Pulitzer and World Press Photo Awards: 1958

Continuing the list of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, from inception in 1942; and the World Press Photograph of the Year, from inception in 1955:

Year: 1958 

Award: Pulitzer Prize for Photography 

Photographer: William C Beall of the Washington Daily News 

Photograph: Faith and Confidence 

Comments: 

William C Beall was a combat photographer during World War 2 and served in the same photography outfit as Joe Rosenthal, who had won a Pulitzer for his photograph of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. Beall had been at the island at the same time but was on the other side of the island that day. 

While working for the Washington Daily News, William Beall was assigned to cover the Chinese Merchants Association parade on September 10, 1957. Although keeping his eye on the parade, Beall saw a small boy step into the street, attracted by a dancing Chinese lion. A tall young policeman stepped in front of the boy, cautioning him to step back from the busy street. According to Beall, “I suddenly saw the picture, turned and clicked.” 

The photograph is an image of childhood innocence and wonder. 

The young policeman went on to become the Chief of Police of Washington DC, Maurice Cullinane. The photograph was further commemorated by being made into a statue in front of a courthouse, in Jonesboro, Georgia, honouring police. 

Bill Beall with prize winning photograph

Year: 1958 

Award: World Press Photo of the Year 

Photographer: Stanislav Tereba 

Photograph: Untitled

Comments: 

During a football game between the teams Sparta Praha and Červená Hvězda Bratislava, Sparta’s goalkeeper Miroslav Čtvrtníček stands on the football field and lines up for a kick in pouring rain. 

This is the only time in the award’s history that a sports photograph has won, somewhat ironic given that Czech photojournalist Stanislav Tereba shot sports only as somewhat of a hobby. Tereba covered the political changes in his beloved Czechoslovakia over the years and recorded ther Pargue Spring in 1968 when the Czechs rebelled against Soviet domination. 

Stanislav Tereba

Bludgers

When J K Rowling wrote the Harry Potter novels, she may or may not have been aware of the meaning of the word “bludger” in Australia and New Zealand. 

In the J K Rowling novels, a bludger is one of the types of balls used in the game of Quidditch. There are two of them in the game. Beaters use bats to protect their team members and to direct the bludgers at the opposing team. Bludgers are magically designed to try and knock the players off of their brooms. 

Perhaps the bludger in Harry Potter takes its name from being bludgeoned away by the beaters, or that it seeks to dismount the riders from their broomsticks by bludgeoning them.

In Australia the meaning of bludger is quite different. According to one website it means a person who lives off the efforts of others; a person who does not pay his fair share or who does not make a fair contribution to a cost, enterprise, etc., a cadger; an idler, one who makes little effort. 

The word derives from bludgeon, a short club, that word having been first recorded in print in 1730. A bludgeon was usually thicker and heavier at one end. From there, word gave rise to bludgeoner, one who violently used a bludgeon ie beat people with a stick. By the mid 1850’s its slang usage was recorded as meaning a low thief, as well as a prostitute’s pimp, probably from bludgeoning troublesome clients. It may be that the thief meaning was associated, from having bludgeoned and robbed the clients of the pimp’s prostitute. 

The term bludgeoner fell into disuse in England but remained alive in Australia, although shortened to bludger, as meaning a thug who lived off the earnings of a prostitute. Eventually the association of the word bludger with violence fell into disuse, the word remaining in use for someone who lived off the efforts of a prostitute. 

The Australian written references bear this out: 

• In 1882 the Sydney Slang Dictionary defined the term as ‘Bludgers, or Stick Slingers, plunderers in company with prostitutes’. 

• C. Crowe, in his Australian Slang Dictionary (1895), defined a bludger as ‘a thief who will use his bludgeon and lives on the gains of immoral women’. 

• In 1900 Truth (Sydney) wrote that: "This 'shop' is not occupied by girls, but by 'bludgers', —the men who own the girls and live on their prostitution". 

• Truth again in 1901: "Girls of no more than 13 years of age smoked their cigarettes and mopped up booze as freely as their bludgers.” 

• Again in 1905: "In Australia ... bludger means what in London and other large English cities is known as a ‘ponce’. ... In other words, it seems that the Australian bludger lives on the earnings of a prostitute." 

• Truth in 1915: "To enter Australian politics, to abide there, and to succeed therein, a man must have the instincts of a loafer, the aptitudes of a pickpocket, the conscience of a whore, and the honour of a bludger."
• 
  

The next shift in meaning was the expansion of the word to anyone living off someone else’s earnings or efforts, no longer an association only with prostitutes, as illustrated by the following: 

• Truth 1906: "Dancing, according to a Salvarmy bludger in Melbourne, is sinful and wicked. It is no sin for sour Salvarmy sallies to .. hug the officers, though". 

