A tribute to Bernard Schwartz—that’s Tony Curtis to most of us

I can’t let the passing of Bernard Schwartz—a.k.a. Tony Curtis—go without some sort of tribute.    I’ve bitten my tongue a few times this year on writing what I wanted to on this website. And with hindsight, I really should have just gone for it, as someone who preaches transparency. Yes, I do indeed have […]

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Norman Macrae, RIP

I learned the sad news that Norman Macrae, CBE, 旭日章, passed away on June 11, just shy of his 87th birthday.    Norman was one of the great visionaries and forecasters of the 20th century, and served as deputy chief editor of The Economist till his retirement in 1988.    Among his forecasts was the […]

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Let the Outrageous Fortune come

Almost any New Zealander will recognize this image: a cast photograph from the long-running TV series Outrageous Fortune.    When I first heard of this show from Antonia Prebble, before she started filming, I have to admit I didn’t think the premise would see it last five years (and counting). But for New Zealand television […]

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On Wellywood, Murdoch and English accents

The good news today is that Wellington Airport is officially in two minds about what type of sign it will put up on the Miramar cutting, which means that the ‘Wellywood’ sign protest has had a victory of sorts.    I’m thrilled at the news because it shows people power—especially people like Anthony Lander who […]

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Funny how the war keeps coming up

I could guess the entire storyline but my goodness, I still think this is hilarious. (Courtesy Chris Young at C7 Design in New Plymouth.) You may also like Is your favourite 1980s’ celeb here? Doctor Who’s Christmas ’10 special: US trailer On the subject of copying Steve McQueen, advertising spokesman, 1980 to date Trading identities […]

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Trading identities in the personal branding space

The day the current mayor, Kerry Prendergast, announced her intention to stand for a fourth term, I was asked by a few media colleagues what I thought. The wittiest reply I gave to Salient, as it was an email interview, and I seem to be cheekier in writing than I am in speaking. I won’t […]

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Embrace life

I may be later than many in writing about this, but I only saw it in my Tweetstream today.    What a welcome departure from the blood-and-gore approach of many road safety public announcements, from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership. You may also like Finding the heart on Top Gear again Drivetribe will be a […]

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A reminder to the British Government: Hong Kong Chinese have died for you

Remember the issue I had last year with getting a new Permanent Identity Card for Hong Kong and finding that the British Government—which I have accused of apartheid over the situation surrounding British Overseas Nationals—would not do its job via the Foreign & Commonwealth Office?    No, it hasn’t been solved, but I thought it […]

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The Investigator: one that didn’t take off

Not hard to see why this series, conceived by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, never took off. According to the YouTube description, The Investigator was a pilot from c. 1973, and no series was ever commissioned. The combination of live action and puppetry do not work nearly as well as in UFO, and the idea of […]

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Some more rare cars hit Autocade

Tim Cottingham of the Aston Martin Heritage Trust kindly gave me permission to use one of his photographs on Autocade, for a very rare Aston. The 1972 Vantage was a six-cylinder model, of which only 70 were made. The Autocade entry gives a credit to Tim, and we can begin tracing the lineage of some […]

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