Stories from all categories
Most joyous demo/march I've ever been involved in. There was a sense of colourful exultation, a kind of rejoicing, a feeling of laughing at each others' placards and of coming together to ridicule the ridiculous. ...read more
A sex offender or child killer gets convicted. Somebody posts about it on Facebook. Their thread fills up with eager commentary, almost lip-smacking: Got the bastard! May he rot! Hope he gets raped inside, hope ...read more
Lying on my back on the sharp grass I saw the stars, some of them, saw Orion's Belt, or some of him, he is who the Greeks once saw they say only instead of Orion ...read more
A small scream from the other room. "What? What?" "Can you come here?" On the rug is lying toes-up a small, lucid-bellied, iridescent, recently murdered gecko. Its tail has been severed to a bloody stump: ...read more
Could our fear of brown-skinned asylum seekers with unfamiliar cultural origins actually be self-hatred? Years ago it was embarrassing in Australia to confess to "the taint" of convict ancestors. Then it came to carry a ...read more
Finally, bodysurfing. It must be a decade since I have surfed, maybe since before moving to South Australia where terror of sharks somewhat put me off. That feeling, you know that feeling? Carried by water, ...read more
I love that porridge rhymes with forage. It feels like you would go out gathering the stalks of grain, and carry them home, and then brew them up over a fire in milk and eat ...read more
If there is a chance you can get to see the Italian film before it closes The Great Beauty: do. It is just full and wonderful. Luscious but with not a drop running over, rich ...read more
Racism is cruelty, what else can it be? Sometimes it is cruelty enabled by privilege & ignorance. But in such a dramatically unequal world, isn't it our own responsibility to find out our areas of ...read more