I'm old enough to know that I don't have any answers, but that won't stop me talking
Like many teen aged boys in the 1980s, I had a thing for Laura Branigan, she of the sequinned body suit and awesome wiggle who sang various hits, including the English language version cover of the Italian hit Gloria (with modified lyrics and addition of a post disco dance sound). Recently, when idly browsing Wikipedia …
Continue reading “Play Gloria! (In Which I Explain Why And Whom I Have Adopted As My NHL Team)”
The Age has written, since the cancellation of the 2026 Regional Commonwealth Games, about the intended Aquatic Centre in Armstrong Creek, a recently built suburb south of Geelong in a marginally held Labor seat. Apparently the plan was to build temporary stadia around two 50 metre racing pools, and one diving pool. After the Games, …
Continue reading “Armstrong Creek Aquatic Centre – Pork Barrelling or Electoral Fraud?”
For those who came in late, in early October 2020 a premature baby was found abandoned in a bathroom in Doha Airport in Qatar. The reaction of the airport authorities was to remove 13 Australian women from a Qatar Airways flight and subject 7 of them to invasive genital examinations. This could well be considered …
I was walking through Collingwood and Clifton Hill yesterday (as I did not grow up or ever live around there, I am not too sure where one stops and the other starts) and paused to admire the Bendigo Hotel in Johnston Street. This is quite a distinctive and ornate pub, on the outside at least. …
Many years ago, I read a book about the final collapse of the Cain-Kirner government. It was a collection of essays. by then-prominent journalists and academics. Essentially it was a laudatory panegyric by committed Keynesians who saw nothing wrong in the many fiscal and governance failures by Cain-Kirner and their ministers. Instead, they placed the …
Let’s face it, there is no political philosophy more obsessed with money and its possession (or lack thereof) than Communism (and its slightly watered down version – Socialism). Karl Marx did invent the term ‘Capitalism’ to describe the existing socio-economic status quo, and he was always obsessed with money – because he had little of …
Continue reading “My New Bookcases Used To Be Owned By A Communist!”
I am a proud member of Generation X, far more virtuous and responsible than the Baby Boomers, and far less self-entitled than the Millennials (ie Gen Y). I would say that the main flaw with my Generation is that we have a bit of a problem understanding Irony. I will give you two examples. One …
Continue reading “Crown Casino Gives Us A Fine Example Of Irony”
A colleague decided not to attend my giant retirement celebration last Friday because he was licking his wounds after not getting tickets to one of the Taylor Swift concerts which were on sale last week. Oh well, my bar bill was well into the four figures as it was. Much as I enjoy listening to …
The men (and it would have almost invariably have been men) who undertook the Haj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, prior to the modern era, would have been both rich and brave. Rich to be able to afford to leave their affairs and families unattended for the duration of the journey, and to pay for …
Continue reading “Modern Exploration: Thrill-Seeking or Ghoul Tourism for the Mega-Rich?”
I’m not really retired yet, but I have 12 and a half months of extended leave to get used to the idea, and I am not going back to work. I started my leave at lunchtime yesterday, marked with a very large farewell drinks at my Club with about a hundred colleagues and friends. The …
Lost For Words!