War is Over – Lennon’s plea for peace, 52 years on

So goes the simple counter melody to John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1971 song, Happy Christmas/War Is Over. The Vietnam war was still raging when Lennon penned this universal message for the album, Imagine. Fifty-two years later, the 30 children from the Harlem Community Choir who sang on the recording would be in their 50s and 60s now, if still alive. I wonder if any enterprising journalists have tried to find and interview these people….

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The Voice – dismissed but not silenced

Yes, I did say I’d write the occasional piece, but not always on a Friday. Just deal with it! Before and after the Voice referendum, I was reading an Australian classic, Coonardoo, by Katharine Sussanah Prichard. This dark novel resonated more as we left on the day of the referendum for a western Queensland caravan trip.. At that stage, we did not know that 60%+ of Australians would vote No to the Voice. Our first…

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Haere Ra from Friday on My Mind

The last episode of this weekly essay was published on September 1, 2023. After nine years and three months of posting a 1200-word essay on random topics every Friday, we are taking a sabbatical. When I say ‘we’ I mean me and my trusty editor, Laurel Wilson. Many thanks to the very many academics and researchers who helped me out, whether they knew it or not! The database will be available here for the foreseeable…

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A chatbot farewell

Since this is now the way of the world, I decided to Google myself and ask ChatGPT to write a blog in the style of bobwords.com.au. The topic – ‘saying goodbye’. The following (in italics) was generated in 11 seconds. Hey there, lovely readers of BobWords.com.au! Today, we’re delving into a topic that resonates with all of us at some point in our lives: saying goodbye. Life is an ever-changing journey filled with moments of…

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