Football is coming home and despite being ethnically Italian, I do not mind at all

youtube.com/watch Even Dorothy knows it… Let me put on record that I loathe Association Football (otherwise known as Soccer) and consider Australian Rules to be Real Football. Given that, I do not usually get too excited about soccer tournaments and I do get a spot of malevolent glee when the Socceroos fall flat on their …

Why My Local Upper House MP Bernie Finn Deserves A Knighthood

People reading my blog are going to surmise after a while that despite my libertarian convictions, I am pretty conservative on a lot of things, if not downright reactionary. For example, as a property owner and a ratepayer, it appalls me that mere tenants are able to vote in local government elections. I consider this …

Cross Bench MP Suddenly Realises Election Is Approaching, Puts Fridge Magnets In Letterboxes Of Constituents

I have been reading the somewhat satirical Betoota Advocate a lot lately, which claims to be one of the oldest newspapers in Australia (it actually did not exist until its online edition was introduced a few years ago, in case you are inclined to take it seriously). Hence you might see a resemblance in the …

What a Dumbarton Idea!

Last year, I wryly noted in this blog that a future former friend (whose delusional tendencies border on the certifiable) had once caused me to make a spectacularly unsuccessful speculative investment. At that time, I wrote that the director of the company at the heart of that investment had already prepared a shopping list of …

Dark Emu and Other Great Australian Literary Hoaxes

I once almost was a neighbour of the great Australian poet John Shaw Neilson. For the first seven years of my life, I lived in Gordon Street Footscray, number 156 to be precise, in a neighbourhood which was gobbled up in 1976 by the Footscray Hospital when the brutalist concrete psychiatric facility was constructed behind …

My Kingdom for a Horse! Reflections on Malcolm Gladwell’s Latest Book.

“For want of a nail, a shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, a horse was lost. For want of a horse, a rider was lost. For want of a rider, a message was lost. For want of a message, a battle was lost. For want of a battle, the war was lost. For …

Collingwood’s Catbird Seat

Collingwood Football Club’s boast in their theme song that the ‘Premiership is a cakewalk’ is not borne out by recent history. In my 50 plus year lifetime, they have been runners up 8 times and won 2 premierships, as compared to the 11 they won in a 36 year period leading up to 1936. However, …