Aussie Life

Aussie life

21 June 2025 9:00 am

It used to be believed that treaties could be agreed only between sovereign nations. No longer. The Victorian government, forward-looking…

Language

21 June 2025 9:00 am

When a letter to the editor called a political talking head a ‘dingbat’ I searched for the origin of the…

Aussie life

14 June 2025 9:00 am

Last week my contacts at Latrobe Valley Law Courts sent me a digital scan of one page of the Leongatha…

Language

14 June 2025 9:00 am

Speccie reader (Joshua) asks about the expression ‘unrealised capital gains’ and in particular that worrying adjective. Well, ‘unrealised’ has been…

Aussie life

7 June 2025 9:00 am

US eyes Darwin Port prise. That, in case you missed it, was the hedline on the frunt page of last…

Language

7 June 2025 9:00 am

Calling all lovers of our language – the semicolon is at risk of becoming extinct! Forget about the bilby or…

Aussie life

31 May 2025 9:00 am

They call America the Land of the Free; it’s right there in the New York Times small print. But the…

Language

31 May 2025 9:00 am

Speccie reader Alan writes to say he was having a conversation about Liberal party factions, and (strangely enough!) two expressions…

Aussie life

24 May 2025 9:00 am

In the 1980s there was a popular watering hole on Sydney’s Lower North Shore called The Plum. Its popularity with…

Language

24 May 2025 9:00 am

I have wanted to write a column on ‘common sense’ for a long time – but it is a surprisingly…

Aussie life

17 May 2025 9:00 am

In 1968 the anthropologist Bill Stanner gave the Boyer Lectures on ABC Radio and coined the phrase ‘the great Australian…

Language

17 May 2025 9:00 am

Joe Hildebrand excitedly told me about a new word he had come across while doing a Times cryptic crossword puzzle…

Aussie life

10 May 2025 9:00 am

Of all the Gospel parables, I’ve always thought the one that would be hardest to pitch to Hollywood would be…

Language

10 May 2025 9:00 am

The New York Times has coined the expression ‘dark Woke’ to describe the current strategy being used by the Democratic…

Aussie life

3 May 2025 9:00 am

Reading the works of Confucius and other Chinese ancients recently, with their guidance for a life of introspection and honesty…

Language

3 May 2025 9:00 am

In the Weekend Australian I read a review of a book about AI and its disastrous impact on undergraduate student…

Aussie life

26 April 2025 9:00 am

I happened to be in London when the UK’s Supreme Court confirmed what many people have long suspected about women…

Language

26 April 2025 9:00 am

Everyone who has ever worked in an election campaign knows what a ‘corflute’ is. We have all seen them even…

Aussie life

19 April 2025 9:00 am

The evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad once described woke as a mind virus. For the past decade, Western intellectual and cultural…

Language

19 April 2025 9:00 am

At the end of this year (as every year) the dictionaries of the world will announce their choice for ‘word…

Aussie life

12 April 2025 9:00 am

Like every country whose peace and prosperity has depended, for as long as most of its population has been alive,…

Language

12 April 2025 9:00 am

In a recent post-budget interview Treasurer Jim Chalmers claimed his tax cuts (worth about a Mars Bar a day) are…

Aussie life

5 April 2025 9:00 am

It’s hard to imagine climate fanatics smashing roof-loads of solar panels, gluing themselves to wind turbines or scrawling offensive semi-literate…

Language

5 April 2025 9:00 am

Are you a ‘pejorist’? I wouldn’t blame you if you were. I am currently reading Melanie Phillips’ brilliant book The…

Aussie life

29 March 2025 9:00 am

A sad legacy of Dark Emu, or rather of the embarrassing embrace of its ludicrous central thesis by our education…