Correcting bias
Correcting bias DM 17th July 2026 I think my wife needs a wheel alignment. When we go for a walk around the block, I’ve found that I have to walk on her righthand side, otherwise she keeps bumping into me. Maybe it’s just Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Or perhaps it could be the natural camber of the road. Maybe I’m the one who needs the alignment! (Or maybe, just maybe, she just likes to […]
Yeah, Nah
Yeah, Nah DM 10th July 2026 ‘Yeah, Nah’ has just been promoted to OED status, which ought to impress most Aussies and Kiwis who are the main linguists in this specialist field of bogan-ese. Not intending to narrow its meaning, my understanding is that it is first an acknowledgement of someone’s behaviour or idea, followed […]
The Other Elam
The Other Elam DM 3rd July 2026 If David Beckham was in my school year, I would be known as ‘the other David’. Likewise if I had grown up with David Livingstone, David Attenborough, David Bowie, or David, King of Israel. It’s just the way of world to keep the spotlight on the stage. Sometimes […]
Red cards
Red cards DM 26th June 2026 “That was a foul! Surely ref! Come on! Are you blind?! Send him off! Red card! At least a yellow card! At least a penalty! At least some acknowledgement that the guy is writhing in agony on the ground with a broken leg!” It’s at this time of year, […]
An Iliad
An Iliad DM 19th June 2026 “Rage! Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles / that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans / and sent forth to Hades many valiant souls of heroes, and made them themselves spoil for dogs and every bird / thus the plan of Zeus came to […]
Church under construction
Church under construction DM 12th June 2026 Across the road on the neighbour’s footpath sits a yellow council sign that has just been posted. My curious self invited me over to see what it was about. My hunch was an approval for the typical ‘demolish the lovely old cottage and replace it with a Tower […]
One blood
One blood DM 5th June 2026 In 1830, Robert FitzRoy captained the Beagle that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyage. Darwin wrote his account. So did FitzRoy; and in his Narrative, he appended two chapters with some Biblical reflections, including one concerning the descent of man. Both FitzRoy and Darwin travelled the same journey, […]
Man flu
Man flu DM 29th May 2026 Man-flu is a real phenomenon, and I have just proved it by careful scientific experiment. My wife and I received our annual flu shot, and within hours, I was feeling woozy, but she wasn’t. Even though – and here’s the science – we had been injected by the same […]
Physics for farmers
Physics for farmers DM 14th May 2026 I was going okay with the movie until some astronaut had to fly through a wormhole. And then when the protagonist needed to enter a black hole to discover the source of the gravitational anomaly that was drying out the earth, my joy got sucked in with him. […]
Two faces
Two faces DM 24th April 2026 Cue the frown. The local paper has just lobbed onto my driveway, and without picking it up, I bet I can predict what picture will grace the front cover. It will be a group of people frowning, and the cause of their frowning? A cracked footpath, a tree illegally […]