lifeasdaddy

lifeasdaddy - It was Australia Day yesterday, dude!

On 26 January each year we mark Australia Day.  I didn't write anything about it yesterday because so many other bloggers did.

I was much taken with what Peter Bodo wrote about Australia Day.  An American tennis writer visiting for the Australian Open championship, he has captured that Australia Day is all things to all people here.

lifeasdaddy - A couple of YouTube gems

There's a YouTube video of a human slingshot.  Well, it's not actually a slingshot, but it's well worth watching.

Could be the next big thing.

And then there's Celine Dion and anastacia doing a cover of ACDC's You shook me all night long.

I offer the Dion/anastacia  last link without comment.  You can make up your own mind.

[tips from Kottke ]

lifeasdaddy - The baton of Field Marshal, Sir Thomas Blamey

Apparently it was Napoleon who said, "Every French soldier carries a Field Marshal's baton in his knapsack."

But what does a Field Marshal's baton look like? 

Australia's only Field Marshal, Sir Thomas Blamey's baton looked like this which is a photograph from the National Archives of Australia.

To see the baton in scale, here is a photo of it being held by Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey.  He's reclining in bed because he was gravely ill at the time of his promotion.

lifeasdaddy - Barry Jones recollects Sir Isaac Isaacs.

I've just started reading Barry Jones' autobiography A Thinking Reed. 

It's a fascinating book, packed with facts of course, and lots of social history of his milieu and the world at large.  It's thoughtfully reflective and as Phillip Adams points out in his foreword, honest.

Since I've mentioned Sir Isaac Isaacs this week, I'll give you a snippet, albeit unexciting.

On pages 63-64 he mentions that he was a habitue of the Melbourne Public Library (now the State Library of Victoria) as a child and

"Occasionally I saw Sir Isaac Isaacs, the first Australian to become Governor-General, a vernerable figure in his nineties, reading in the Public Library and I once sat opposite him on a Toorak tram.  I recognised him as a link with the past, but never plucked up courage to speak to him."

With a certain circularity I myself saw Barry Jones in a Thomas' Record store in Melbourne, circa 1981.  He was wearing a pale grey coloured suit, with the side jacket pockets bulging outward from the  contents.  He was quickly flicking through most of the classical music CDs in the racks.  A very well known figure in Melbourne I was fascinated to see him in person, but did not even think of approaching him because I felt he was entitled to do what was obviously a pleasurable activity in peace and without interruption.

lifeasdaddy - Glenn Gould's chair is for sale.

I was just reading my gmail and the name "Glenn Gould" in the right-margin google ads caught my eye. Usually I can resist the temptation to click through very easily, but this piqued my curiosity.  It was about his chair, and the link went through to this site, The Glenn Gould Chair.

Initially, I thought it would be about an important chair which had been a personal possession of Gould, but no, it's a reproduction.   It can be yours for EURO 990.

Here's the wikipedia entry about the gloriously idiosyncratic Glenn Gould, and ironically it is accompanied by a photograph of him at a piano sitting on a folding theatre chair.  Nothing fancy about it.

Want to hear what the fuss about Gould is about?  Here's some YouTube vision and sound.

lifeasdaddy - Seminal photographer Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore takes wonderful photographs.  Here's a documentary film about him.  I found the movie very enlightening about his cognition and his process of creating art.  He is amazingly articulate about how he does what he does and he attributes his articulateness to his teaching experience.

[ tip from Colberg ]

lifeasdaddy - The IKEA milk frother gathers devotees.

  I mentioned the other day that amongst Ed's treasures is a milk frother.

It was a present to Ed from his Aunt Lauren; it operates on 2 x AA batteries, and he plays with it by watching and listening to it whir when he turns it on and off.

It came from IKEA and I see on the Economist's Free Exchange blog that it has created great enthusiasm amongst adults too, who use it to froth their milk for coffee.

There's a quick  explanation of the economic theory behind the excitement too.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

lifeasdaddy - Sir Isaac Isaacs and his Federation Medal

It was brought home to me once again how dependent I've become on the internet as an information source.

This morning I was glancing at the Sydney Morning Herald and saw an advertisement for Bonhams & Goodman auction house on page 11 of the Spectrum supplement.

My eye lit upon a photo of Sir Isaac Isaacs' Federation Medal.  I once collected medals and medallions, but had never heard of a Federation Medal. 

This prompted a breakfast conversation about Sir Isaac Isaacs.  I was trying to recall his exact place in Australian history, and what his position would have been at the time of Australia's Federation (1901).  I knew he had been a High Court Justice, a High Court Chief Justice and  Governor-General.  My father-in-law recalled that the High Court of Australia did not yet exist in 1901, and that he thought Sir Isaac Isaac's appointment as Governor-General had been opposed in England, as up to that time only King's men had held the position.  He also recalled that Scullin may have been Prime Minister at the time of Isaacs' appointment to the Governor-Generalship, which would place it in the 1930's.

I thought I'd better research the facts to make sure.  But the internet connection was down.

Then my dependency was revealed.  I looked around our substantial household library for a reference book which could clarify the facts such as an encyclopaedia, or Barry Jones' Dictionay of World Biography but there was none to be had.

The confirmation was in abeyance until later today when the internet connection was up again, and I could find this:

Isaacs attended to his duties with zest. His age was no impediment to great enthusiasm and he discharged the ceremonial duties of his office with obvious enjoyment. To his constitutional duties he brought not only great application and assiduity but also a unique learning and knowledge. In special cases, he furnished elaborate memoranda expounding the reasons for his action. Of these the most notable was his answer to the address of the Opposition-controlled Senate in 1931 praying that he should refuse to approve certain regulations under the Transport Workers Act. He also wrote at length to explain why he had accepted Scullin's request in November for a dissolution. No difficult constitutional issues emerged during his further period of office. By the time he retired on 23 January 1936 it was generally acknowledged that he had served as governor-general during harsh depression years with dignity and distinction. He had voluntarily surrendered one-quarter of his salary and declined to take his retired judge's pension while he held office.

But what was Sir Isaac Isaacs doing at the time of Federation?

He was elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria's Parliament from 1892 - 1901.

Federation was on 1 January, 1901. 

The first federal election was held on 29 March 1901.

He entered the first Commonwealth Parliment as the Member for Indi, and that Parliament first sat on 9 May, 1901. 

Sir Isaac Isaacs now receives most retrospective recognition as our first Australian born Governor-General.

It's worth noting too that he was  the first Jew to hold that position, the only other being Sir Zelman Cowan.

ADDED:  A gem from the National Archives of Australia. Here's an image of the Proclamation appointing Sir Isaac Isaacs as Governor-General of Australia.  GOD SAVE THE KING!

lifeasdaddy - "enthusiasm is a form of social courage"

Gretchen Rubin talks in her blog about going to a friend's birthday party at a Barry Manilow concert.

She said,

"First of all, it struck me that my friend shows considerable strength of character in being such an avowed Barry Manilow fan. After all, Barry Manilow is…Barry Manilow. It’s so much safer to criticize or to mock than to embrace; enthusiasm is a form of social courage."

I like what Gretchen's got to say there.  You can read the whole thing.

lifeasdaddy - The Tiffany bubble blower

Tiffany & Co. sell a sterling silver bubble blower for USD 165

This has excited some criticism here from people who do not appreciate the finer things in life.

And that reminds me of a favourite quotation, which I thought was from Wilde, but I can't substantiate that at the moment:

In this life I want very little.  I only want the best of everything, and there is so little of that.