TOP STORIES
A life in perspective
IT'S quite difficult during these times of raging fires and so many deaths to count our blessings, but certainly the global recession pa...
This (demolished) life
THE oldest house in our street is being demolished today. For nearly 130 years this pretty bluestone home has sat quietly while families...
Our season of darkness
OPINION: Ruth Ostrow "IT was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair," wrote Charles Dick...
Don't blame the GFC on testosterone
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom GOOD news, everyone. After months of agonised fingernail reduction and hair-line liquidation, the economic commentariat has finally work...
This (dogged) life
HE waged a relentless campaign, that's for sure. It started in first grade and for five long years my boy persistently put forward his r...
Tools paradise
With three teenagers in the house, I've been feeling powerless more or less continuously since, oh, 1990. So when the lights went off re...
This (perfumed) life
MY life-long love affair with perfume began at the age of 14 when I babysat for a couple who were attending a ball.
Kitchen diets
IF one more person greets me by flinging the palm of their hand to their mouth and telling me I have faded away, he or she will get a kn...
Can't buy rationality
So I catch this interview midway through -- which normally I hate, because you have no idea who's talking to whom or about what let alon...
This (dividing) life
I TRAVELLED to our shire town to see a show organised by the local arts council.
All you need are loves
OPINION: Ruth Ostrow I HEARD a tired old line in a late-night movie recently. The leading character was explaining to her therapist why she was leaving her h...
Return of the organs
OPINION: Susan Maushart NORMALLY I read the real estate section religiously - which is to say, out of a grinding sense of duty, and an admixture of awe and inc...
A wrinkled, wiggling pinkie
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom DEAR teen hoon,
Remember me? I was the pedestrian who morphed into that howling dude from the Munch painting when you and three g...
Compassion goes down the toilet
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom IN the early months of pregnancy new humans look like alien crustaceans with colds. It's a developmental stage not even Anne Geddes coul...
This (waterlogged) life
John Maynard "IS it still on?" The first call comes with the event still hours away.
Gaining the upper hand
Opinion: Ruth Ostrow INTERESTING how angry a colleague was recently at a lover he felt had taken advantage of his kindness.
This (walking) life
Elizabeth Leavy-Flint I WAS told I walked well from an early age.
Building foundations for friendship
OPINION: Ruth Ostrow WHILE having renovations done on my home recently I watched how the builders operate. Nothing is done without foundations being built fi...
In a fervour for a Fuhrer
Imre Salusinszky 'WE are all fascists now" is the message of Liberal Fascism, a well-written and occasionally barmy new study by Jonah Goldberg.
Generation gap changes parenthood
Jane Fraser THE best compliment I had was from my daughter who, when pregnant with her first child, said she would bring up her children exactly how...
Fine art of simple pleasure
Luke Slattery FOOD tourists are wrecking my weekends. It seems I rarely step into a shop to replenish the pantry without struggling through a school o...
This (decorated) life
I SAW an advertisement in a newspaper for a real pine Christmas tree to be delivered to one's door for only $100.
Christmas under another southern sky
AT a recent reunion my brothers and I said how amazed we were that we were even vaguely normal, given our bizarre childhood.
Martyred for her beliefs
NOW that the US election is over and we're all enjoying the prospect of an Obama presidency, it's worth reconsidering the cultural pheno...
Fly in the face of wonder
THE moment was perfect. I was privy to a most wonderful conversation in a most perfect location.
DIY with someone else
What is it with all these books about doing something totally whacked out -- going grey, eating local, sleeping with your spouse -- and ...
Let's cut (or push) out this claptrap
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom THE world is full of wacky urban myths. Richard Gere rushing to hospital for a gerbilectomy. The average human swallowing eight spiders ...
This (twitcher's) life
BORN a son of the inland, I ranged through the bush wild and free, watching birds as soon as I was big enough to handle binoculars.
Voices from the cryptic
YOU need, at a certain age, to exercise your mind. Some people play bridge, others learn a language and then there are those of us who a...
Something for a fast stocking
WHO cares whether you have been naughty or nice this year? I go for naughty every time.
Gift of the present
SEEING that no one was queuing at the takeaway counter, I took a break from Christmas shopping to get a quick coffee.
Politics kicks farce
SURVEYS of public trust put journalists between car salesmen and war criminals, but there is one group that rates even lower on the resp...
Apply anti-sceptic
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom CLIMATE change sceptics are getting really bloody annoying. It's not because they have the audacity to question over-the-top environment...
Affection affliction
When my daughter was young I put her into childcare a few days a week.
All those dirty little beasts doing what comes unnaturally
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom HUMANKIND, as the internet makes so pumpingly clear, has an unholy obsession with sex. Drawn partly by ancient biological urges and part...
Our season of darkness
OPINION: Ruth Ostrow "IT was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair," wrote Charles Dick...
Car park miscarriage
It was a sight that would have made many people shudder - especially in this economy. A huge, energy-guzzling luxury car, much bigger th...
Don't blame the GFC on testosterone
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom GOOD news, everyone. After months of agonised fingernail reduction and hair-line liquidation, the economic commentariat has finally work...
Bump and grind not root of all evil
THE WRY SIDE: Emma Tom FEMINISM'S many branches have always been deeply divided when it comes to sex.
A life in perspective
IT'S quite difficult during these times of raging fires and so many deaths to count our blessings, but certainly the global recession pa...
Parenting the parents
I WONDER if parents of my generation will ever stop feeling guilty about the manner in which we raised our children.