Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[Anthony Darby]

Good Laud, what wonderful spelling. 

The missing letter must cause no en of laughs!

[Lesley Cox]

Perhaps whoever wrote it had a cold in the head? They managed Sapphire all right though.

[Anthony Darby]

Perhaps laudrettes syndrome?

[alpines]

Not really a moan.....just an observation of how times have changed.
We were at the Berea Christmas Parade last evening. One of the floats belonging to one of the local churches had this beautiful wooden stable with Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus. Absolutely precious......but when the float passed, the stable had a sign on the back saying "Like Us On Facebook"
.............and neither of us had our cameras with us !!!!!

[Lesley Cox]

On a par I suppose, with the (also American) "drive thru" churches. You drive round the building picking up a printed text at a window, on the way.

[ranunculus]

On a par I suppose, with the (also American) "drive thru" churches. You drive round the building picking up a printed text at a window, on the way.

God works in mysterious ways, Lesley ... especially, it seems, in the States.  They even put belts around their bibles. 

[alpines]

On a par I suppose, with the (also American) "drive thru" churches. You drive round the building picking up a printed text at a window, on the way.

Are you serious Lesley? There's a lot of "drive-past"churches, especially the ones that want you to shake hands with a rattlesnake but I've never seen (or heard of) a "drive-thru" church.

[alpines]

God works in mysterious ways, Lesley ... especially, it seems, in the States.  They even put belts around their bibles. 

It seems I changed my habitat from one with a pub on each street corner to one with a church on each street corner. Church grub is certainly not as tasty as pub grub...believe me !!!!

[alpines]

On a par I suppose, with the (also American) "drive thru" churches. You drive round the building picking up a printed text at a window, on the way.

Hey...you're right Lesley. I just Googled "drive-thru churches" and there it was. Seems they are in Texas. Guess there wasn't enough room for a congregation all wearing 10 Gallon hats !!!!

[Lesley Cox]

Does the bible belt work the same way as a chastity belt, and keep intruders out? What about a banana belt? What's the purpose of that?

[Lesley Cox]

I'm thinking the drive thru church could hire out its premises or rather combine businesses and save land costs with something like a burger joint. Get your religion and your Big Mac at the same window. A bit like here where it was suggested once that better use of premises could be made in normally "closed" times, such as schools being available for their play yards and swimming pools during school holidays, one bright spark thought the "Kiri Te Kanawa Opera House and Panelbeaters' Yard" would be a good option. I've always liked that one.

[ranunculus]

Does the bible belt work the same way as a chastity belt, and keep intruders out? What about a banana belt? What's the purpose of that?

Obviously that keeps a bunch of them out, Lesley!   

[Gerry Webster]

Does the bible belt work the same way as a chastity belt, and keep intruders out? What about a banana belt? What's the purpose of that?

The black American singer Josephine Baker wore a banana belt (& little else) in 1920s Paris.

[Anthony Darby]

This is greenbelt. Well, actually it is Greenmount landfill site, one of Auckland's many extinct volcanoes used as such. You can see white pipes sticking out of the ground. I think the gas is being piped to 'the grid'? It is out of bounds to the public, so the land is just grass. Why then are the idiots that own it constantly cutting the grass. I have seen pairs of stilts; skylarks; pukekos; pheasants; masked lapwings; paradise ducks etc. I suspect, if they ever build a nest, it would be destroyed by the unnecessary grass cutting. You can see there is a fence near the top of the hill, where the grass isn't cut. One cut over the entire site at the end of the season is all that is necessary to keep the shrubs from taking over! The walls in the pics are in front of a fence between the landfill site and the football pitches.

[Lesley Cox]

Have you talked to the powers-that-be about it Anthony? and pointed out the birdlife it supports? Not that that would necessarily discourage them from cutting, but pointing out that a single cut would be a lot less expensive just might do it. You could write a letter to the paper.