http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/etiquette/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-breastfeeding-im-trying-to-have-lunch/ I can feel the prod of pitchforks, the heat of flaming torches and suction of rampant breast pumps to nether regions already, but here goes. A. I am no prude, and B. I’m not a woman, so C. I’ve never had a baby (Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?”) So obviously therefore, D. I’ve never breastfed. There. A few disclaimers to hopefully delay said prodding, heat and suction. I understand the evolutionary purpose of breasts, that they shouldn’t be sexualized, I get the whole feeding is natural, women shouldn’t be ashamed, blah blah, I get and concur with all of that. What I don’t get and strongly un-concur with is why a woman would choose to graphically breastfeed her baby in a crowded city café at lunchtime (ours as well as the baby’s apparently). penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-breastfeeding-im-trying-to-have-lunch/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/stop-breastfeeding-im-trying-to-have-lunch/#item7938 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-using-your-smartphone-at-dinner/ A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-using-your-smartphone-at-dinner/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/friday-dilemma-using-your-smartphone-at-dinner/#item7522 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Restaurant-no-shows-should-plate-up-or-shut-up/ The woman booked a table for 10 at 7pm, Thursday, at the hip Bentley Bar and Restaurant in Sydney’s Surry Hills. Owner Nick Hildebrand had to turn away four couples trying their spontaneous luck because his 50-seater was fully booked, but by 7.45pm, that big table still hadn’t arrived so he called them and was told they were on the way. It sat empty for another 30 minutes, so he called again but this time, she didn’t answer. They never arrived. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Restaurant-no-shows-should-plate-up-or-shut-up/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Restaurant-no-shows-should-plate-up-or-shut-up/#item7314 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arsegate-and-other-upper-house-shenanigans/ Australian senators accused of leering at each other’s posteriors? Of failing to show respect? Of not “bowing and scraping” sufficiently in deference to the chair? Welcome to just another day on the plush red carpet of the nation’s more civilised Upper House. But then, the final sitting Thursday was never just any old day was it? penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arsegate-and-other-upper-house-shenanigans/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arsegate-and-other-upper-house-shenanigans/#item7247 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gillard-should-have-bobbed.-its-just-common-curtsy/ Tired of scrutinising slow-mo footage of suspicious ripples in Beyonce’s baby bump, I’m pleased to announce that we’re free to analyse another equally significant, universe-buckling event. The Prime Minister didn’t curtsy to the Queen. No. I don’t think you understand. PRIME MINISTER. DIDN’T CURTSY. QUEEN. Surprisingly the police weren’t called, but the indignant tutting of monarchists could be heard from space, much like the Governor General’s outfit. See, ‘curtsy’ is an abbreviation of the word ‘courtesy’. Well, it probably is – I leave that kind of research to proper journalists. They sound similar though, and that can’t be a coincidence, right? It’s similar to the way that ‘Negus’ is short for ‘Never Give Up Sixty Minutes’, in that I made it up just then. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gillard-should-have-bobbed.-its-just-common-curtsy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/gillard-should-have-bobbed.-its-just-common-curtsy/#item6971 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-to-leave-suburbia-to-really-truly-love-it/ When I was a teenager, there was nothing I wanted more than to move out of suburbia. I grew up in a place so nondescript that, after performing there, John Cleese remarked that if you wanted to kill yourself but lacked the courage, a visit to my home city “would do the trick”. (Locals had the last laugh by naming the municipal dump after him.) The city itself wasn’t the problem – solid agricultural attitudes and a bit of civic symmetry rather please me – it was the stultifying ordinariness of life in suburbia. The predictable pleasantness of everything from progressive dinners to neighbourly sugar sharing. My best friend and I even coined the term ‘subby dip’ for the onion-soup-mix and sour-cream confection routinely served with Jatz crackers. Our derision was to be expected. We were 19. We wanted to be, as our favourite band sang, “making love on the edge of a knife”, not on the floral bedspreads or in the lavender-scented gardens of our boyfriends’ parents. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-to-leave-suburbia-to-really-truly-love-it/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/you-have-to-leave-suburbia-to-really-truly-love-it/#item6875 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Houston-we-have-a-problem/ Four friends were dining over lunch in a swish Adelaide restaurant last weekend when a woman at the next table pulled out her chair and proceeded to change her baby’s nappy on the floor. Can you believe that? The four friends couldn’t. They were so stunned they decided to phone The Sunday Mail. “It was just so unhygienic and inappropriate,” said one. “Luckily it was only a wet nappy – imagine if it had been really messy.” No thanks, ladies. Might put me off my own lunch. But talk about taking the new mums’ cause back 20 years. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Houston-we-have-a-problem/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Houston-we-have-a-problem/#item6829 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-reasonable-persons-guide-to-modern-driving/ Everyone should abide by driving laws but I reckon there’s a need for a guide to driving etiquette. Is it just me or are drivers becoming more agitated, more selfish and lacking any respect for other motorists? They aren’t necessarily breaking the law, they just make driving more annoying. Gone are the days when driving was a pleasure. Today it’s a means of getting from one place to another with the least amount of aggro. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-reasonable-persons-guide-to-modern-driving/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-reasonable-persons-guide-to-modern-driving/#item5198 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/ As of next month Air New Zealand passengers will be allowed to use mobiles while on board, enabling Kiwi jet-setters to advise their loved ones that their flight is on schedule and they’ll be home by sucks. What really sucks about this move is that it will destroy the sole remaining bastion of public peace, the sanctuary of the aircraft, which in this hyper-connected modern world is the only escape from texts, tweets, emails, and the sheer horror of the loud and long-winded conversations of strangers. I’ve never been to New Zealand but from what I can gather it consists of two islands, each of them about 500km long, with a large airport in the middle somewhere so that its citizens can emigrate to Australia to find work. Based on this rough estimate the longest domestic flight in NZ would take about 40 minutes and the extremely popular one-way flight to Bondi only marginally longer. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Texts-tweets-emails-and-other-inanities-at-36000-ft/#item5126 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dos-and-donts-for-the-workplace/ Most people in this country spend around 35 hours plus, (give or take sick days, annual leave, religious holidays, extended lunch breaks, taking a nap in the archive room etc), per week at work. Given that this represents such a high percentage of our lives, it makes sense, to some degree, that we be as comfortable as possible in these environments, maybe even do little things here and there that make the workplace more homely. The key phrases here however, are “to some degree” and “do little things”. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dos-and-donts-for-the-workplace/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dos-and-donts-for-the-workplace/#item3375 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 A friend of mine was forced to leave a drinks party with three friends because they spent more time scrolling through their Facebook feeds than having a proper conversation around the table. Does that ever happen to you? Today’s dilemma: is it ever okay to ask your friend to switch off their phone while you’re getting together? And does “where” you are make a difference? For example, is it more or less offensive to check your phone around the dinner table than at a backyard BBQ? While you’re contemplating that, check out this video from clever American blogger, Brian Perez. He’s invented the phone-stacking game. The explanation is over the jump.