• John O’Grady, Aussie Etikett (1971): "When it comes to your turn, return the 'shout'. Otherwise the word will spread that you are a 'bludger', and there is no worse thing to be". 

This broadened to a sense of not contributing a fair share, especially in contrasting the labour of blue collar workers, those carrying out the manual labour, with the white collar workers, those working at desks and in offices. The distinction implicit in the use of the term in that context was that the blue collar workers carried out the manual work, the honest work, the hard yakka, whereas the white collar workers were “shiny bums” who sat on their backsides all day doing “bugger all”: 

• Truth in 1910: "Blackguard band of blatant, bumptious bummers and bludgers, who bum and bludge on Labor". 

• D. Whitington’s Treasure Upon the Earth (1957): ‘“Bludgers” he dubbed them early, because in his language anyone who did not work with his hands at a laboring job was a bludger’. 

• Dorothy Hewett, play This Old Man (1967): “The working class can kiss me arse I’ve found a bludger’s job at last.” 

• Alex Buzo, Front Room Boys (1970): “I don’t like those la-di-da hoity-toity upper-crust bludgers with their fancy accents.” 

There remained one further shift or expansion of meaning to be made. 

We have already seen the historical development of the term: 

weapon 

→ prostitute’s pimp and thug 

→ someone living off the earnings off a prostitute 

→ someone living off someone else’s earnings or efforts 

→ someone not contributing a fair share 

→ people in upper positions doing minimal work and deriving benefits from the effiorts and labour of honest, hardworking battlers. 

The term dole bludger means one who exploits the system of unemployment benefits by avoiding gainful employment and making do on the dole. 

Refer the following: 

• The term made its first appearance in the Bulletin in 1976: "A genuine dole bludger, a particularly literate young man .. explained that he wasn’t bothering to look for work anymore because he was sick and tired of being treated like a chattel". 

• 1977, Cattleman (Rockhampton): "Young people are being forced from their country homes because of a lack of work opportunities and the only response from these so-called political protectors is to label them as 'dole bludgers' ". 

Today in 2011, the words of John O’Grady, writing as Nino Culotta in They’re a Weird Mob in 1957 are still appropriate: 

But if you are ever told you are a bludger, go home. A bludger is the worst thing you can be in Australia. It means that you are criminally lazy, that you 'pole on you mates’', that you are a ‘piker’' - a mean, contemptible, miserable individual who is not fit to associate with human beings. No one will talk to you, or buy you a drink, and you've had it. You will be called a bastard because you are a good bloke, but if you are called a bludger you probably are one. You might be called a 'bludgin' bastard' in a rueful sort of way which is half admiring but the word bludger by itself is final condemnation.

Funny Friday

I came across a pic of the above T shirt after posting yesterday’s item about guns. It was clear to me that a sign was being given from on high (“I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me, Superman!” - Homer Simpson) to go forth and pun, to spread the groans on Punny Friday. 

But did not Lewis Carroll have a low opinion on puns? 

“The Good and Great must ever shun

That reckless and abandoned one

Who stoops to perpetrate a pun.”

-Lewis Carroll 

True, but the main attribute of a pun is the groans which follow it. Puns are meant to be groaned at. 

Here is a collection of dreadful puns sent to me by Byter Sue, followed by one sent by Byter Leo. 

Funny Friday will return to normal next week. 

King Ozymandias of Assyria was running low on cash after years of war with the Hittites. His last great possession was the Star of the Euphrates , the most valuable diamond in the ancient world. Desperate, he went to Croesus, the pawnbroker, to ask for a loan. Croesus said, "I'll give you 100,000 dinars for it". "But I paid a million dinars for it," the King protested. "Don't you know who I am? I am the king!" Croesus replied, "When you wish to pawn a Star, makes no difference who you are." 

Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. Unfortunately, all the Swiss league records were destroyed in a fire, ... and so we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled. 

A man rushed into a busy doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor! I think I'm shrinking!" The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just have to be a little patient." 

A marine biologist developed a race of genetically engineered dolphins that could live forever if they were fed a steady diet of seagulls. One day, his supply of the birds ran out so he had to go out and trap some more. On the way back, he spied two lions asleep on the road. Afraid to wake them, he gingerly stepped over them. Immediately, he was arrested and charged for ... 

"Transporting gulls across sedate lions for immortal porpoises." 

Back in the 1800's the Tate's Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products, and since they already made the cases for watches, they used them to produce compasses. The new compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California . This, of course, is the origin of the expression, ... "He who has a Tate's is lost!" 

A thief broke into the local police station and stole all the toilets and urinals, leaving no clues. A spokesperson was quoted as saying, "We have absolutely nothing to go on." 

