It was a cracker week in Punchland. And not just ‘cos Hillary Clinton has joined our stable of intrepid writers. The Punch is putting in a request for President Obama to write next Monday’s Open Thread too. We’ll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, here’s our weekly review of the top Punch pieces of the past week.
Forget over the counter, give us the pill for free, the talented Lucy Kippist demanded. Why did an Argentinean student on exchange to Australia desperately want to get the hell outta here? Our man in the United States, Paul Toohey, told us the story of Carlos Miceli. Channelling the frustrations of restaurateurs around the nation, Daily Telegraph restaurant critic Simon Thomsen cried: if you book a table at a top restaurant and then give them the slip, at least have the courtesy to cancel your booking. Doddery old drivers shouldn’t be a protected species, wrote David Penberthy. And look wowsers, sexting is no big deal. That’s what I think. A lot of you disagreed.
The Bali boy arrived back home this week. Sending goldfish to people as a PR stunt didn’t work. Using a respected church leader as part of a pokies PR stunt is not on, wrote another respected church leader. Swanny needed to go medieval on the banks when they didn’t lower our interest rates. He didn’t, our Ant wrote. But our resident top consumer advocate Frank Zumbo went medieval on the petrol companies as they shafted regional Australia at the bowser.
Our 23 moments Biggest Moments of 2011 countdown continued: Labor flatlined, Pippa’s arse stole the show, Alan Joyce chucked a wobbly, the High Court declared no laksa solution for you asylum seekers, and Shurley, we were serious. There’s more to come on the weekend and up until Christmas.
Finally, in the cricketing world, earlier this week Ant wrote that Michael Clarke should dump opener Phil Hughes from the line-up. Turns out, the Pup couldn’t dump him like he dumped Bingle. Guess it must be easier to dump a woman than a man.
It’s Friday, Punchers. What’s on your mind?
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