Happy Birthday To Me! By Trevor Plumbly
On the morning of September 18th 2006, I rose out of bed a little more tentatively than normal. I was now 65 years old and it was time for a bit of a stock take. A glance in the mirror confirmed hair loss, teeth intact and the basics of the old chiselled features discernible, dimly, but nevertheless discernible. Sadly that didn’t extend south. The beer, pies and fish and chips had sent in their account and my waistline had paid in full. Turning sideways I drew in a deep breath in an… Read More
The N.Z. Dotcom Sitcom by Trevor Plumbly
On Friday 20th January, 76 N.Z. police officers – some armed – carried out dawn raids on 3 North Auckland residential properties. The target for this show of force? A middle-aged German millionaire and a couple of his executives with serious issues with the United States. Not terrorist issues you understand; financial ones, and we all know how tetchy the Yanks can get over a dollar or two, look at the Warner Brothers/Hobbitt Movie saga for example. It seems to me that a lot of small countries sit and wag their tails… Read More
Where Sensitives Fear To Tread by Trevor Plumbly
I must confess to being more of a concert programme type than a talk-back radio fan, but needs must when it comes to writing about a slice of the media that amounts to little more than a call-free kangaroo court with one judge and thousands of jurors, none of whom could honestly include the word impartial in their vocabulary. The few hours I spent listening to the outpourings of bigotry, racism and sheer despair were fascinating to the point of addiction. The whole thing is brilliantly orchestrated for presentation to an audience… Read More
Mind Your Language by Trevor Plumbly
My schooldays are long past, but I still expect there to be some sort of censure when people make poor use of the English language. Sadly this deterioration is happening at such a rate these days that an army of pedants couldn’t correct or punish the culprits. Newly minted words, phrases and abbreviations are inflicted on us, totally unchallenged, by the Education System or the Media. Like most kids from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the 1940s, elocution wasn’t high on my education list, but that didn’t stop the English teachers of the… Read More
Bottled Inspiration by Trevor Plumbly
There are only two options available when your brain isn’t producing anything worth writing about: you can, either (A) flag it and do something else, or, (B) seek inspiration. Being a stubborn sort, I decided that (B) was the way to go. But deciding to seek it and actually finding it caused a problem. Inspiration, I discovered, is bloody elusive. All sorts of important people credit inspiration for paving the way to their fame and fortune. But there’s the rub, they only do this after the event, publicly spouting “I owe it… Read More
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