'd be ok.

[G.C.R]

but they're not suggesting that the All Blacks abstain, they're suggesting that the FANS abstain.

[Babar]

hmm, well maybe the cheering of the fans will sound more urgent when everybody's horny.

nah, that's fucked up. that's also a really really long time.

[Ignatius]

I'm gonna give GI the benefit of the doubt and assume that he copy+pasted his article from a text editor to his email box and his email box didn't recognize the line breaks from the text editor.

I'm standing up for you on this, dude, don't ever let me down.

[Ignatius]

While it's a silly thing, 2 months w/o sex described as a 'really really long time' is also kinda silly.

[Babar]

It was more like "2 months w/o sex FOR A BLOODY RUGBY GAME THAT OTHER PEOPLE THAN YOURSELF WILL BE PLAYING" is a really really long time.

[Ignatius]

For several rugby games leading up to one. Of those kiwis who commit to the no-sex thing, how many do you think will have to turn down actual sex? How many have had sex with someone else in the PAST two months? Maybe six guys?

[Antero]

While it's a silly thing, 2 months w/o sex described as a 'really really long time' is also kinda silly.

I feel like I'd be going bonkers after two months, though.

[Ignatius]

Wow I thought it was kinda like you do it a lot one minute and then you don't do it at all the next but I guess I'm just lazy or something.

[Good Intentions]

Also Marinus emailed an article to my work! Small internet is small! Marinus, darling, you need more paragraph breaks

I didn't know you worked there! I thought you had posted there the same way I was trying to, by badgering the editor.

There are three paragraph breaks in 1000 words, which is par for the course in my business. I had at first written it without paragraph breaks, in the newspaper style, but that was a little much at that length.

[Good Intentions]

Also, the All Black sex thing is a publicity stunt, and nothing more.

[coldforge]

I fail to see how this could upset you, Anne. What does it matter to you what goofy stunts sports fans pull?

[elpollodiablo]

It's not sex-positive.

[Anne the Man]

Really, forge? I thought my objections would be pretty obvious, even if I don't give a care about sport. I don't want any sign of abstinence campaigns in my country, I find the idea of sex as a dirty thing a shameful and dirty idea in itself, and I worry about how fucked up everyone who sees it that way must feel when they have sex. Also I hate Rugby World Cup hysteria in general, it's like a damn religion in this country, and if we lose then domestic violence rates will go up.

Apparently they've scrapped the campaign, thank fuck, and are now trying to pass it off as "just a light-hearted joke, sorry if we've offended anyone", which is how everyone excuses everything in this nerdy pissant nation.

Rant aside, fair point Marinus.

[Ignatius]

I feel like this kind of campaign has nothing to do with sex being viewed as dirty or shameful, though. I assumed it was a half-assed solidarity thing on account of how some professional athletes avoid sex before games out of superstition and/or some weird assumption that being horny or unsatisfied keeps you focused and competitive.

It's very dumb, but to me it's not any more offensive than a 'don't wash your jersey' campaign or something.

[elpollodiablo]

Yeah that pretty patently has nothing to do with promoting abstinence.

[G.C.R]

I actually have more problems with the desperate, self deprecating 'jokes' about what NZers will do for this inane sport more offensive than anything to do with the abstinence campaign, which, you're right, had little to do with promoting abstinence and a lot more to do with a type of gross nationalism that is pushed down our throats here at every single fucking opportunity. "Give up sex for the All Blacks" is a joke, because the tone of this whole campaign has been, 'lulz, but really, Go Team!'. Not to meantion the ads that were floated as ideas for this campaign ("Imagine your mother in a bikini. Abstain for the game") are of the sort of gross, blokey, crass things that ads are full of here at the moment (I mean, I know you get that everywhere, but it's been particularly bad here the last couple years). So yeah, this is more of the same, but the same fucking sucks, you know?

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

so, you're angry that NZers are into rugby, that they joke about it, or that ads here are too blokey?
because really, i don't think any of those things are worth getting upset about.

and anne, blaming sport for our horrible domestic violence rates is just... ugh. you might as well blame the rain, or the price of cigarettes, cause the rates go up then too.

[G.C.R]

I'm less upset, more fatigued with rugby and blokey rugby culture. Which I don't think is a problematic position to take. Don't you get sick of it if the national identity of your home country is grossly at odds with much of what you value in your own life? It's not a huge deal, but it irks. 

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

well, sure, i'd prefer if the NZ media paid more attention to stuff that actually matters, and our identity as a country was not so attached to sport, but it's been like that since long before i was here - and it's certainly no worse than say, football in england, or that other football in the US.

frankly i've been surprised at how little emphasis is being placed on the world cup at the moment, i figured the country would have shut down by now.