Aussie Life
Kiwi life
Softly, softly, catchee monkey – the alphabet community’s grab for our children Somewhat naively, a New Zealand commentator thinks there’s…
Language
The University of Chicago has what it calls a ‘Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse’ – aimed at teaching students to…
Aussie life
It’s been a long time since the beer garden of the iconic Oaks Hotel in Sydney’s Neutral Bay lost all…
Language
We all know what it means when someone is said to have been ‘thrown under the bus’ by their colleagues…
Language
Raymond from Nedlands, WA, asks for the meaning of ‘identity politics’. Searching through various sources, I can provide a one-word…
Aussie life
Memory is tricky. Wandering the Paris end of Collins street sipping espresso, waving to paroled Extinction Rebellion protesters, and thinking…
Language
We wordsmiths have a principle that ‘a text without a context is a pretext’. This matters because of what some…
Aussie life
Which part of ‘No thanks’, many Australians may be wondering, does our Prime Minister not understand? Six months after the…
Language
In last week’s edition of The Speccie our esteemed editor repeated a widely believed urban myth about the origin of…
Aussie life
Much has been written of Australian soccer captain Sam Kerr’s big night out in the back of a London cab.…
Language
When we use Old Aussie we might call a bloke a ‘cove’ – but why? Why is an adult male…
Aussie life
The Banksy retrospective which has been drawing modest crowds to the basement of Sydney Town Hall in recent weeks is…
Language
Adam, a Speccie reader, asks about the familiar expression ‘face the music’ – meaning to face up to the consequences…
Aussie life
In a provincial Victorian city a vast brooding monolith has recently obtruded itself into the ‘built environment’, usurping the church…
Language
As if the sheer horrors of the Hamas attacks on Israel weren’t bad enough, now someone has coined the expression…
Aussie life
Surprisingly, perhaps, it was only 20 years after the Union flag was first raised in Sydney Cove that white Australians…
Language
Is the great old Aussie word ‘bloke’ an offensive word? The army thinks it is. Writing in the Daily Telegraph…
Aussie life
At time of writing, we do not know whether there is any truth to the allegations which have been made…
Language
The expression ‘culture wars’ is having a flush of popularity just now, but it is surprisingly old. Recorded in English…
Aussie life
It’s no wonder the cost of living is rocketing when the politicians who run our country have little or no…
Language
A headline worth sharing. When King Charles went into hospital to have repair work done on his prostate, Associated Press…
Aussie life
Move over, Errol Flynn. It took long enough, but as of last Tuesday you are no longer Tasmania’s most popular…
Language
A teacher in America has raised a minor storm in a teacup by banning from the classroom current hip and…
Kiwi life
Ah, summer. The sap is rising, and so are anxiety levels on either side of the Tasman as editors cast…
Language
They keep inventing new, so-called ‘phobias’, don’t they? The latest is ‘fatphobia’. A new book has been published called Unshrinking:…
