Rubrica

Jollof rice - not mine. I ate it before thinking to take a pic. I just cooked (and ate) jollof rice. It was delicious and I have added the recipe to my culinary repertoire. Jollof rice is a traditional Nigerian dish made with basmati rice, tomato, chili and a range of spices and it is mentioned repeatedly in Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's latest novel,  Dream Count .  This is not the first time I've read a book that mentions a certain dish and I've looked up the recipe and cooked it. I'm culinarily* curious, I enjoy good food and I also read widely, so it's inevitable that dishes I've never heard of, or never tasted, will be mentioned every now and then and I'll think, hmm, must try that.  Why do I do this? Yes, culinary curiosity has a lot to do with it - I like trying new things - but it's also got a lot to do with the role of food in connecting people and cultures. Indian writers, in particular, use food in their work to symbolise social structure and cult...

This morning's Sydney Morning Herald website featured six separate articles about Pauline Hanson. It's impossible these days to pick up a newspaper or open an online news site without seeing articles, many of them from renowned and respected political journalists and commentators, analysing and discussing Hanson's every utterance and speculating on how many seats One Nation will gain in the next election. Last year's burqua stunt that resulted in her suspension The commercial mainstream media loves Pauline. They fawn over her. She's a walking headline. The right-wing Murdochracy, of course, is championing her cause, but the others also know that she is a novelty who will sell papers. The old media adage, "if it bleeds, it leads", can be applied metaphorically to political reporting. She's loud, makes outrageous and controversial statements, engages in political stunts that no one in their right mind would touch, is openly corrupt and doesn't care w...

After two car accidents in this district within a couple of weeks, both of which resulted in people losing their lives, one local friend posted that despite a profusion of warning signs, camera surveillance and more and more road rules, these fatal accidents keep happening. Perhaps, she noted, authorities should be looking at the current rules and why they're not working, rather than imposing more laws. Fair call. And it got me wondering about signs.     Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald (19 June 2026), journo Jo Stubbings took aim at the ludicrous number and nature of warning signs, including one at a lake warning of water (no, really!). She notes that warning signs, telling us what we can, can't and shouldn't do, are most prevalent anywhere that is owned or managed by a local council. There's a couple of things going on here.  The first is that local councils are shit scared of litigation - and with good reason. If a person is injured on council-owned property,...