In any Anglo-phonic democracy, particularly those based on the Westminster system, the role of the loyal Opposition is important. It is there to scrutinise the behaviour of the government of the day and to constructively criticise it’s policies. If it does a good job of that, and the government of the day does a poor …
Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta
Communist Kitsch rescued from the Trash Can of History
In the early 2000s, there were a couple of Chinese restaurants in Little Bourke Street named after Mao and Deng. They did not last long, because the food was not very good (the Post Mao Cafe based it’s menu on what apparently was Mao’s favourite dishes, which appears to have been the Chinese answer to …
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Zoom replaces Friday nights at the pub
A couple of weeks ago, I headed to the local bottle shop to buy a six pack of beer for a Friday night drinking session with some colleagues over Zoom (I need not have bothered, as I decided to switch after a couple of stubbies to red wine – which is my poison of choice …
Wikipedia Fake News – Take 3
Mark Twain is oft quoted as writing: ‘There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics.’ I follow the Wikipedia page on the Corona Virus outbreak very closely, and I have expressed considerable concern twice about the accuracy of some of the numbers given on that page, particularly in relation to the …
Nevil Shute – time for a modest revival
As I walk the streets of central Melbourne on my lunch break on the two days each week I work in the office now rather than at home, I do reflect on how (as I like to say) almost On The Beach empty they are. Nevil Shute is one of my very favourite novelists, and …
Remembering Sisto
On my lunchtime walk today, I strolled down Bourke Street and saw this memorial table dedicated to Sisto, the late owner of Pellegrinis, the cafe which is a Melbourne institution. He was brutally murdered 18 months ago in the city by some deranged wannabe terrorist. As a sliding door moment, I was in Pellegrinis with …
Melton or Meltdown?
My best friend lives in Melton, a pragmatic but affordable home ownership choice after his marriage breakdown divested him of his previous home. He does not live there for the lifestyle choice, with the local greyhound racing stadium near the freeway and the live wrestling hosted at the Shire Hall. But home ownership is an …
Possible Contender for Australian of the Year
Much as I believe in free market capitalism, I do not believe in being an avaricious a-hole. The following news story has gone viral, about a supermarket manager, John-Paul Drake, who refused to give a refund to some such avaricious a-hole who decided on a not-so-clever get rich quick scheme where he and some cronies …
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Too much choice – welcoming a First World Problem back to the First World
Right now, we have the coronavirus pandemic wreaking the most havoc seen in the First World since 1945. Pandemics are not exactly First World Problems. They are what we expect to find in poor countries, ie the Third World (which reminds me, I heard a rumour that Ebola is making a comeback at the moment). …
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Lavender’s Blue, Diddle Diddle….
Back in January I bought a Venus Fly Trap as a gift for a friend (I make such heartfelt gestures from time to time), and decided that I wanted to find it some food. So I went looking around my front verandah and garden for some insects or other bugs I could feed to it …
Lost For Words! 