"The tableau became unhinged. Blue angels, sprawling shepherds, wise men and even the doll’s doting parents panicked. Theatrical chaos threatened," Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN fondly remembers when the school nativity play goes awry.
"In so many ways we are returning to the botany that is our only hope to survive and prosper in the decades ahead," writes The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
"Like most journalists-cum-authors, I've had my own bout with booze, particularly in my 30s and 40s. Fortunately, a resilient and beloved wife and my dedication to the storyteller’s art pulled me through," writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
"My wife discovered a catalogue filled with goodies and, once she ordered something, that damned internet has been sending her Christmas 'suggestions' for months," bemoans The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
"I’m aware that it’s early days yet. And when Trump actually takes the reins in late January, he might well begin knocking down the guidelines of presidential restraint," writes The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN .
"We’ve never had health insurance, and until the government blew the budget on that idiotic tram it'd worked well. Now it’s a mess and we're caught between insane premiums and waiting forever for "elective surgery," writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
"We agree that if US voters re-elect Trump, America’s international standing would take a disastrous dive. That doesn’t trouble Alan, but it fills me with pain. In so many ways the US is the engine room of progress," writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
"Like other TV news programs, its producers are obsessed with the vile, the criminal and the foolish things men do, but they censor themselves in their reportage and thereby 'normalise' such behaviour," writes ROBERT MACKLIN.
"A third turns out to be loot from the colonial era, since great uncle George happened upon it. So, of course, they’d never sell it, even if it would fetch 10,000 pounds at auction. Like hell they wouldn’t!" says columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
Independent Rima Diab sits as the only ungrouped candidate for Murrumbidgee in the October 19 ACT election. Columnist ROBERT MACKLIN, despairing of who to vote for, gave her a phone call. He was impressed.
"Even if we don’t blast ourselves to pieces, our homeland, this beautiful blue planet, is becoming unlivable. And we have no one to blame but ourselves," writes The gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
"Protecting kiddies is a lovely idea in theory, but until the governments of the world unite, it’s just not going to happen… ever," says The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.
