by Christopher Ruthe

A love story in a mere 148 pages*? The title, Lie With Me, carries with it both the meaning of the sensual and the sexual.  And what is a lie vs truth, in any writing, and ultimately what is truth other than what is sensed? Very cleverly the book is dedicated:

“In memory of Thomas Andrieu (1966-2016). He is the lover. Yet it is called a novel.

On one level it tells the story of adolescent love between two boys, from the perspective of the writer. Who has become a successful author. They shared a love that, to use Oscar Wilde’s endearing phrase “Dared not speak its name”. The setting is provincial France of the 1980’s. The two boys come from stable homes, the writer has a very happy childhood, though he is an outsider in the sense he prefers reading to sport, studying, to playing around honouring his parents.

Besson writes sparely, but his prose is evocative. You feel every moment of anxiety, of anticipation — nascent love about to burst out. A brief moment of requited love is the kernel around which Besson weaves a most moving story of life’s fates, mere chance,  vicissitudes,  death — as  mere incident, death as shadow, death by one’s own choice.

Other critics have described the book thus: “This gorgeous, aching novel captures all of the fear and freedom of young desire. I dare you to read it without crying” (C. Bollen)”. At first erotic and joyous, ultimately elegiac and haunting, Lie With Me is a deceptively slender book as big as life itself” (Rumaan Alam).

Outstanding.

* This cadenza, in Jazz terms, this riff on the meaning of what love meant to the main protagonist gives a hint of the levels of complexity the author creates in this extraordinary story. “I wrote the word: love. I did consider using another one. It’s a curious notion, love: difficult to identify and define. There are so many degrees and variations. I could have contented myself with saying that I was smitten (and it is true that Thomas knew how to make me weaken), or infatuated (he could conquer, flatter, even bewitch like no one else), or obsessed (he often provoked a mixture of bewilderment and excitement, turning everything upside down), or seduced (once he caught me in his net there was no escaping), or even blinded (anything that embarrassed me, I pushed to the side, minimizing his defects, putting his good qualities on a pedestal, or disturbed (no longer was I ever quite myself), which would have had less positive connotations. I could have explained it away as mere affection, having a “crush”, an explanation vague enough to mean anything. But those would just have been words. The truth, the brutal truth, was that I was in love. Enough to use the right word.”  (P.86)

At 192 Te Moana (in the central zone), built back in the days when land and houses were cheap and having a holiday house, particularly in Waikanae, was the thing. It has an 80 sq metre floor area on a 1017 sq metre section. RV is $540,000; rates are $2,881 per annum (it was last sold on 10 July 2016 for $300,500). The Realtor’s description from their website:

“A lovely leafy treed quarter-acre section with a quaint wee home enjoying exceptional privacy — why not explore its subdivision potential? Recently refreshed throughout and built in the 1950’s, the developing massive native plantings on the huge block of Government-owned land to its north-west, suggests a future endless supply of native birds and privacy. The home’s perfect northerly aspect provides great sun and the home is snuggled well back from the road to enhance your seclusion.”

Although she doesn’t live in Waikanae, Carol is a regular contributor on ecocide and outdoors issues, so we thought readers would like this. She is clearly a talented gardener.

Tonight Newshub had an item announcing that 63 people had won over a million dollars in Lotto this year, the most ever. (We can’t stand watching Newshub’s news broadcasts, but go to their homepage and see what stories look interesting.)

What Newshub didn’t and probably wont mention is that according to the NZ Lotteries Commission annual report, the Chief Executive’s pay moved from a $430-440K band in the year to 30 June 2019 to a $510-520K band in the year to 30 June 2020.

There is an explanation given: “The Chief Executive’s remuneration shows a high movement in pay brackets due to the adoption of State Services Commission guidance on Chief Executive pay to encourage Public Sector agencies’ Chief Executives to remove their annual incentive payment from their employment contract.”

Now, what exactly does this person do to justify getting that kind of pay, over 8 times the average NZ salary? In fact, according to the table on page 31, there were 72 people getting over $100,000 including Mr Chris Lyman, which as almost as many as in the management-bloated KCDC.

The whole objective of Lotto is to encourage people to go out and gamble by offering big prizes — how hard is that to do? Arranging for an advertising agency to produce slick commercials, managing a few administrative staff. Does that require studying a professional course for years at university like a lawyer or doctor?

One mitigating factor is the people who pay Mr Lyman’s huge salary — and those of his 71 fellow executives — aren’t taxpayers, they are the people who buy their tickets every week. And you can choose not to do that, like Geoffrey and Eva; it’s much better to base life choices, including economic ones, on reasonable probabilities than on infinitesimally small possibilities. We ‘wager’ that very few private sector higher-level earners buy Lotto tickets, they have no reason to; unfortunately, the fact is that Lotto sales are highest in the poorest areas: those people who think they can solve their financial problems by spending $10–$20 a week at the Lotto desk. This is irresponsible and of questionable morality.

This work was produced by artist Wallace Trickett for a charity auction organised early this month by Otaki College students, who were raising funds for the Wellington Children’s Hospital. An oil on block canvas measuring 15 x 30 inches.

Unfortunately, a visit to the area may not be possible at present because of a slip on the Otaki Gorge Road at the Blue Bluff (KCDC photo below) 12 km from State Highway 1. Says the council, “The slip site continues to be monitored and design work for a new route behind the slip also continues.”

Flying goldfish, blue trees, a couple flying high on a kotuku?… art by Gillian Cronin, available commercially as a print and in other forms.

In a video released on Friday, two Minnesota lawmakers called for a full audit of all death certificates marked as COVID-19 deaths.

In the video, state Rep. Mary Franson and Sen. Scott Jensen revealed their own findings after looking over thousands of “death certificate data points” and found that the number of COVID deaths was being inflated by roughly 40 percent.

According to Rep. Franson, the investigation uncovered various un-COVID related deaths being counted as COVID deaths, including a freshwater drowning and a vehicle fatality, among others.

Full article

Why would authorities do this? From the outset it was apparant that frightening people was a deliberate strategy, so that people would heed the message authorities were making. Readers will remember in March that the Dear Leader of Aotearoa claimed there would be 80,000 deaths unless people obeyed orders. The figure given by the Ministry of Health eventually was 25. We asked in an OIA how many had been hospitalised and how many had died in the year to 30 June 2020 from 22 different viruses. We got the hospitalisation figures; but were told that deaths info would not be available until the end of 2022! However, we know that some of the 25 alleged Covid-19 deaths were of people who had not returned a positive test, or had had a positive test, but had recovered from it by the time of death. —Eds

These two separate videos by different people show real-time searches on two different American public records databases — SearchQuarry.com and Ancestry.com — and both reveal that she died a few days ago, but the Mainstream Media have closed in to cover that fact up. There can be no question why: it’s a public relations disaster for both government authorities and the huge pharmaceutical industry. Fainting after getting vaccine jabs is reasonably common and to be expected, but the death of a 30 year old certainly isn’t.

Analysis of Amber Lynn imagery, who is believed to have been the body-double for Tiffany Dover in a 21 second video released by the CHI after the former’s likely death.