A fistful of dollars by Trevor Plumbly
Flashing it It seems to me that money and discretion don’t accompany each other so much of late. Maybe Mother was right when she said, ‘A fool and his money are soon parted.’ But these days it seems some manage to hang on to the stuff and rub our noses in it at the same time. Do you know there’s a few squillionaires willing to pay 60 odd million dollars each for the dubious pleasure of floating round in space for a couple of days? What on earth’s wrong with these people?… Read More
Playing the game by Trevor Plumbly
Due to bodily and financial shortcomings, I never really ‘did’ sport; it required robustness and uniforms, both of which were beyond me. To justify the inadequacy, I formed the theory that sport was bloody stupid and I reckon I’m finally being proved right. It might be unkind, but I believe the rot started with the Italians and it’s been festering ever since. Give a bloke a spear and stick him in the ring with a pissed-off lion was the early Roman idea of spectator sport. Up to that point it was… Read More
Thoughts on the America’s Cup by Susan Grimsdell
I thought it was about time I watched a race in the lead up to the America’s Cup, having contributed to it by being a ratepayer and a taxpayer, and considering that a lot of people seem to think it’s something special. Lookalike craft The setting is lovely – Auckland Harbour, so they got that right. However, the first thing that took away from it being interesting is that the boats are clones of each other. They are painted different colours and have different words plastered all over them, but otherwise they… Read More
Thanks a million! By Trevor Plumbly
Jolly jack tars It’s that time again folks; the Circus is coming to town! The world’s wealthiest sporting clique is gearing up to battle for the America’s Cup and already the posturers, promoters and blatant arse-kissers are moving into action along with near-sighted politicians. There’s money to be made here folks and the dollar dung-flies are already starting to swarm. It mystifies me that a few mega-wealthy playlords could succeed in foisting this vanity-driven con job onto a country constantly striving to maintain healthy social and educational services. Press gangs The politicians… Read More
Yachtitis by Trevor Plumbly
A Vile Bug Takes Hold There’s a nasty virus sweeping the country just now and I’m a bit worried it’s the second outbreak in recent years. Australia had a national epidemic of it some time ago but seems to have it under control these days. ‘Yachtitis’ is slow to establish itself, but at its peak is highly contagious and mind-affecting. Symptoms are easily spotted: normally inoffensive folk start speaking in mariner tongue, dropping words like ‘gibe’, ‘spinnaker’ and ‘tack’ into normal conversation. They suddenly become sons of the sea, not your ‘yo-ho-ho… Read More
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