Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-26/asio-reconsiders-huifeng-liu-s-national-security-risk-status/100168336 Having libertarian convictions means that usually I am a bit skeptical about ASIO and the security apparatus. However, when you look at the way our democracy is bring subverted from within by rich donors to political parties who happen to have close links to communist China, I am totally on board with ASIO’s efforts …

Continue reading “HaHa is even less funny”

So far, I’ve picked half of my olive tree and it’s a bumper harvest, unlike last year when I only ended up with a handful of fruit. I picked about 2kg a few weeks ago and another 5kg this past few days. It’s a great feeling to indulge my Italian peasant origins in this way.

Like most men, I suppose, I have a puerile streak. It partly manifests itself through a love of James Bond movies. I do think that Bond Super Villains are amongst the most interesting characters in cinema, and direct descendants of the classic Shakespearean villains from the golden age of Elizabethan Theatre. Twenty five or so …

Continue reading “Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble”

Margaret Thatcher is quoted, probably Apocryphally, as saying in 1990 when discussing with Kenneth Clarke the England team’s defeat against Germany in the semi-final of the Association Football (aka soccer) World Cup: ‘They might have beaten us at our national sport, but we managed to beat them at their national sport twice in the 20th …

Continue reading “Liz Cambage reminds us of the irrelevance of Basketball in Australia”

I am on leave this week from work, a combination of routine medical appointments for my elderly mother in between days of annual leave to rest and undertake life admin. For example, late last week I arranged for repairs to my iPhone (I cracked the screen recently). On Monday, I mowed the lawn and dug …

Continue reading “For those who came in late… why the Phantom continues to appeal”

The Tang Dynasty in Kingston, Canberra, was one of the classiest Chinese restaurants in Canberra. It’s long gone now – I believe it closed in 2005, and I do mourn it a little still. For it had one of the best and most reasonably priced wine lists I have ever encountered. It was a Shanghai …

Continue reading “Stalin’s Wine Cellar”

I’m part of the Countdown Generation. That comprises the callow youth growing up in Australia in the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, when Countdown was the ABC’s most popular show, probably the only thing the ABC had which could compete with the commercial networks in terms of ratings. …

Continue reading “Love and Death and an American Songwriter”

The Western Bulldogs (aka the Footscray Football Club) are sitting on top of the AFL ladder after round 5, undefeated and with a huge percentage (thanks to recent matches against current easy beat teams like North Melbourne and the Gold Coast). Commentators are saying that this is the best start to a season the Bulldogs …

Continue reading “A Great Start to the AFL Season, but I stay cautious”

http://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-56713953 Quite touching to see how revered Prince Philip is amongst the followers of his cargo cult. I look forward to learning which of his descendants inherits the divinity.

Right now, I am watching season 2 of the Apple TV series For All Mankind, which is about an alternative reality where the Soviet Union won the moon race and how that causes the space race between the USA and USSR to continue. Giant moon bases and more powerful rockets are the result. Risks get …

Continue reading “AstraZeneca Vs Astronauts – the perils of not taking risks….”