As of Friday, Norman family on the brink of closing deal
BusinessDay.co.nz reports that the deal of buy Whitcoulls is close to finalizing, but part of the sales agreement has to be renegotiated.
The Whitcoulls chain of New Zealand bookstores, owned by REDgroup, was put into voluntary administration in February (along with Borders), and has been up for sale since March.
Anne and David Norman, widely tipped to take over, have built up a retail empire over three decades.
Anne Norman's grandfather, James Pascoe, founded the Pascoes jewellery chain in 1906. This has been expanded into Australasia's biggest chain of jewellery stores, including Stewart Dawsons, Prouds, Goldmark, and Angus & Coote.
The couple bought department store chain Farmers, in 2003. They also own a homeware chain, Stevens.
Altogether, they own 607 stores, and employ about 9000 staff.
The deal to take over Whitcoulls was due to close May 3, but there have been undescribed hitches. Employment contracts may be the problem, involving likely job losses.
Reflections by award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett, author of many books about the sea
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Sunday, May 22, 2011
THE WORLD SURVIVED
Folks, that Rapture thing didn't happen
The light side is that it also illustrates that Americans can have an impish sense of humor. One good example is someone in Brooklyn, NY, who runs a blog featuring prose, poetry and so forth that appeals to the blogger. Over the past couple of days an amusing page was a set of FAQs concerning the Rapture, on the topic of handing in assignments.
A. Everyone in tech & IT is of Satan's party, so the internet, your computer, and your printer should continued to work the way they always have: sporadically.
I am happy to announce that it is 8:33 am in New Zealand on May 22, 2011, and the world is functioning just the way it always did: sporadically.
The sad side of this kind of ignorant silliness is that it helps the rest of the world to grossly underestimate America.
Q. If my computer crashes and my printer breaks and there is no email on account of the rapture, will I be able to get an extension on my paper?
A. Everyone in tech & IT is of Satan's party, so the internet, your computer, and your printer should continued to work the way they always have: sporadically.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
What naughty words apply to a man?
Philanderer, cad, and lecher, the list is almost endless
Yes, he is talking about Dominique Strauss-Kahn (pictured), the recently resigned head of the International Monetary Fund, who was detached from his first class seat in a plane to land in a rather nasty jail, on a charge of sexual predation.
The "flexibility of the English language," is undermining the case for the defense, Smith says. All the words that have been applied to the innocent-until-proven-guilty DSK are perjorative, involving a presumption of guilt.
Personally, I have always had trouble finding a word to describe a man in search of a sexual target. "Lothario" has generally been the best I can come up with, but Russell Smith produces a most impressive list.
Skirt-chaser. Ladies' man. Lady-killer. Playboy. Casanova. Romeo. Don Juan (what it is with those southern Europeans?). Wolf. Philanderer. Cad. Gigolo.
I would suggest, though, that with the exception of the last, none of them are as deeply insulting as the words applied to sexually active women. The one that leaps to mind is "whore." Another is "slut."
And why are "whore" and "slut" more deeply insulting than any of the words applied to men? Because of the presumption of payment.
Thursday's Globe and Mail has a thought-provoking column by Russell Smith, in which he points out that the emotive tone of certain words undermines the presumption of innocence.
The "flexibility of the English language," is undermining the case for the defense, Smith says. All the words that have been applied to the innocent-until-proven-guilty DSK are perjorative, involving a presumption of guilt.
Personally, I have always had trouble finding a word to describe a man in search of a sexual target. "Lothario" has generally been the best I can come up with, but Russell Smith produces a most impressive list.
Skirt-chaser. Ladies' man. Lady-killer. Playboy. Casanova. Romeo. Don Juan (what it is with those southern Europeans?). Wolf. Philanderer. Cad. Gigolo.
I would suggest, though, that with the exception of the last, none of them are as deeply insulting as the words applied to sexually active women. The one that leaps to mind is "whore." Another is "slut."
