2020-03-07 New Zealand Listener

6 LISTENER MARCH 7 2020

LETTERS

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“Nothing dates harder and

faster, and more strangely,

than the future.” – author Neil

Gaiman

“I’ve never any pity for

conceited people, because

I think they carry their

comfort about with them.”

– George Eliot, quoted in Forbes

“Reality is nothing but a

collective hunch.” – Lily

Tomlin

“Democracy is like a

tambourine – not everyone

can be trusted with it.” – Last

Week Tonight’s John Oliver

“If the crowd are behind

you, you’re facing the wrong

way.” – English comedian Simon

Munnery

“We have the Bill of Rights.

What we need is a Bill of

Responsibilities.” – US

comedian Bill Maher

“Sundays are like confetti

floating in the air in slow

motion. In the evening they

reach the ground and you

hope a bit of wind could

blow on them so they could

fly a bit longer.” – author Alain

Brémond-Torrent

“Be not afraid of growing

slowly; be afraid only of

standing still.” – Chinese

proverb

“To appreciate the beauty of

a snowflake is to stand out

in the cold.” – Aristotle

“Bloomberg brought a

wallet to a gunfight.” – The

Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona

“We start creating a circular

firing squad, where we’re

shooting at our allies.”

– Barack Obama on the

Democratic Party presidential

election candidate selection race

Quips&

Quotes

atherosclerosis, I have a par-

ticular interest in this.

Roger Purchas (Palmerston North)

WHY STOP AT POSSUMS?

Joanne Black wisely notes that

“there is another emergency

that is arguably more urgent

than climate change” (Back

to Black, February 15). She

is referring to the imminent

extinction of species.

If only OSPRI, the company

tasked with poisoning bovine

TB-carrying possums in the

northern Tararua Range, would

realise that the hordes of deer

in the hills are steadily deplet-

ing palatable native plants

towards extinction and refrain

from putting deer repellent in

the 1080 pellets it distributes.

A red deer stag can eat

20-30kg of leaves, fern fronds,

lichens, mosses and liverworts

in a day. What an absurdity to

spare deer.

Chris Horne

(Northland, Wellington)

LETTER OF THE WEEK

BRAVO RNZ CONCERT

I was pleased to read Bill

Ralston on the RNZ Concert

fiasco (Life, February 22). He

mentions 173,000 listeners. I

would suggest this is a starting

point, as many people who

treasure this station will fly

under the radar.

The timeless music is

part of their home. To me,

living alone, the music and

announcers’ comments are like

young minds. How can it be

a good thing to bore young

people stupid?

Pam Sellers

(Green Bay, Auckland)

LEFT RIGHT OUT

The column on left-handed-

ness (Psychology, February 22)

failed to mention the greatest

benefit of being a leftie. Based

on a recent US survey, left-

handed workers on average

received 17% more pay than

right-handed people doing the

same job.

Steve Green

(Wellsford)

APPRECIATION OF TONY REID

Tony Reid was a lovely, good

man (Obituary, February 29).

Our paths first crossed back in

the 1960s when he was writing

for the Weekly News. Three

things remained constant. He

was fiercely intelligent. He had

a wonderful sense of humour.

And, God, he could write.

On “Days of rage”, a Listener

story covering the 1981

Springbok tour, my name

appears with Reid’s in a joint

byline. I did about the same

amount of reporting for the

story, but every word was writ-

ten by him. He was generous

enough to show me the copy

as he wrote it, as I recall, in a

motel in New Plymouth. But I

don’t remember suggesting a

single change. I don’t believe

New Zealand journalism in the

past 50 years has seen a more

gifted writer.

Phil Gifford

(Bryndwr, Christchurch)

CATCHING DISEASE SOONER

The emphasis on early cancer

detection advocated by Azra

Raza (“Out of the Stone Age”

has parallels with heart disease.

Plaques in coronary arteries

can build up to the extent that

a fatal cardiac arrest can occur

without any prior physical

symptoms or out-of-range

values for blood lipids, blood

pressure or heart rate.

As with cancer, it is known

that these plaques build up

slowly and there are methods

of quantifying them using

CT scans, MRI scans, certain

markers and ultrasound. But it

seems that these are currently

unsuitable for routine use on

apparently healthy people.

Perhaps Raza’s suggestion

that an increased proportion

of research funds be directed

towards getting known tech-

niques into forms suitable for

routine use would be just as

valuable for cardiac problems

as cases of cancer.

As someone who has

recently lost a loved one from

symptom-free fatal coronary

The Editor, Listener, Private Bag

92512, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141.

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“I doubt I’m the first person in history

to mistake surtitles for karaoke.”