You’re terrible, Muir et al...
“I lost my job. The election happened. The media made me look like some kind of unemployed bogan, I suppose.”
Ricky Muir’s in Canberra, keeping a diary, and getting what he wants. Already, he’s more serious than anyone thought.
News
Read
Rolf Harris reaction masks our blind spot on child abuse
“If we really wanted to save the children, we’d be talking about the cultural fixture that really matters: the family.”
Tabloids rush to cover celebrity paedophiles but they refuse campaigns against the epidemic of family child abuse.
Read
Estranged bedfellows: Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm
“These two are clearly the most ideologically passionate, as well as the scariest if your politics sit anywhere left of Ayn Rand.”
The two new ex-Liberal crossbench senators were meant to make the government’s life easier. But Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm have their own radically right-wing agendas.
Read
Will a vote away from elite patronage-based leadership ease Indonesia’s often-touchy relationship with Australia?
Read
The AHC and the battle for Redfern’s Block
Seen as a victory for Aboriginal people in the early 1970s, then a flashpoint for vice in the ’90s, the Block is once again in the spotlight, this time dividing the Indigenous community it was built to serve.
Read
Honest Abe must lead on new militarism
Clinton wins neocon approval; Buddhist violence in Myanmar; out of the blue threat to Union Jack.
Opinion
Read
Guy Rundle
Albrechtsen, the ABC and the Abbott’s wrecking crew
“It’s a form of political nihilism ... We’re being governed as if we were a student union that had been captured by a clique.”
Letters, Poem & Editorial
Culture
Titian and Tintoretto bring Venetian Renaissance to the NGV
Titian, the Italian master celebrated as the father of Spain’s Prado, finds his way to Melbourne.
Food
Life
Read
Fashion label Tome’s White Shirt Project
New York label Tome comes clean with a white shirt for anti-slavery charity Freedom For All.
Read
Staying on track from Malaysia to Thailand
A long train trip is the perfect time to sit back, relax … and find yourself trapped in an endless discussion about railway lines.
Read
Making a splash: Cate Campbell, 22, swimmer
Her best friends were always the nerds and never the jocks, but then Cate Campbell fell in love with winning.
Books
The Quiz
1. Which Adelaide suburb’s name is a palindrome? (Bonus points for naming a palindromic country town in NSW and alternative name for Canberra’s CBD.)
2. Ichthyophobia is a fear of…?
3. What would you do with a cassock? (a) grow it; (b) eat it; (c) wear it; or (d) play it?
4. What, beginning with ‘L’, is the name for a type of food poisoning most commonly acquired after eating contaminated soft cheeses, raw seafood or unpasteurised dairy products?
5. Which city is home to the Museo
del Prado?
del Prado?
6. Which Italian singer will team with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra to tour Australia in September?
7. The Lorax, Gertrude McFuzz and Sally O’Malley are all characters created by…?
8. Name the Uruguayan footballer who was suspended during the FIFA World Cup for biting an opponent.
9. Which Arabic word means “submission to the will of God”?
10. Name Australia’s minister for social services.
Quotes
ART
“There were subtle technical difficulties in arranging the deportment of Sir Les’s trousers.”
The painter celebrates his win of the Archibald Prize’s Packing Room Prize, for a portrait of Barry Humphries’ stained and straining creation.
COSMETICS
“Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It’s much more important than that.”
The gazelle-like 17-year-old Belgian, who shot to fame with a modelling contract for L’Oréal, defends herself after pictures surfaced of her modelling beside a shot gazelle.
CLIMATE
“I hate that Australia is letting down conservatives around the world.”
The Thatcher minister explains what conservatives think of Tony Abbott’s attempts to repeal the carbon price.
WAR
“We admired the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task although we disagreed with what they did.”
The prime minister praises the Japanese submariners who attacked Sydney Harbour during World War II, killing scores of people. Mercifully, his views on Kokoda and the Thai-Burma railway were not sought.
CRIME
‘‘If it’s any consolation my day sucks too.’’
The police officer captions a photograph she sent her boyfriend of a dead 84-year-old man, for which she was later charged. A court found she had broken no laws, but the relationship did not last.
FAME
“Extremely immature and silly.”
The Los Angeles assistant district attorney describes an episode where Justin Bieber threw eggs at his neighbour’s house, for which the pop star was sentenced to two years’ probation. He must also complete an anger management program and five days of community service, and pay $US80,900 in damages.
