The fallout from Mexico’s so-called drug wars continues unabated. What is really behind the carnage?
Read MoreCulture
Why whiteware is not green: an open letter
A tale of high laundry adventure, in which the washing machine dies and nobody emerges unscathed
Read MoreA pop culture trend with bite
Sex that could kill you: how a Mormon housewife makes $70 million a year on vampire stories
Read MoreSpring forward: my garden year starts here
My garden story begins in August, when the plum trees blossom
Read MoreAvoiding real life: the Back-up Plan and the Life List
When the day-to-day has lost its lustre, devise a plan to climb Kilimanjaro or learn book-binding. You'll immediately feel better and, hey, one day you might actually do it
Read MoreShock news: Some New Zealand media is quite good
The good news is that not all of Generation Y are narrow-minded, egotistical trivialists and TV3 has created a great new comedy show
Read MoreWon't someone PLEASE think of the children?
New Zealanders have spent more than two years angsting over whether parents should be permitted to smack their children. Meanwhile, as a society, we've been failing our kids
Read MoreThe adrenaline rush of perpetual lateness
Or a lesson in picking one's battles
Read MoreThe Age of Stupid: a film too clever, and not clever enough
The converted will love this docudrama’s preachy tone. They chortle at the green in-jokes, and give it a round of applause. It has a message for New Zealanders, but will it reach a wider audience?
Read MoreCompetitive mothering, a non-contact sport
God, save me from the supermums
Read MoreTelethon: the lessons charities must learn
Judging the KidsCan charity on its administration costs alone misses the point of what charities are created to do... change society for the better
Read MoreThe painfully awkward Head Girl
Novelist Margaret Drabble's self-exposure in a new autobiography is both uncomfortable and illuminating
Read MoreHey kids, get your cocaine
Cocaine is not simply an energy drink with an 'edgy' name, whatever its creators may claim
Read MoreDo I look like this is the best job ever?
Parenting is amazing, but you don't have to love it every moment of every day. Right?
Read MoreBruno, Borat and the bumpkins
Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Borat, aka Bruno, is hilarious, insightful and cool in an ironic, knowing way... unless you don't get the joke
Read MoreRossini the serious comedian
Gioacchino Rossini wrote serious comic opera that is still relevant
Read MoreNo resting in peace for Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, tragic in life and death, is the most extreme example of what happens when we commodify people
Read MoreThe throwaway cellphone
Disposable technology--a waste of time and resources, not to mention a major pain in the posterior
Read MoreWhy publish 'Veitch Breakup' Story? And many other media questions
A whole bunch of things in the New Zealand media and blogs are quite perplexing to watch from the other side of the world... For example, what's with the Kiwi media's swine flu excitement?
Read MoreThe problem with the Spanish play
Wellington's Circa Theatre tackles the difficult Spanish drama Blood Wedding with mixed results
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