Saturday 16 July 2011

Short Lists

The last short list was: "Countries which have never devalued their currency; 'restructured' or defaulted on their national debt; taken a bridging loan from the IMF; accepted soft loans/grants under Lend/Lease, Marshall Plan, or from World Bank or EU; received overseas aid; nationalised foreign-owned assets etc."

The following countries appear to qualify:

Bhutan (submitted by Bayard)
Australia (Adam Collyer)
Sweden (Dearieme)
Canada (Ross)

Mike W and Steve_L, who've actually read a book about it, seemed to think that there is no such country.
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This week's Short List: "Female Jewish pop stars who are very cute". I can only think of two (not Dana International or Amy Winehouse!), but there may be a few more.

15 comments:

Tim Worstall said...

Sorta depends on the definition of cute and which year they were cute in.

Umm, three of all Saints? Pat Benatar? Lou Reed (yes, of course he was cute). Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Mary Travers (oh yes she was indeed very cute) Paula Abdul, Marilyn Monroe (converted), Dinah Shore...Helen Shapiro?

Mark Wadsworth said...

Tim, Lou Reed wasn't female. Barbra Streisand was neither a pop star nor cute. Neither Marilyn Monroe nor Carly Simon were proper Jewish. The Appletons don't count as only their Dad was Jewish. Ditto Pat Benatar.

Melanie Blatt isn't really Jewish either, but she can go on the official short list though because she is (or was) immensely cute and at least she looks the part.

DBC Reed said...

It depends on what you mean by cute.Pink would pass most tests surely.Janis Ian ,Carol King ,lead off Shangri-las,Mama Michelle ( Phillips ?)and Barbra Streisand! and Bette Middler!! all fulfil some defintions of cute ,including being clever and interesting.

James Higham said...

Hawke/Keating floated the Aussie dollar though.

Ross said...

Well since your transphobia precvents you from appreciating Dana International fully and lead singers of mediocre 1990s britpop bands were already mentioned how about Justine Frischman of the band Elastica.

Probably most notable for dating more successful stars and plagiarising stuff from better groups- (the Johann Hari of the 1990s music scene)

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, I got as far as the word "Pink" and decided that you hadn't understood the rules of this one.

JH, sure, but that was not a devaluation, and it has since appreciated and depreciated depending on the fortunes of that country (currently doing very well indeed).

R, accusing me of transphobia is a bit harsh. I merely said DI wasn't cute. Not all good looking women are cute. Cindy Crawford isn't cute.

Justine Frischman, that's more like it. Is Jewish, looks Jewish, is cute.

DBC Reed said...

Your arbitariness, not to say arrogance, with these quizzes is, as usual, ramped up to 11.Pink is not a word: it is the name of a quite well-known Jewish singer who is the very definition of cute.

Here's a musical quiz for you which should n't go wrong:Name two musicians who have had cymbals thrown at them by disgruntled drummers.

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, I know who P!nk is (spelled with exclamation instead of the letter i) and her records are quite good, by today's standards but she is about the opposite of cute. I'm baffled with cymbals. Probably Sting and Andy Summers.

john b said...

Reposting Louise Wener here.

Pink not cute? Sceptical.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JB, LW goes on the list, and I'm prepared to concede that P!nk is Jewish (having a Jewish dad and Catholic mum) but she is not the sort of person you immediately want to pick up, take home and give a saucer of milk, is she? She looks like a female version of Billy Idol, only more butch.

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, damn, I got it the wrong way round, of course P!nk has a jewish mum, so she counts as proper-Jewish for the purposes of this discussion.

I'll do a special Short List for her if you want "Female Jewish pop stars who look like Billy Idol would look if he were a young, butch female" but that's a bit specialist.

john b said...

It strikes me that Goy Dad would make an excellent name for a half-genetically-Jewish, all-ecclesiastically-Jewish, all-sisters pop group. As long as they played unbelievably bad 1990s indie, and were ludicrously overhyped because one of them used to write for the NME.

(capcha "medness". This is probably a state I require)

DBC Reed said...

Since you (haven't) asked the answer is: Dave Davies who got 19stitches after one cymbal attack by Kinks' drummer (there are numerous stories but these are most likely different set-to's); Charlie Parker who had a cymbal thrown by Jo Jones land at his feet when he was 16 and beginning to make his way in the world (one version is that Bird was already too advanced for the rhythm section to keep up with,the other that he got into a hopeless muddle with the tempo).

Bolivia Newton-John said...

Rachel Stevens is quite cute, and properly Jewish. P!nk most certainly is not. She would probably break your nose for saying she was.

Aside from that, my namesake Olivia Newton-John is famously cute, though her Jewish credentials wouldn't satisfy everyone.

Mark Wadsworth said...

BNJ, ta for backup on P!nk. And yes, Rachel Stevens was the other one I was thinking of. I'll leave it to you to decide on whether ONJ is on the Short List or not.