An Indian chief was feeling very sick, so he summoned the medicine man. After a brief examination, the medicine man took out a long, thin strip of elk rawhide and gave it to the chief, telling him to bite off, chew, and swallow one inch of the leather every day. After a month, the medicine man returned to see how the chief was feeling. The chief shrugged and said, "The thong is ended, but the malady lingers on." 

A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official who apologized profusely saying, "I must have taken Leif off my census." 

There were three Indian squaws. One slept on a deer skin, one slept on an elk skin, and the third slept on a hippopotamus skin. All three became pregnant. The first two each had a baby boy. The one who slept on the hippopotamus skin had twin boys. This just goes to prove that ... the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides. 

A skeptical anthropologist was cataloguing South American folk remedies with the assistance of a tribal Brujo who indicated that the leaves of a particular fern were a sure cure for any case of constipation. When the anthropologist expressed his doubts, the Brujo looked him in the eye and said, "Let me tell you, with fronds like these, you don't need enemas." 

Leo’s pun:

Jock, the painter, often would thin his paint so it would go further. So when the Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jock was able to put in the low bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down with turpentine. One day while he was up on the scaffolding -- the job almost finished -- he heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened. The downpour washed the thinned paint off the church and knocked Jock off his scaffold and onto the lawn among the gravestones and puddles of thinned and worthless paint. Jock knew this was a warning from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?” And from the thunder, a mighty voice: "Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!”

Having had so much groanworthy stuff, it is not fair to inflict a further groan with a punning limerick or something corny.

Here is a pun-free bit of humour...

A young man named Jon received a parrot as a gift. 

The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. 

Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. 

Jon tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary. 

Finally Jon was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. 

The parrot yelled back. 

Jon shook the parrot and the parrot got even angrier and more rude. 

Jon in desperation, threw up his hands and grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. 

For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. 

Then, suddenly there was total quiet, not a peep was heard. 

Fearing that he had hurt the parrot, Jon quickly opened the door to the freezer. 

The parrot calmly stepped out onto Jon's outstretched arm and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions." 

"I am sincerely remorseful for any inappropriate transgressions." 

"I fully intend to do everything I can do to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior". 

Jon was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. 

He was about to ask the parrot why he had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, but the bird continued... "May I ask what the turkey did?" 

Quote: Dalai Lama

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” 

-  Dalai Lama XIV 

I came across the above quote whilst looking up something else. I was a bit surprised, after all, don’t Buddhists respect all life and refuse to kill or injure anything? Does not their belief in reincarnation mean that the departed may come back as anything, hence the old chestnut about not stepping on an ant because it may be your grandmother?

Snopes.com, the authoritative website that looks at urban myths etc says that the quote is genuine.  It also offers information about the circumstances in which the quote was made and its relationship with Buddhist philosophy. Read it at: 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/dalailama.asp 

From Snopes:

• The comment was made by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, in 2001 whilst addressing high school students in Portland, Oregon. 

• Asked how to react to a school shooter, he responded as above, but also added that one should aim to wound and not to kill. 

• According to a report on the school visit in the Seattle Times: 

“Students, in a question-and-answer period, asked some hard questions. 

One girl wanted to know how to react to a shooter who takes aim at a classmate. 

The Dalai Lama said acts of violence should be remembered, and then forgiveness should be extended to the perpetrators. 

But if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, he said, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Not at the head, where a fatal wound might result. But at some other body part, such as a leg.” 

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010515&slug=dalai15m0

• Snopes says that the image of exaggerated pacifism associated with Buddhism and Hinduism is a projection by Europeans and Americans. This has been from various motives and for various purposes. The reality is that there is violence in the Buddhist world but that compassion should be the overriding purpose. 

My own view is that the Dalai Lama’s answer was reasonable, given that he was in a 'damned if you do/damned if you don’t' situation. 

What is more concerning is how his words have been seized upon by the gun lobby. To those of us in Oz, where gun ownership is strictly controlled and where much more restrictive uniform gun laws came into force after the Port Arthur massacre, the American situation is both frightening and confusing. Why do suburbanites need to own high powered assault rifles? And please spare me the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" type rhetoric.

Here are some pics of the Dalai Lama’s words used for propaganda and merchandising: 

(The baby pics are from a website selling baby clothing with pro-gun messages:

http://www.zazzle.com.au/guns+baby+clothes)

Other religious figures have also been co-opted into the gun cause:

“America is a country founded on guns. It's in our DNA. It's very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don't feel safe, I don't feel the house is completely safe, if I don't have one hidden somewhere. That's my thinking, right or wrong.” 

-  Brad Pitt

Dead Parrot and Deceased Prime Minister

For those not familiar with Monty Python, this was a British surreal comedy troupe consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gillam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Their TV show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, aired between 1969 and 1974, 45 episodes, four series.

