What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria Vienna London Unreal Friends and foes (alas) alike who have known me long enough will know that I have this tendency to quote T.S. Eliot, an intellectual pretension which I have yet to outgrow …
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The West Melbourne Swamp and other reflections on local history
At the risk of sounding paternalistic, and possibly imperialistic, where I live in Avondale Heights was, for a brief moment in time, the very edge of the known world. In early February 1803, the naval officer James Fleming and the surveyor Charlies Grimes left their ship in the bay, and rowed up the Yarra mouth. …
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Uber Eats and Netflix: Bread and Circuses, 21st Century Style
iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli / uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim / imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se / continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, / panem et circenses. Writing at the time the Roman Empire was reaching its greatest extent, in his Satire X, the Roman poet Juvenal denounced the apathy …
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Hibernating during Pandemonium….
It is now mid-winter and I am in a state of semi-hibernation, which is strange because winter is usually one of the most academically and professionally active times of the year. I do my job on my laptop, and go into the office twice a week, but I see no point in taking holidays, and …
Why the musical Hamilton single handedly affirms American Exceptionalism and disproves the decline of America….
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spotIn the Caribbean by providence impoverishedIn squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? The ten-dollar founding father without a fatherGot a lot farther by working a lot harderBy being a lot smarter By being …
All Roads Lead To The Avondale Heights Cannoli Bar
Because it is in a more remote pocket of Avondale Heights, about 500 metres on the other side of Military Road, where the streets are all named after places in France, I rarely get along to the Cannoli Bar in Riviera Road. It opened about 2 years ago, in a former milk bar and is …
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In Which Coles Online Inadvertently Helps Me To Observe Dry July….
I like a glass of decent red wine or seven. The older I get, the more I realise that this is not a good way of managing my health, regardless of what wine writers say about the various natural chemicals in wine preventing or curing all sorts of illnesses. I do know, given that we …
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The Demise of the Clown-Prince of Moomba
As a small child, I have very fond memories of quality time spent with my father (I was the first born child and therefore had lots of privileged access). Visits to the zoo, or to the Royal Melbourne Show, or to see the Moomba Parade. Moomba was always a constant. You had the parade each …
Observations on the madness of men and markets…
At the time of the South Sea Bubble in the 18th Century, Dr Brian May lookalike Sir Isaac Newton is quoted as saying: “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men”. Sir Isaac was also a shareholder in the South Sea company, but I am not sure whether he …
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Ready Player One Million: The Ultimate First World Problem?
When I was browsing Wikipedia just before, I saw a featured article on the title page which was just too bizarre for me to pass up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Asakai Yes, if you have clicked on that link and read it, this is an account of a virtual battle in cyberspace, not about alleged Communist Chinese hackers trying …
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Lost For Words! 