The Spinoff

2023 - 1 - 28

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Spinoff"

When storytellers ruled the world – and how stories rule us (The Spinoff)

'The last bloody thing we need is a diminishing pool of readers' – an excerpt from Ben Brown's keynote speech marking his time as Te Awhi Rito New Zealand ...

The last bloody thing we need is a diminishing pool of readers. Have we forgotten the source of our enlightenment, assuming a divinity in the machines that don’t even know what the fuss is about, or even that there is a fuss in the first place. The saving grace would be story time where teachers read aloud from chosen books and we drifted away in our heads to cause mayhem with Thing 1 and Thing 2 or had a party with Max and his army of beasts and then let the Wild Things clean up the mess. A picture of the hunt on a cave wall may indeed paint a thousand words. But a thousand words from the storytellers’ mouth might tell you Everything. Words that began to give me a sense of place and meaning. Sadly, it seemed that the older you got, the less important story time seemed to become. The memorable exceptions; the teacher who was also the strapper. We come to know ourselves in the process. Have we relegated the glory and splendour of language to markings of bland utility in a techniverse that can render a million realities – calling every one of them virtual without even a hint of irony; or sit itself quite comfortably in the convenient accommodation of artifice with intelligence. In knowing ourselves we begin to assess, compare and further engage with “others”. Our stories write themselves in the minds of others and our own as we progress.

Recipe: Wafer per eedu (The Spinoff)

If you've managed to secure some eggs, here's a tasty dish from the Parsi cuisine which essentially revolves around eggs… Even if they were an acquired ...

Make a few holes in your wafer layer to allow the egg to go in and bind the potato layer. Crush the wafers in your palms and add them to the pan. In another bowl crack the eggs open, add in your salt and whisk them together. Cut into two and plate up the wafer per eedu. When it’s hot, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and ginger-garlic paste. In any and every form.

The power of the disappointing affirmation (The Spinoff)

Positive affirmation quotes often aren't helpful. But taking the piss out of them can be.

And if someone isn’t in the worst secret society? This morning, when I woke up, disappointingaffirmations’ story was at the front of my Instagram queue. A couple of weeks ago, over on Twitter, Robbie Nicol wrote As a people we are now comfortable with the word depression. I wrote I like to think of this as being a piece of sardonic installation art, which I’ve titled ‘Love is always hidden behind the door’ At that point we realised there was a second one on the adjacent wall. A few months later, Harry and I had our weekly session in a different room than usual. Back when I had The Lovely Harry as my hospital psychologist, one day he mentioned how some staff member(s) in community mental health liked to put affirmation inspo posters up around the building. Disappointingaffirmations feeds my (sad) soul I replied. Last week I was messaging with someone who thanked me for introducing him to disappointingaffirmations. I post a disappointingaffirmations post to my stories most days. In a society obsessed with Everyone Being OK and needing to fix you up and make you live your best life, it’s such a relief to find this place where someone was saying, yeah, things are shit. Two weeks later, back in bed with the curtains pulled, this time for three days, I put another disappointingaffirmations post on my stories.

Where is Wayne Brown? (The Spinoff)

Severe flooding has ravaged Auckland but the mayor of the city is barely visible. As I write, the airport has flooded, check-in areas looking like a public pool ...

“High tide hits after midnight and we need a list of evacuation centres for folk to head to.” “Where are the evacuation sites to let people know where to go? I’m getting families from Mangere area asking me what to do because their homes are flooded so they are in their neighbours home with many other people, they can’t get out of the street as its flooded and family cant get in to get them out either. [Josephine Bartley tweeted](https://twitter.com/jobartleynz/status/1618889669537845249?s=20&t=pKPPrE4a4tZwHe7j3ymvEw): “You just have to look online to see the chaos out there. Declare state of emergency.” Attached were screenshots of an internal memo from the mayor’s office asking councillors to only share “official” information with their communities. “We want to make sure that all residents are kept informed, and emergency services are able to reach those who are most vulnerable and at risk as quickly as possible.

The forecast for today | Live Updates (The Spinoff)

The deputy prime minister, Carmel Sepuloni, and transport minister Michael Woods spoke Sunday afternoon and updated on the government's response to the ...

Thunderstorms possible throughout the day, with localised downpours possible this evening. Here’s the Auckland central forecast as at 1.50pm on Sunday, January 29. The deputy prime minister, Carmel Sepuloni, and transport minister Michael Woods will speak Sunday afternoon and update on the government’s response to the state of local emergency in Auckland.

On the predator-free frontlines in the Coromandel (The Spinoff)

At Mahakirau Forest Estate, 'a crown jewel in the Coromandel Range', pest control is serious business.

Now we see all the seed on the ground and a lot more insect life,” Tim and Jude say. But it’s an ongoing battle – there’s constant reinvasion – and the estate now runs a programme targeting 12 pest species. “When you see the effects of conservation, it just hooks you,” says Jude. They’re part of the Mahakirau Forest Estate Society, which started with a programme to target stoats and possums. These 600 hectares of Coromandel bush are home to rare and endangered native wildlife, as well as a community of people dedicated to protecting the ecosystem from the ravages of introduced predators. Lots and lots of predator traps – one every few metres along the roadside.