‘Thematically richer than the Bible’: what I learned at the first annual Boss Baby symposium
In the middle of a question and answer session at an academic symposium, an audience member wearing a Boss Baby shirt showed off the Boss Baby lunchbox he takes to work every day.
“Obviously I eat cookies for lunch,” he explained, “because that’s what Boss Baby fans do.”
There was polite applause.
Vale the Melbourne Star
The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel peacefully completed her final rotation on Monday 6 September 2021, surrounded by friends, family and the Costco store, following a brave battle with pretty much everything.
The cause of death was “the global Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions and sustained shutdowns, adding to pre-existing challenges of operating amid increased high-rise development and changes in the Docklands area”, according to its directors – although she seemed to have been suffering from a very, very long pre-existing condition.
Reading Victoria: Melbourne Star
My entire day spent riding the Melbourne Star, from when it opened at 11am until it closed at 7pm, started pleasantly enough. I arrived shortly before the observation wheel opened, collected my pass from the counter and stepped into my glass-encased tomb. I did a 30-minute flight, as it’s called, taking in the sights of Melbourne as the wheel completed its loop. I hopped off, then I hopped on again. Then I did this again and again and again and again.
All the Way with LBJ
‘Please allow me a moment to help you with this.’
I was yet again bugging an Amazon customer service associate with a question. This time, it was an important one: how many words are in The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Robert Caro’s colossal ongoing biography of the former U.S. president?
Milking the dead — A guide to taxing zombies and other spectres
You’re working late at the office when all of a sudden there’s a groan. For once, it isn’t coming from you.
So you investigate. Cautiously you creep towards the window, peek through the blinds and right there at the door, groaning and moaning and flailing its limbs, is a zombie. It wants your brains. More specifically it wants your brains for some advice about its tax obligations.
The Joy of Writing about The Joy of Painting
I’m so glad you could join us today. I’ve started by preparing a new document on Microsoft Word. We don’t need anything too fancy for what we’re doing: this Microsoft Word is from 2011, Version 14.4.5. We’ve got ourselves a keyboard, and on that keyboard we’ve got 26 letters—we’ll need all of them today and some punctuation marks, too. But all you really need is your imagination and a little love in your hearts.
Remembering Mr. Squiggle: Surrealist, Philosopher, Creative Mastermind
His name was Jolly. Mr “Jolly” Squiggle. He was a blue-haired man from the Moon with a pencil for a nose who wasn’t really meant for this world. He had one shot – one opportunity – as a last-minute fill-in for a small segment on ABC’s Children’s TV Club on 1 July 1959. No audition. What was meant to be a six-week trial went on to be, at one stage, the longest-running television program in Australia and the longest-running preschool children’s television program in the world.