Books might just be to blame. Like an undertaker at a rest-home aerobics class, I was loitering in a book store when I realised that the way books are classified is a little odd. No, I’m not talking about the Dewey Decimal system that although invented way back in 1876, was in the 1960’s (when […]
Most likely your life, like mine, is pretty tolerable. Apart from a spot of rust in the Subaru and the dog crapping on the carpet, we earn more or less enough money, are healthier and more educated than our parents, and
How nations feel about themselves. Well, the Olympics are over and nations are now pondering their performances. The Americans remain top dogs with God clearly still on their side, but the British win the most improved player award. India came last but that’s hardly surprising given they have more important issues to tackle than tackling, […]
We have been in denial for 170 years. White gold has lost its lustre as farmers’ faces droop even lower than Daisy’s udder, and the world has so much oil you can buy it by the barrel. Faced with the frightening prospect of slipping out of the rich kids club, New Zealand is turning to […]
My Food Bag is a great idea – as far as it goes. What makes living in the first world so awesome (apart from the free prostate examinations) is that we don’t have to do everything. Ask a peasant in Laos or Zaire “how’s life” and you are likely to be greeted with a wide […]
So much has been said about him yet he’s not the one to blame. For us baby boomers growing up in New Zealand during the sixties and seventies life was good, actually life was better than good – we didn’t have to worry about on which side our bread was buttered, it was buttered on […]
You know you want to wear them, just do it. When I visited Japan several years ago, I couldn’t get over how well dressed everybody was. And I mean everybody. From those on the cooly named Thunderbird bullet train to clattering chopsticks on the delicious sushi train, the Japanese dress with precision and style, paragons […]
You can have too much of a good thing. The place, New Plymouth, Nu Zilland The year, 2003. We had suffered a decade of soggy rain and economic depression. The landscape was verdant green but our spirits were as glum as an accountant on holiday. Our destiny as a provincial hub seemed precarious, as talk […]
What was the government thinking? By all accounts, Paris was balmy and fine on the 14th July 1789 when revolting peasants stormed the Bastille, armed with nothing more than authentic french accents and pointy baguettes. In fact, the weather had been so hot that crops had failed, so, tired of nothing to plough, Pierre and […]
Darth Vader and chicken have something in common Darth Vader was such a great character in the original Star Wars. Faceless, breathless, pure evil. But then they went and ruined it by making him Luke Skywalker’s father. Suddenly his allure of evilness evaporated like fairy dust. He now had a history, a story, a personality. […]
