Not everyone oohs and aahs about firework displays. Some go into curmudgeon mode, grumbling about the expense, the air and noise pollution, the way it upsets dogs and budgies. Some even suggest the money could be given to the needy. The eclectically musical among you may have noticed the Tom Waits reference in the heading. I’m not even sure we’re allowed to do that, which of itself would be a travesty since Tom has not…
My friends at Jetpack (a clever plugin attached to my WordPress website), sent me a performance review yesterday. Here’s a few excerpts and links to the best-read FOMMs in 2015 (one of which was written by She Who Sometimes Also Writes). These are the posts that got the most views in 2015: (right click on link) 1 Anzac Day 2 Rangitiki 3 Old Folkies 4 Latin Jetpack offered this advice: “Some of your most popular posts…
Composer Irving Berlin had a habit of staying up all night, writing songs. According to Mark Steyn’s A Song for the Season, Berlin summonsed his secretary one morning in 1940 saying: ‘Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!’ That tune was White Christmas, which if you think about it, must have been a challenging…
While we’re all getting in the goodwill mood, Australians need to think seriously about this country’s housing problem. There isn’t enough of it to go around and what property is available is often out of the reach of low income households. (Percentage of age groups with mortgages: ABS Surveys of Income and Housing) This is no overnight thing. Tax concessions which favour property investors have led to a big swelling of their ranks –…