Will we be looking back on the virus isolation days with nostalgia? According to some new research, we’ll be lucky to even remember them! It’s “Seven Days” with IAN MEIKLE.

“FOR males, a strong predictor for increased drinking was because of a loss of job or decline in working hours. For females, a strong predictor for increased drinking was having a child-caring role.”

I know some kids that would drive anyone to drink, so I’m not sure what conclusions can be fairly drawn about the gender roles in a pandemic, but in May, according to ANU research, increased alcoholic consumption  was “slightly higher for males” and “substantially higher for females”.

Little wonder mothers around the ACT were pressing so hard to get Taylor and Tarquin back in front of the post-coronavirus whiteboard. 

Co-author Prof Nicholas Biddle says the study found almost one in four women who drank at all (22.8 per cent) reported an increase in drinking during May. Almost one in five men (17.9 per cent) reported an increase in the same period.

The main reason given for an increase in drinking, for males and females, was spending more time at home. For 67.3 per cent of males, this was the reason their drinking increased, while 63.7 per cent of females reported the same.

THE Calwell Slasher, a knife-wielding man, is scaring the bejesus out of Calwell burghers with reports he’s been lunging at and has stabbed multiple residents on the southern suburb’s streets since June 6.

Police say because the incidents all occurred at night, descriptions of the wanted man vary, but the consistent information is that he’s in his 20s or 30s and has dark hair. Oh, and a knife. 

STAY with me here. The ACT Greens have lauded the Liberal Berejiklian government for committing $36 million to put rough sleepers into permanent homes in NSW. 

Now, soon-to-retire Greens member for Murrumbidgee Caroline Le Couteur is asking why the ACT Labor government can’t do the same, by buying units from the private sector to accommodate the 54 or so rough sleepers in Canberra.

Why doesn’t she just ask her leader Shane Rattenbury, who is joined at the hip ministerially to the Barr government, to ask his colleagues instead of her grandstanding in the media? After all, it was the Greens who backed Labor into government in 2008. 

I WAS crestfallen for the community when chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman announced our first coronavirus infection since early May. Turns out it was a diplomat in his 40s who was infected overseas. Turns out dipos enjoy immunity from the order to quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in Australia and our Weston Creek resident was allowed to drive home after flying into Sydney airport.

“No one else was exposed during that trip, but he has since exposed his whole family,” Dr Coleman said.

“So that is what happens when you stay in home quarantine. And his family will need to stay in quarantine now until we allow them to leave.”

FOURTEEN people are doing biffo for the seat of Eden-Monaro, a large field for a by-election, says ABC election analyst Antony Green.

In the ballot paper draw Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate, Matthew Stadtmiller will be listed first and the Liberal Party’s Fiona Kotvojs last. Labor’s Kristy McBain is in eighth position.

Mr Green said it helped to be at the top of the ballot paper in order to receive the donkey vote, which could add around 0.5 per cent to a candidate’s tally.

But because it followed the same order as the ballot paper at the 2019 federal election he didn’t expect the order of the ballot paper to make a big impact.

The Australian Electoral Commission says 114,244 people are enrolled to vote in the July 4 poll.

WINE columnist Richard Calver explained the concept of “wine legs” (not a measure of intoxication) in the last edition and I thought it worth sharing again. 

Bemoaning a Barossa shiraz as “lacking legs” he explained that the issue of “legs” was mostly about alcohol content, not an indicator of taste. 

“You can look for it by holding the wine glass at an angle to let a stream flow up one side of the glass,” he opined. “Then bring the glass back to level and look for how the wine flows to see the viscosity and also look for the density of the legs that form. 

“If you see a lot of legs, the wine has a higher alcohol content that, in a nicely aged shiraz, you should taste as a warming sensation in the back palette. Or perhaps not. The effect is not always a foolproof way of measuring whether the wine is of good quality: that should come through more in the depth and colour of the wine.” Okay, lesson over; you can go out to play. 

Ian Meikle is the “CityNews” editor. He can be heard on the “CityNews Sunday Roast” 10am-noon on 2CC.