In a land where sport is sacred Where the labourer is God You must pander to the people Make a hero of a clod – Henry Lawson I like to quote Sir Frank Lowy’s justification for his sponsoring of Australian soccer rather than just giving money to charity. He once dismissed his critics with the …
Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta
How Seriously Should We Take The Xi Variant?
The Xi variant, more commonly known as Omicron (there being no such adverb as ‘cowardlyLY’ in the English language yet to describe the relevant verb in this context, ‘cowardly’ itself being an adjective, and I have already sought to make ‘Roxy’ my contribution to the English language this month) seems to be going forward at …
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The Xi Variant Takes A Stranglehold
The COVID variant commonly known as Omicron was originally meant to be called the Xi variant, as that was the letter of the Greek alphabet next in line to be used to name it. However, the World Health Organisation showed its usual backbone and named it Omicron so as not to offend the communist dictator …
Can You Get Drunk FROM Wearing A T-Shirt?
One of my minor problems (which I do not think even counts as a first world problem) is that I do not own enough beer branded clothing (except for baseball caps – I have a lot of those). Perhaps I could fix it by visiting the Victoria Market on a Sunday. They sell all kinds …
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Vegemite and Hot Cross Buns….
This year, Good Friday does not happen til 15 April. However, given that the holiday calendar is geared around maximising retail sale volumes, Hot Cross Buns and other Easter related matters appeared in my local supermarket even before the New Year. I am not sure whether they appeared on Boxing Day, but believe me, by …
In the Year of Our Lord 2,022….
I have never been into all that contemporary CE (Current Era) and BCE (Before Current Era). For me, counting the years with the Latin preface Anno Domini (In The Year Of Our Lord) suffices as much now as it did 20 or 200 or 1500 years ago, and does so for most people, except for …
Should we sometimes say ‘Roxy’ instead of ‘Karen’? [Does it even matter?]
The philosopher Fredrich Nietzsche in his writings frequently deplored the materially affluent and relatively safe bourgeois lives that most people of his era lived. He found such lives mundane and unheroic. He yearned for the coming of a Superman, an Ubermensch, who would, through his example, topple the existing moral order and usher in a new age of …
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God’s Wrath and the Susceptibility of Crowds
Historicism is one of these concepts which I first encountered during my readings for my long ago abandoned MA thesis on Nietzsche, Hegel and matters which were in vogue in the mid 1990s such as the End of History. Historicism essentially holds to the idea that human nature changes over time, that as civilisation grows …
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Enid Blyton’s Posthumous Thought Crimes
As a child in the 1970s, I avidly read much Enid Blyton. My favourite was the mischievous trickster Brer Rabbit, always getting the better of Brer Fox and Brer Wolf and Brer Bear with his quick wit. It was only when I re-read a few of the stories about a decade ago that I realised, …
Grange or Hill Of Grace?
I am a bit of a wine buff (which is a kind way of describing someone who probably should drink a lot less fine red wine than I do). Back in 1999 when I lived in Canberra for most of the year, I started reading about wine appreciation in order to relieve the boredom of …
Lost For Words! 