And why are "whore" and "slut" more deeply insulting than any of the words applied to men? Because of the presumption of payment.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Advance copy of TUPAIA arrives
Random House New Zealand edition of Tupaia
No matter how many books one has written, it is always tremendously exciting to hold a newly minted volume in your hand. An advance copy of the downunder version of Tupaia's biography arrived this morning -- and this book is beautiful.
Lavishly illustrated with images and maps from institutions such as the British Library, Princeton Library, the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, the Hocken Library, and the National Library of Australia, Tupaia, The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator is a really, really lovely book.
No matter how many books one has written, it is always tremendously exciting to hold a newly minted volume in your hand. An advance copy of the downunder version of Tupaia's biography arrived this morning -- and this book is beautiful.
Lavishly illustrated with images and maps from institutions such as the British Library, Princeton Library, the Alexander Turnbull Library at the National Library of New Zealand, the Hocken Library, and the National Library of Australia, Tupaia, The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator is a really, really lovely book.
It will be in New Zealand bookstores in June.
Analogies and Metaphors
High School Humor
Every now and then one of those emails that get passed around the world a few times (to get people's email addresses into some database, I suspect), proves amusing.
Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year for the amusement of teachers across the country.
Here are the 25 winners:
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River .
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
I just hope these kids don't join the ePublishing revolution ...
Every now and then one of those emails that get passed around the world a few times (to get people's email addresses into some database, I suspect), proves amusing.
Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year for the amusement of teachers across the country.
Here are the 25 winners:
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River .
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
I just hope these kids don't join the ePublishing revolution ...
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Rejected Book Jackets
The NYT Sunday Book Review ran a feature on book covers that were dropped on the cutting room floor.
Caroline Stanley of Flavorwire books blog, condensed the story, featuring a selection of the dropped book jacket designs, and matching them up with the final versions.
One of the neatest (in my humble opinion) rejected jackets is pictured to the right.
Link to the site to see what supplanted it. Stanley asks for opinions. Have fun.
Random House NZ scores with children's books awards
Random House children's book wins Book of the Year
Three other Random House books were also finalists:
Fleur Beale's Fierce September
Anna Mackenzie's Ebony Hill
James Crampton and Marianna Terezow's The Kiwi Fossil Hunter's Handbook
Fierce September won the Young Adult Award.
Warmest congratulations to Random House, and all the authors.
Random House New Zealand is thrilled to announce that last night The Moon and Farmer McPhee, written by Margaret Mahy and illustrated by David Elliot, was chosen as the Book of the Year at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards in Auckland. This book was also the winner of the Best Picture Book category.
The Moon and Farmer McPhee is the light-hearted story of a grumpy farmer whose animals keep him awake at night by dancing and singing to the light of the moon
Somehow, that reminds me of a favorite nursery rhyme!
Three other Random House books were also finalists:
Fleur Beale's Fierce September
Anna Mackenzie's Ebony Hill
James Crampton and Marianna Terezow's The Kiwi Fossil Hunter's Handbook
Fierce September won the Young Adult Award.
Warmest congratulations to Random House, and all the authors.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Joseph Conrad letter on the auction block
A famous letter by the famous writer for sale at Bonham's.
On 25 May a sampling of the Seamen's Church Institute Collection of Maritime Paintings and Decorative Arts will be up for sale.
Included is a charming letter written by Joseph Conrad to the owner and crew of the sailing ship Tusitala.
Dated 2 June 1923, and written from his address at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, it begins, "On leaving this hospitable country where the cream is excellent and the milk of human kindness apparently never ceases to flow, I assume an ancient mariner's privilege of sending to the owners and ship's company of the Tusitala my brotherly good wishes for fair winds and clear skies on all their voyages. And may they be many!
