Sports: Golf – How Can Danny Lee Win the FedEx Cup?

Calum Henderson studies a near-infinite list of scenarios and permutations to figure out a pathway to FedEx Cup glory for Kiwi hero Danny Lee. Going into the final weekend of the PGA Tour season, any one of the 30 golfers qualified for the Tour Championship can still technically win. A slightly goalpost-shifting points realignment after the … Read more

Television: Stevie TV – Potential Contenders for the Garner Throne

Steve Braunias lists some potential understudies for Duncan Garner, should he ever leave a chair open at Story.  Regan whatever his name is over at Throng has spoken and it behoves us all to listen and that. He believes that TV3 must get rid of Duncan Garner as co-host of Story. “It’s time,” he announced … Read more

How to write a book with your husband and not want to kill the sonofabitch

Wellington author Linda Burgess gaily set out to write a book about churches with her husband, former All Black Bob Burgess. Would their marriage survive? ‘Oh how lovely,’ people said. Even people who knew us. ‘How lovely, to do a book together.’ We’ve done it twice now. In 2007 Random House published my book on … Read more

Sports: The FIFA 16 Celebrity Cup – English Football’s Least Important Trophy

Calum Henderson watches two Premier League stars battle it out on an Xbox for English football’s least celebrated prize, the FIFA 16 Celebrity Cup. For a certain type of football person this is the biggest week of the year – the week FIFA 16, the latest instalment of the popular EA Sports gaming title, is … Read more

Television: Throwback Thursday – John Key Gets Called a Racist on Neighbours at War

Years before he became our Prime Minister, John Key was just another electorate MP, wading through his constituents’ sewage. We look back at his time on the magical New Zealand docu-drama Neighbours at War – and get his brief memories of the moment. “You’re a racist,” the man yells. “And so is he.” ‘The man’ is a … Read more

Sports: Scotty Stevenson’s ITM Cup Power Rankings Week 3

With just three rounds left in the regular season, and with no guarantees on final placings, the time has come for the latest installment in our weekly ITM Cup Power Rankings. From corporatised sea life to coaching rodents, it was another week that gave plenty and – in true Provincial fashion – expected nothing in … Read more

Television: A Guide to the Technicolour Triumphs and Tragedies of The Mindy Project

Here is all you need to know about The Mindy Project before you dive into the romantic comedy-inspired sitcom with a passion for Sandra Bullock. What’s the story? The Mindy Project is the colourful comedy vision of the creator, writer and star Mindy Kaling. Within the sitcom, Mindy Lahiri works as a gynecologist whose life is in constant state of … Read more

Political animals: Revealed – the Panda Selection Process

Unnamed sources linked to the notorious Piers Gaveston Society and Edward Snowden have exclusively revealed to The Spinoff Politics clues to the process by which the Government will select a new animal to take up residence at Wellington Zoo. An independent expert panel will be appointed to consider a wide range of suitable animals for … Read more

Books: Essay – In Which Jarrod Gilbert Attempts to Drink the Whanganui Literary Festival Dry

Patched author Jarrod Gilbert reports from the Whanganui Literary Festival held on the weekend. Rachael King and I had a drink at Christchurch airport and had another when we arrived at the Whanganui Writers Festival. In 2013, Whiti Ihimaera called it the best regional writers festival around. I drank to that too. Nicky Hager kicked things off … Read more

Sports: Corey Webster – from Pak n Save Albany to the Cusp of the NBA

Duncan Greive talks to Tall Blacks guard Corey Webster, in New Orleans attending training camp with the Pelicans, about his journey from NBL exile to being on the verge of playing in the NBA. A few years ago Corey Webster was a cautionary tale, the perfect example of a talented kid who lacked the application … Read more

Television: Appoinment Viewing – Dropping in on NHNZ’s Panda Nursery

With John Key currently settling important panda trade deals, Calum Henderson watched Lightbox’s nature documentary Panda Nursery to see what our country might have in store. What’s it about? Like a grown-up version of Countdown’s animal cards, John Key this week proposed a swap with China – a couple of our kiwi double-ups for a couple of … Read more

Television: A Chronology of Coca-Cola Advertising from Hilltops to Polar Bears

Earlier this year, Mad Men’s prize asshole Don Draper was forever tied to Coca-Cola’s advertising history in an act of televisual finale-making so audacious that it raised the question: is great advertising art? The answer, obviously, is no, but does that necessarily mean its empty calories are worthless? That’s both a clunky rhetorical question and … Read more

Television: What Black Mirror Tells Us About the Modern World – and Why We Shouldn’t Despair

