Tis the season to be frothing at the mouth over beat-up stories about the PC brigade wanting to throw children’s Christmas stockings into a pit of fire. Beat-ups about do-gooders wanting to “ban Christmas” have become a mainstay of the leadup to the festive season the world over. This year in New Zealand, the target … Read more
The Crowd Goes Wild’s James McOnie on the underrated man-management and team cultural strengths of Richie McCaw. As the stats whirled around about Richie McCaw’s incredible feats as an All Black (the most astounding: he played in almost a third of all New Zealand test rugby wins in history!) there was a story that couldn’t … Read more
Suspended above the sun I witnessed the creation and destruction of the stars. An astral dust condensed and formed a molten core, pulling smaller fragments of space rock into its enhanced and growing gravitational field. From behind a distant moon, an asteroid streaked through deep space, hurtling into the burgeoning planet and smashing it into … Read more
What is it about the words ‘Ranfurly Shield Challenge’ that continues to inspire such fervour? Scotty Stevenson was at McLean Park in Napier in September to see Hawkes Bay get up to defend the log of wood against Auckland. It has haunted men, the quest for the Ranfurly Shield. Maybe because of that, because of … Read more
Greg Bruce interviews his Mum about her penchant for Seven Sharp‘s Mike Hosking over John Campbell. Mum came over last week to babysit my daughter and on arrival told me some story about something Mike Hosking had been talking about and, because this is a fairly common occurrence, I thought, ‘Why is my fundamentally decent … Read more
Joseph Harper uses his Playstation 2 version of The Sims to decide the final outcome of The Bachelor NZ. Speculation is rife going into the final week of The Bachelor NZ. All three remaining bachelorettes seem to have a crack at the title of Art Green’s girlfriend. Alysha has the nice accent. Matilda has a nice … Read more
Friday Night Lights examined the side effects of a small town’s obsession with high school sports. Don Rowe reflects on the show’s realism through comparison to his own rugby career at Hamilton Boys High. “Do you think God loves football?” “I think everyone loves football.” – Jason Street and a young fan, Friday Night Lights For an … Read more