Michael Scammell

Dan is back

26 June 2021 9:00 am

Melburnians are on the verge of nervous breakdown

The great G7 jacket wars

13 June 2021 4:41 pm

It’s the G7 and as world leaders gather here’s the big question: who wore it better – Dr Jill and the psychobabble elder-care…

My daddy issues

6 June 2021 12:49 pm

Prince Harry wants to talk about his childhood and work out whom to blame. So do I. I grew-up in Mount Waverley and they really were…

Our Aussie contenders for the 2022 Oscars in full

30 April 2021 2:48 pm

It’s Academy Award time and the votes are in for best female black actor in a male Latino role.   Meanwhile…

Magda versus the Morrisons – and more

15 April 2021 7:35 pm

On A Current Affair Magda Szubanski said it was ok for her to criticize Jenny Morrison because of the growing…

Aussie Life

27 March 2021 9:00 am

I’m back from Sydney and just coming out of my drunken stupor – a 12-hour bender at a resuscitated Qantas…

Writers block

6 March 2021 4:02 pm

Was it Snoopy who said Being-A-Writer means never having to complete your novel? I’ve been thinking a lot about being…

Why everything ScoMo does is wrong in the left’s weird world

24 February 2021 4:00 am

The political and cultural Left claim that when it comes to the big issues they are not-playing-politics. They say it all the time. But they are currently…

So what can we say about the Podium Poet?

22 January 2021 4:47 pm

So let’s talk about the poetry thing and the poet who read poetry at the inauguration. America’s National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who recited the…

Not the death of democracy – not even close

9 January 2021 5:59 pm

Contrary to the aphorism and what you’re seeing in America, things don’t fall apart, the centre nearly always holds.   Despite what you read democracy…

Dr Jill and the importance of being qualified

16 December 2020 3:41 pm

Dr Jill wants to be Dr Phil, that is the question: whether you are a wanker for calling yourself a Doctor when you’re…

The strange sexism of Anita Recount

12 November 2020 6:44 pm

Forget bonk ban. The real sex hang-ups — or more accurately — sexuality hang-ups seem to be from progressive types…

Death of a feminist

10 October 2020 4:00 pm

I have written before about Hot for Teacher.  The Van Halen guitar rock megahit was a touchstone for cultural norms…

I don’t like Donald Trump, but don’t hate him enough to be fashionable

20 September 2020 4:00 pm

Just for the record because everything is on the record: I doubt I could ever vote for Donald Trump.   My…

Biden-Harris, Harris-Biden: the epitome of post-truth politics

13 September 2020 1:00 pm

The endgame isn’t Donald Trump. With the Democratic Convention coronation complete and campaigning underway, It’s Biden-Harris; America’s Seinfeld ticket, a…

Trump’s RNC speech: the great middle America gamble

29 August 2020 2:02 pm

The Orange Man is cheating.  He’s Teleprompter Trump but we want Rally Trump crazy that will play badly on middle…

joe biden

The granddad speech

22 August 2020 1:39 pm

CNN is saying the Biden speech proves he isn’t an old man, even though anyone with elderly parents would recognize…

Bleak thoughts from Bleak City

12 August 2020 5:34 pm

I was with the best minds of my generation – chartered accountants, real estate agents, Instagram influencers living off the…

Australia’s problematic arts culture

14 July 2020 7:12 pm

The ideological closed shop that is Australia’s creative classes isn’t really a secret even if the artists themselves insist on…

Lockdown Diary

20 June 2020 9:00 am

90 Days in lockdown – a retrospective   Day 1 – you configure your bathroom into a replica of your…

“They’re everywhere, those Hi-Vis Guys, polishing up to stay alive.” 

5 June 2020 4:25 pm

Somewhere in a Melbourne suburban street near you, someone in an orange Hi-Vis vest is polishing a lamppost with disinfectant…

There is no Trump World

31 May 2020 5:00 am

There is no Trump World. Nations are not the sum of their political parts.  The personal is political is not…

I see dead people

10 May 2020 3:18 pm

Beaming Boris attends the birth of his son showing the political power of looking healthy.   Juxtapose COVID Boris in intensive care,…

Everyone thinks they’re a great writer when corona cabin fever strikes

26 April 2020 3:43 pm

Pandemic Poetry   On isolation How the hell do you spell pendemic anyway? Maybe I should use a thesaurus, no that…

I, for one, welcome our new People’s Republic of ScoMo

15 April 2020 5:01 pm

Welcome to Socialism World, where everything is paid for. ‘Yeah, nah’, as we say here in the People’s Republic of…