I was happy before Black Mirror. I was even deliriously happy in the way dogs are when their owners wave food in front of them. They’re so glad they’re getting fed. What they don’t know is they’re getting served sick old nags ground up into paste. It was nearly four years ago Charlie Brooker’s dank … Read more

Sports: Pushing in the Right Direction – Why This Disastrous Warriors Season Was Different

Rugby league author Will Evans looks back on yet another terrible Warriors season and finds a different origin, one which might – finally – lead to a different result in 2016. Déjà vu isn’t a strong enough term. Recurring nightmare sums it up more accurately. The Warriors’ 2015 campaign – after familiar pre-season tough-talk – … Read more

Television: A Week of It – The Dismal Daytime Circus of Jeremy Kyle

Calum Henderson watches Jeremy Kyle every day for a week, and gets up to his eyeballs in other people’s misery. Jeremy Kyle’s television show has been on the air now for over ten years. In that time there have been over 2,000 episodes filmed – something like a full two-and-a-half months worth of bickering, shouting, … Read more

Sports: Q&A – Georgian Coach Milton Haig on His Journey from Invercargill to Eastern Europe

Alexander Bisley has a soft spot for the Lelos, the Georgian national rugby team. And now, thanks to a first up victory over Tonga, so does most of the rugby world. Here The Spinoff’s man-at-large at the Rugby World Cup chats to their kiwi coach Milton Haig about shovelling snow, learning the lingo, lazy bastards, … Read more

Television: Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty, Week Five – Rachel Eats a Camel

Alex Casey recaps Rachel Hunter’s trip to Dubai, during which she falls in love with a camel and then eats it. This week Rachel went to Dubai, the beautiful city “that grew out of the desert”, which is an extraordinary euphemism for “was built by slaves.” Travelling to the United Arab Emirates, it honestly looks like … Read more

Politics: David Cameron and the Bae of Pigs Claims

As I write it is 3am over there, and only recently has British Twitter’s bewilderment begun to subside. Bewilderment, specifically, at the jawdropping allegations that David Cameron – you know the guy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – once placed his penis in the mouth of a dead pig. The claim, based on … Read more

Books: Farewell to Jackie Collins – A Memoir of Visiting Her at Home in Beverly Hills

The death of blockbuster novelist Jackie Collins reminds Steve Braunias of the awkward time he visited her at her home in Beverly Hills. Jackie Collins was one of the worst writers of the 20th century, every sentence a cliché, every book a dull thud, but she sold somewhere around 140 million copies of her godawful … Read more

Television: Liveblogging the Televisual Carnage of the 2015 Emmy Awards

The Emmy Awards are both the spikiest and most important television awards around, recognising those who have achieved small-screen greatness in 2015. So who will take home the trophies? Will Mad Men clean up in its final year, or will we see some new faces usurp the Draper throne? Read our bets from earlier in the … Read more

Television: Shortland Street Power Rankings – Groping, Good Grooming and Literal Soap

Tara Ward ranks her favourite moments from the past week of Ferndale hijinks. This week: Rachel gets a pat on the head and Lucy and Dayna’s friendship is on the rocks after some (literally) soapy drama. 1) Rachel puts the phwoar into FWIB Is there anything Rachel McKenna can’t do? She keeps a bunch of … Read more

Facebook: Dislike? Sure. And We’d Like These New Buttons, Too

The Mighty Zuck, His Zuckness of Zuckerberg, announced this week that plucky startup Facebook was giving some serious thought to introducing a “dislike” button, for users who didn’t exactly “like” the post they were reading, but felt utterly obliged to click something. Good idea. And why stop there? Here are a bunch of other buttons … Read more

Television: Watching Cosby’s Victims Tell Their Stories in ‘The Women Speak’

Our US correspondent Catherine Mcgregor watched the brave, televised testimonies of Bill Cosby’s victims in the A&E special The Women Speak, and recounts some of the most affecting evidence against the entertainer. (Trigger warning: this article discusses sexual violence). As a broad-strokes telling of the Cosby story, the A&E special Cosby: The Women Speak didn’t tell us much … Read more

Cool Story #3 – ’12 Questions’ – So Much More Than Just Another Q&A

The third in an occasional series commending excellent New Zealand journalism. I often get irked when I hear or read criticism of the Herald, so I’m bracing myself for an extra long period of irkdom over the next few weeks, as news of the redundancies starts to ripple out from journalists into the company’s wider readership. The complaints – … Read more

Sports: The Return of ‘World In Union’ – Watching the RWC Opening Ceremony

Every four years rugby fans from around the world come together to experience the sport’s ultimate glory – hearing the absolute belter that is World in Union at the start of the Rugby World Cup. This year’s version of rugby’s great anthem is threaded throughout the tournament’s conceptual 20-minute Michael Jackson music video of an … Read more