The Dead Parrot Sketch, from the first season, is one of their best known and most famous sketches. In it John Cleese plays Mr Praline, a dissatisfied customer who has purchased a Norwegian Blue parrot from a shopkeeper, played by Michael Palin. The owner of the store refuses to acknowledge that the parrot is dead and offers a variety of explanations and alternatives, causing Mr Praline to become more and more exasperated. 

(The sketch was inspired by a used car salesman who wouldn't acknowledge gross defects in a car sold by him).

See the sketch at: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIrBMt4eiRk

Here is part of the sketch: 

Owner: No, no.....No, 'e's stunned! 

Mr. Praline: STUNNED?!? 

Owner: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin' up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major. 

Mr. Praline: Um...now look...now look, mate, I've definitely 'ad enough of this. That parrot is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not 'alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk. 

Owner: Well, he's...he's, ah...probably pining for the fjords. 

Mr. Praline: PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got 'im home? 

Owner: The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin' on it's back! Remarkable bird, id'nit, squire? Lovely plumage! 

Mr. Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there. 

(pause) 

Owner: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee! 

Mr. Praline: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised! 

Owner: No no! 'E's pining! 

Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!! 

Fast forward 21 years to 1990. Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister (her last year of office as PM) and she is addressing the Conservative Party Conference. 

One of her targets was the new logo of the Liberal Democratic Party, adopted in 1989. The logo of a yellow bird in full flight is called the Bird of Liberty: 

See Margaret Thatcher’s comments by clicking on the following link, well worth the look: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ6TgaPJcR0

For those not inclined to view, the text is as follows: 

“..Now, that brings me to the Liberal Party.  

I gather that during the last few days there have been some ill-natured jokes about their new symbol, a bird of some kind, adopted by the Liberal Democrats at Blackpool.  

Politics is a serious business, and one should not lower the tone unduly. So I will say only this of the Liberal Democrat symbol and of the party it symbolises.  

This is an ex-parrot.  

It is not merely stunned. It has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker. It is a parrot no more. It has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot.  

And now for something completely different…” 

By the Way Moment: 

Margaret Thatcher had to be persuaded by her advisor to use the reference to the dead parrot, that the lines were funny and that they would be recognised by the audience.

She famously pondered it for a long time backstage and was shown the parrot sketch, repeatedly, until she could mimic John Cleese perfectly. 

Still undecided, she asked her advisor: “This Monty Python. Is he one of us?”

In true deadpan British style, the advisor simply replied: “Yes, Prime Minister.”

Tuesday Pics: Extreme Topiary, Part 1

Topiary, the horticultural practice of turning plants and shrubs into shapes and figures, has been called living sculpture. To me it has always seemed a bit unnatural, like watching an elephant balance on a ball at the circus. Dr Samuel Johnson once observed that a woman preaching was like a dog walking on its hind legs, not that it was done well but that it was surprising that it was done at all. So it is with topiary. 

Nonetheless here are some examples of topiary done well and, in a number of them, surprising to have been done:

And if you don't like your neighbour. . . 

Monday Quote

“I love youse all.” 

- Jeff Fenech 

Australian boxer Jeff Fenech was born in Marrickville, New South Wales, in 1964. A street thug who made good in the boxing ring, he was known as The Marrickville Mauler. Upon his retirement in 1996 he had had 33 fights for 31 wins (21 by knockout), 2 losses and one draw. He had also been the holder of 3 world titles and has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

Defeating Thailand’s Samart Payakarunin a 1987 title fight, and in the process beating him to a bloody pulp, Fenech declared to the crowd “I love youse all.” It became the little Aussie battler’s catch cry but was also used to satirise and ridicule him. In that same post match public utterance, Fenech declared 

"With 12,000 of the most beautifullest people in the world cheering me on, it’s hard to feel pain." 

By 1999 Fenech's love of youse all had changed. Bemoaning that he wasn’t given sufficient recognition, he declared that 

"I hate the way we are as Australians, we are just a jealous, sick race of people who do not want to give credit when others have done something good. Jealousy is worse than cancer, jealousy is worse than AIDS, jealousy is the worst thing in the world." 

In 2009 Fenech was involved in an argument with his bestie and subsequently commented: 

“We’ve been having an argument for the last couple of weeks and I went over there to really try and fix things up and Peter was a little agitated still and said a few things and we got into a grappling motion and all of a sudden Peter threw a couple of punches. I threw one and I tried to punch Peter just in the chest to try and wind him or something but it kind of rebounded off his chest and hit him in the mouth. I’m getting several stitches put into my hand and hopefully my friend is alright and hopefully we can get it fixed up today and I can go over and help him.” 

Fenech with Mike Tyson in 2005 when he became Tyson's trainer in Tyson's comeback bid

What, no Bytes?

I'll be away from my computer for a few days so there won't be a Bytes for a day or two. Back on Monday, amigos.

Otto