Waiting for the Zombie Apocalypse….

As I have indicated before, I consider that all the paranoia about the Coronavirus stems from the hard wiring we have from the 1600 plus years of eschatological conditioning from the time when Christianity become compulsory in the Roman Empire. However, I cannot help but notice the effect on my share portfolio. Is someone who …

Forget about Toilet Paper – Coronavirus is now causing panic buying of Bibles!

The above photo was taken a couple of hours ago at my local bookshop at Highpoint Shopping Centre. This section is the Spirituality section where you buy the Bibles. As you can see, the shelves here are almost empty. It appears that the threat of Coronavirus has now caused people to move on from panic …

Upstart Crow – how best to debunk the Shakespearean authorship myths

As you might guess from some of what I occasionally post on this blog, I am a bit of a Shakespeare fan. And I am both fascinated by and appalled by the theories that the plays were not written by Shakespeare. Ben Elton, in writing a recently broadcast episode of Upstart Crow (a sitcom about …

Rock Me Amadeus – Entering a unique version of Hell

The Vienna based (but American) fantasy novelist, Jonathan Carroll, once wrote a wickedly black short story ‘The Jane Fonda Room’, in which damned person gets to choose their own unique version of Hell, and the protagonist of the story chooses The Jane Fonda Room, where he will watch all her films over and over again …

Masque of the Red Death – Or… I don’t have Coronavirus but my share portfolio does

Ouch ouch ouch! Last Friday afternoon, I really should have pressed the sell button on my share portfolio. After one week (so far) of blood letting in the share market, I am down over $30G! It looks like Coronavirus is the black swan event which we all expected but which none of us were prepared …

Caulfield Grammar, Mack Horton, and a Swimming Pool

In the past week, the Fairfax press has revealed that Australian swimming champion Mack Horton was apparently going to have a swimming pool named after him at his old school, Caulfield Grammar, but that this plan was quietly shelved due to his public criticism of convicted drug cheat Sun Yang, in order to protect the …

What would Elvis do? Reflections on a slow moving Liberal Party tram wreck…

I consider myself as a personally conservative person, albeit someone who reluctantly describes himself as a libertarian (very reluctantly – I loathe the word). As such, I would have some guarded sympathy for the Liberal Party, albeit as someone who very much regards himself as an outsider looking in. As a responsible and engaged citizen, …

Holden’s Cheshire Cat Smile

The decision by General Motors to retire the Holden brand and withdraw from the Australian car market entirely has disappointed and upset many people. There has long been a perception that Holden was an Australian company, and that Holdens are Australian cars. I expect that many people, never having reason to reflect on the matter, …