Will our future lives be like a video game?
A few years ago, the software company Owlchemy Labs released a computer game called Job Simulator. Its premise was simple.…
The tyranny of good intentions
Many are familiar with the term ‘fifteen days to slow the spread’. People were largely on board in 2020, given…
Freedom of political communication
I suspect the people who voted for Alex Hawke and Scott Morrison will not be particularly persuaded by the seriousness…
We can’t rejoice until we’re free
On 1 January last year the words of the national anthem were changed, purportedly to make them more inclusive. Instead…
A woke diary
The Covid lockdown has confined me to the house for long periods. My wife is downstairs working on a new…
Business/Robbery, etc.
Be careful what you wish for. Climate activists — including investment managers of other people’s money such as union-dominated superannuation…
Jeremy Irons in House of Gucci
Any attempt to fictionalise the Gucci story runs into the same difficulties as Ridley Scott’s handsome and absorbing film, House…
Aussie Life
I live by the sea and like walking along the coastline including scrambling over the rock ledges in Noosa National…
Aussie Language
A letter writer to the Australian has pointed out that Anthony Albanese appears to have coined a brand-new oxymoron to…
Portrait of the week
Home Sue Gray, Second Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, having been asked by Boris Johnson to look into accusations…
GHB and GBH
Never, never kill the dog. It’s rule one in the crime writer’s manual. Cats are bad enough, as I can…
What the Georgians did for us
‘The two most fascinating subjects in the universe are sex and the 18th century,’ declared the novelist Brigid Brophy when…
Bridge
Almost everyone has a set of ‘carding’ agreements with their partners to convey information when defending. But I’m always amazed…
Looking on the bright side
When Zorrie Underwood, the titular character in Laird Hunt’s deeply touching novel about an Indiana farm woman, is pregnant, a…
Bring me my Spear
Where do you see paintings by Ruskin Spear (1911–90)? In the salerooms mostly, because his work in public collections is…
Puzzle no. 686
White to play. Gelfand–Karjakin, Tal Memorial Blitz 2008. Gelfand’s pawn is pinned, and moving the king runs into more checks.…
