Nord e Sud

A wonderous dinner last night at the Park Hyatt, with a menu designed by Giovanni Pilu, from Sardinia, and Alessandro Pavoni, from Brescia. The two brought elements of their local cuisines – the mountains and the seas – together for a memorable meal. Here’s the menu with matched wines.

Thinly sliced swordfish served raw with grapefruit and Sardinian bottarga with capers
2006 Sella and Mosca ‘

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Loveable losers: Sydney’s “double A list” are just LA’s leftovers

You can tell how quiet Sydney becomes in winter when the local gossip hacks are forced to lead with claptrap about nobodies.

Witness, for instance, Ros Reine’s column in today's Sunday Telegraph. It leads with the utterly banal story of a former prime minister’s daughter having a go on the turntables at a Kings Cross hole-in-the-back-lane bar where nobody dances. Yawnsies!

In order to justify

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My man of the match

An excursion out to Olympic Park tonight for the Bledisloe Cup. While I had a gold Wallabies scarf hanging around my neck, I had my eyes on the very handsome Richard Kahui – an All Blacks' rookie who also happens to be a great player. For the record, Australia won 34-19.

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How do Oprah, Wu Yi and Angela Merkel feel about this?

And what about Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith?From today's news coverage of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s whirlwind visit to Perth.The Sydney Morning Herald:The world's most powerful woman strolled through the city's

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Is it hot or crazy?

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign spokesperson's name is Tucker Bounds.

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Estelle Getty, 1923–2008

Oh, Estelle. For 173 episodes of this alone, thank you.

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Module behaviour

Which Sydney model has the stage-mother from hell? The chatter at brunch today was electric with tales of the pushy mom who’s riding roughshod over everyone in her daughter’s path towards – well, what? Already chewing her way through agents, the model daughter had literary ambitions and engaged a writer who cooked up a concept, wrote two chapters and came up with a perfect title. Mommie Dearest

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Which New York socialite has the better name?

Is it Topsy Taylor . . . . . . or Muffie Potter Aston?

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As if public transport wasn't scary enough

Those devilish pranksters, Improv Everywhere, filled a subway carriage with identical twins, creating a human mirror simply to delight people or freak them out, depending on their disposition. Genius! Video and more photos from the event here.

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Will Nikki Webster infect me with malware?

I came across this warning while fact-checking a story.And your brain, no doubt.Here's what I remember about Nikki Webster: dangling from a wire at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sydney eight years ago; a song called "Strawberry Kisses" that could easily become Rickrolling V2.0. That's it. And she's still, against all odds, trying to become a brand. Last I heard she was working the gay

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Odd jobs

In an institution as old as the British royal household there are some positions that go back centuries, to when the monarchy actually ran the country.


Some positions no longer exist because the roles were absorbed by government. The Master of the Revels, for instance, oversaw royal festivities and, oddly, stage censorship. The Master of the Great Wardrobe ran the office that provided clothing

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Piss off a pilgrim

Two student activists took the New South Wales Government to court today to challenge the special World Youth Day laws that allowed police to detain people or fine them $5,500 for “annoying or inconveniencing” Catholic pilgrims (first discussed in this post) – and won.They argued that the laws, which were never discussed or debated in Parliament, were unconstitutional because they would make

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Vertigo-round

The Coen brothers are channelling the spirit of Saul Bass in the poster for their new film, Burn After Reading.By the way – quite the cast, isn't it? It opens the Venice Film Festival at the end of August, arriving in cinemas swiftly afterwards. The trailer's here.

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Black-collar crime

The Pope's in town and says he'll apologise for all the pedophile priests. Sorry about all the kiddy-fiddling! Happy World Youth Day, everyone!Broken Rites is a group that helps victims of church-related sex abuse to obtain justice. Since 1993 they’ve documented thousands of cases, in particular involving the Catholic Church. Here is their list of the 107 Catholic priests and religious brothers

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Then why, exactly, are you here?

What is the one thing that all dreadful people on reality TV shows say to excuse their dreadfulness?

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Recycle your spam

Forward a piece of spam to the Spamrecycler. Its address is spam@spamrecycling.com.It will send you back a link. Click to watch your inbox-clogging piece of crap turn into something far more interesting to look at. Here's what it made out of mine.

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Movie star morphing

Two excellent videos by Phillip Scott Johnson. How many faces can you name?Men in FilmDouglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster

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On yer bike

A bicycle by Chanel. A steal at $13,000.

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For all your fashion news and views

The very fabulous and fearless Patty Huntington has abandoned the shackles of mainstream media to strike out on her own. The author of, most recently, the Fully Chic blog at news.com.au has gone all indie on our ass with her very own blog, [frockwriter].There's a great story about Patty being banned from some off-schedule New York Fashion Week shows a couple of years ago by a megalomaniac PR --

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Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

There's a wonderful expression in French, l'esprit d'escalier. It means "the wit of the staircase", thinking of something brilliant you might have said during a conversation – as you're leaving.Its origins come from leaving the drawing room of a grand 18th-century house. (The drawing room, where guests were entertained, was on the first floor – thus Upstairs, Downstairs.)The Germans have a word

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Mind your manners, please

Having just finished reading a series of books set in the 1920s and 30s filled with details of calling cards and dressing for dinner, I’m currently obsessed with old systems of manners and etiquette. I’ve uncovered some gems, including the English Manners And Tone Of Good Society, Or Solecisms To Be Avoided by A Member of the Aristocracy (1879) and the American Mrs John M. E. W. Sherwood’s

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The Stepford munchkins

Before-and-afters from Pageant Photo Retouching, a service specialising in work for children's pageants. And they're special, all right. I'm warning you: only pop them open if you're feeling brave.More horror here.

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