Aussie Life
Aussie life
The Weekend Australian recently published two jeremiads discussing the slough of despond formerly known as Great Britain. John O’Sullivan’s ‘How…
Language
The ‘Great Game’ is an expression largely forgotten these days. The compound noun ‘the Great Game’ seems to have been…
Aussie life
To the average Australian, Liddle is a typo. And even for most Brits, a surname which is a homophone of…
Language
The enemy of ‘common sense’ is ‘ideology’. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy says ‘ideology’ means ‘beliefs and values held by…
Aussie life
The Australian War Memorial Council, under Chairman Kim Beazley, is proposing to include extensive coverage, in its new Pre-1914 Gallery,…
Language
The late, great Rod Liddle in one of his classic columns fulminated against what he called the most ‘irritating words’.…
Aussie life
There can’t be many German phrases which lodge easily in the adolescent Australian psyche. Even kids who aspire to one…
Language
Eric wants to know why a fruitless and pointless activity is called a ‘wild goose chase’. It seems that around…
Language
The news report said that drugs and a number of weapons including grenades were seized during a police raid on…
Aussie life
On Dr Anthony Fauci’s watch, the USA became one of the sickest wealthy nations in the world, despite spending twice…
Aussie life
To someone wanting to escape persecution or poverty in a failed African state, the Mediterranean is an obstacle to be…
Language
What words do you put at the end of an email? Or at the end of a letter? (Does anyone…
Aussie life
In interesting news from the fickle world of celebrities, American-Albanian singer Dua Lipa, whose repertoire includes but is not limited…
Language
Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow pointed out that the Albanese government suffers from ‘tall poppy syndrome’– dividing the…
Aussie life
One of the least neglected protocols of elite sport is the obligation of the national coach to answer the question…
Language
One classic bit of the Aussie verbal culture (with us for many years) is the expression ‘beyond the black stump’.…
Language
A radio talkback caller described many of the activities of the bureaucrats living in the Canberra bubble as being nothing…
Aussie life
In London, where I am writing this, three topics dominate pub conversation; the demise of Sir Keir Starmer, the historically…
Language
Sometimes I worry about what is happening to higher education – not just here, but around the English-speaking world. My…
Aussie life
Measuring tobacco consumption is dirty work, but somebody has to do it. The antiseptic image of the government statistician has…
Language
The word of the moment is undoubtedly ‘monocultural’. In her take-no-prisoners speech at the National Press Club Pauline Hanson said…
Aussie life
The international popularity of the gladioli-waving, board-wobbling, knife-wielding caricatures of Barry Humphries, Rolf Harris and Paul Hogan was so great…
Language
I ran into James Morrow in the corridor the other day – and he told me that he thought he…
Aussie life
‘Chloe’, Young and Jackson’s famously elongated dining room nude is a Rorschach test for people who say they know a…
Language
‘Codswallop’ means ‘Nonsense, rubbish, drivel’. The experts at the Oxford think they have nailed it down. They write, ‘Popularised in…
