Aussie Life
Language
Because of the alarming level of antisemitism that has grown like a poisonous fungus in Australia, a Speccie reader (Sandra)…
Aussie life
Further evidence that global warming is good for mammals emerged in South Australia last week, when marine biologists confirmed that…
Language
‘Said Hanrahan’ is a phrase from a bush ballad, usually uttered to identify a prophet of doom, gloom and utter…
Aussie life
The vote to cut HECs debt just went through parliament. Clever politics targeting the youth vote yet all I remember…
Language
A Speccie reader (Noel) wants to know if the media is using ‘decimated’ correctly, when a commenter calls on Hamas…
Aussie life
One Sunday morning in 1952, the pilot of a light aircraft flying low over the Pilbara looked down and saw…
Language
Our esteemed editor asks about the word ‘irits’. Is it, he asks, British or American or authentically Aussie. The good…
Aussie life
A strange thing happened recently on a bright and peaceful Sunday morning in Bleak City, aka the once-great Melbourne. I…
Language
The online world breeds some very strange bits of language, and none are stranger than the word ‘catfishing’. This names…
Aussie life
Much of the advice you received as a child is now redundant. For example, don’t even think about telling an…
Language
From time to time there are journalists who like to aggrandise their humble trade by claiming they are ‘speaking truth…
Aussie life
When I’m not writing for the Speccie, I’m counting my money. I picked up the habit attending St Nepo Baby,…
Language
When the President of the United States in Donald Trump, and there is an old English word ‘trumpery’ – clearly…
Aussie life
Nobody in the current federal government worked harder than Penny Wong to thaw the freeze in Sino-Australian relations caused by…
Language
The recent severe weather events on the east coast were labelled (by our official Weather Bureau) as a ‘bomb cyclone’…
Aussie life
To much leftist adulation, the eagerly awaited findings of Victoria’s Yoorrook Commission into ‘historic and ongoing systemic injustices’ against Aborigines…
Language
Social psychologist Irving Janis coined the term ‘groupthink’ in 1971. So, let’s see if I can break that down, and…
Aussie life
If you want to get a rough idea of where Australians stand on a particular issue, commission a report by…
Language
Is ‘de-escalate’ in the running to be the Word of the Year for 2025? Or (as seems more likely) the…
Aussie life
Tony Abbott has written Australia, a personal take on our history, focused on the positives. But this is a mug’s…
Language
A short time ago I was chatting with the former deputy prime minister of Australia John Anderson about the sort…
Aussie life
The past sometimes intrudes upon the present in curious and unexpected ways. Last week, on SBS, the irresistible and irrepressible…
Language
Is ‘de-escalate’ in the running to be the Word of the Year for 2025? Or (as seems more likely) the…
Aussie life
It used to be believed that treaties could be agreed only between sovereign nations. No longer. The Victorian government, forward-looking…
Language
When a letter to the editor called a political talking head a ‘dingbat’ I searched for the origin of the…