"And I would recommend to them to watch the weather," it goes on; "to keep the halliards clear for running, to remember that any fool can carry on, but only the wise man knows how to shorten sail in time ... "
The Tusitala, an iron-hulled sailing ship of 1684 tons, was named after Robert Louis Stevenson, who was called "Tusitala," meaning "storyteller," by the Samoans.
James A Farrell, owner of the ship, had a facsimile of this letter framed and posted in the chartroom of every Farrell Lines Ship.
The lucky purchaser will be getting a piece of maritime history.
To read more about the letter, The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, edited by Laurence Davies and Gene M. Moore, has a couple of long and interesting footnotes.
Rick Spilman tells the interesting story of the ship on OldSaltBlog.
On 25 May a sampling of the Seamen's Church Institute Collection of Maritime Paintings and Decorative Arts will be up for sale.
Included is a charming letter written by Joseph Conrad to the owner and crew of the sailing ship Tusitala.
Dated 2 June 1923, and written from his address at Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, it begins, "On leaving this hospitable country where the cream is excellent and the milk of human kindness apparently never ceases to flow, I assume an ancient mariner's privilege of sending to the owners and ship's company of the Tusitala my brotherly good wishes for fair winds and clear skies on all their voyages. And may they be many!
"And I would recommend to them to watch the weather," it goes on; "to keep the halliards clear for running, to remember that any fool can carry on, but only the wise man knows how to shorten sail in time ... "
The Tusitala, an iron-hulled sailing ship of 1684 tons, was named after Robert Louis Stevenson, who was called "Tusitala," meaning "storyteller," by the Samoans.
James A Farrell, owner of the ship, had a facsimile of this letter framed and posted in the chartroom of every Farrell Lines Ship.
The lucky purchaser will be getting a piece of maritime history.
To read more about the letter, The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, edited by Laurence Davies and Gene M. Moore, has a couple of long and interesting footnotes.
Rick Spilman tells the interesting story of the ship on OldSaltBlog.
Whitcoulls to return to Kiwi ownership?
The chaos in the New Zealand book chain may be sorted out
Karyn Scherer in the New Zealand Herald reports that the hundreds of nail-biting staff who turn up daily at the Whitcoulls and Borders stores may soon find out what the future holds.
The administrators of the failed chain are believed to be close to an announcement, much to the relief of landlords, too. And at last, perhaps, the rumors will come to an end.
Suggestions about who the successful bidder might be include The Warehouse, and Graeme Hart, a corporate raider who once owned Whitcoulls.
While most staff of Whitcoulls are expected to keep their jobs, those who work for Borders will most probably be job-hunting soon.
For the latest commentary, also see Beattie's Book Blog
Karyn Scherer in the New Zealand Herald reports that the hundreds of nail-biting staff who turn up daily at the Whitcoulls and Borders stores may soon find out what the future holds.
The administrators of the failed chain are believed to be close to an announcement, much to the relief of landlords, too. And at last, perhaps, the rumors will come to an end.
Suggestions about who the successful bidder might be include The Warehouse, and Graeme Hart, a corporate raider who once owned Whitcoulls.
While most staff of Whitcoulls are expected to keep their jobs, those who work for Borders will most probably be job-hunting soon.
For the latest commentary, also see Beattie's Book Blog
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
14 amazing places to buy books
From Salon.com: Inspiring book stores
In a world where bookstores are barely hanging in three, it is a treat to find that there are some really beautiful shops among the survivors.
The slideshow pictures some of the loveliest, and some of the most unusual.
At least one store manages by focusing on quality and rarity -- pricing a first edition there will make you gasp and wish for riches.
A glimpse of a future when books are acquisitions to be treasured?
In a world where bookstores are barely hanging in three, it is a treat to find that there are some really beautiful shops among the survivors.
The slideshow pictures some of the loveliest, and some of the most unusual.
At least one store manages by focusing on quality and rarity -- pricing a first edition there will make you gasp and wish for riches.
A glimpse of a future when books are acquisitions to be treasured?
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