The first authenticated daily tally (i.e.the number of sheep shorn in a single day) was 30 sheep by Tome Merely in 1835. By 1892, the legendary Jackie Howe managed a tally of 321 sheepMore

PFQ 11

I remember when Eichmann was captured by the Israelis and tried in Jerusalem. I looked in vain for the mark of the Beast on those bland features. More

Letters From Quotidia 44 Paul

We sit, chained to the walls of our caves watching the dancing shadows projected from the fire behind. Time for the truth? Listen, now, to the answer given in the song, Pandora’s Box. More

Letters From Quotidia 43 Pandora's Box

We all know, now, there are no safe areas: who would have thought a pre-Christmas coffee and cake at the Lindt Café in Sydney’s Martin place in 2014 would have turned into a horror show so soon after 28 Australians were among the 298 innocent civilians slaughtered above the Ukraine in July 2014 as a Russian missile tore apart Malaysian Airways Flight 17.More

Letters From Quotidia 42 Oblivion Mountain

People who seek information about their forbears are more likely to advertise relationship to a pirate than an accountant. Note also, that privacy for individuals becomes an increasingly rare commodity in inverse proportion to the growing obfuscation surrounding the activities of transnational corporations and governments.More

Letters From Quotidia 41 Rose

Sam Hall has been in my repertoire for decades and when I discovered that there were chimney sweeps in my ancestry it made sense at a deep, even DNA, level. The song is twinned with a great tune recalling the gold-rush days in Far Northern Queensland.More

PFQ10

I am listening to a track that I thought was lost and gone forever- thanks to the power of musical streaming and downloading. I am referring to Billy the Mountain, by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention from an LP I bought in Wollongong in 1973 entitled Just Another Band from LA. I lost it, with a whole lot else, somewhere in the Seventies.More

Letters From Quotidia Episode 40 Patrimony

In Australia, the anti-authoritarianism, sense of humour, folk music and love of the underdog were like an old coat but the ocean rips, leeches, spiders and swooping black and white birds punctured the homelike elements, somewhat. More

Letters From Quotidia Episode 39 Outlaws

The Cuban missile crisis sparked nervous cocktail conversations in the patios of expatriate Americans: You can bet the refinery will be hit! The periodicals were full of details of how to build bomb shelters. The commie bastards would, of course, be utterly destroyed. MAD was more than a magazine title, in those days.More

Letters From Quotidia Episode 38 Airman

Richard Feynman, one of the truly great minds of 20th Century science, relates, once in Hawaii, I was taken to see a Buddhist temple. In the temple, a man said, "I am going to tell you something that you will never forget." And then he said "To every man is given the key to Heaven. The same key opens the gates of Hell." More

Letters From Quotidia Episode 37 Harlequin's Poles