Life
Welcome to the sixth edition of Dr Tinman’s Ignorant Remedies for the Aching Soul. I am Dr Tinman, life-doctor and former builder of tiny Scandinavian model houses.
Over the past month and a half, I have been providing you with exceptional pieces of advice to help you escape the existential filth-pit that is your life.
This week is no exception. And while I have been told that writing out “prescriptions” on post-it notes does, in fact, break several laws (except Newton’s Three Laws of Motion – which are only violated if a lavender-coloured note is used), I shall continue to metaphorically bathe your emotional sores with my sponges of understanding. And so, we move on to this week’s question:
Continue reading "Dear Dr Tinman: Yay or neigh on this Spielberg flick?" »
Dusty plastic flowers. Droning dirges. A cut-and-paste eulogy that uses the phrase ‘member of the community’. Instant coffee. Squeezed into twee rooms with bad carpet where there’s no room to talk properly and hushed tones are preferred over cataclysmic crying.
I’ll have a cookie cutter funeral over my dead body.
It’s so crushingly depressing that the most marvellous people can still have the grimmest send off.
Continue reading "Wake up and find some end-of-life style" »
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Sam says:
some time back a few friends came up with the idea that these 72 screaming virgins are infact middle aged heavy-metal fans, screaming death metal tunes whilst digging a hole in their parents backyard. you can have that! Read more »
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Sam says:
Thats what my mum has told me she wants, and I also think its agreat idea..but my wife is refusing to let me do this! Read more »
How would you feel if you found out that your mere existence is such a burden on your parents they want $10 million compensation?
It’s not clear whether 11-year-old Keeden, who has severe brain damage after a rare genetic condition caused a massive stroke, will ever understand what his parents are doing.
Debbie and Lawrence Waller are suing their IVF specialist for “wrongful birth”, claiming he breached his duty of care by failing to take proper care that Lawrence’s genetic blood clotting condition would not be passed on. They say they love Keeden, but wouldn’t have gone ahead with the birth if they’d known because of his suffering.
Continue reading "These parents think their son shouldn’t have been born" »
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guess who says:
Dr pecker head opps spock damn legend love to see your head put a big mark on it Read more »
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Someone who kinows says:
What about if the family went to doctors to find out if the condition could be passed on to any of their children and were told wrong advice IE: Both of the parents need to have the conditon for the child to get it when infact only one off the… Read more »
Recently my husband and I went whitewater rafting. No lazy river for us, we love those rapids that dump you into icy water or spin you into rocks.
After a particularly perilous stretch, our guide mentioned that a woman had drowned after becoming trapped underwater between a rock and the raft. “Drowned, as in died?” I asked incredulously.
We always sign disclaimers but – rather stupidly, in hindsight – I’d forgotten these occasional adventures could actually kill us.
Continue reading "A life worth living isn’t wrapped in cotton wool" »
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Amelia says:
Yes, why would anyone want to climb Everest or see the Grand Canyon or traverse the jungles of Borneo when they could stay locked indoors and look at pictures of those things instead? Read more »
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Daemon says:
Well done Kevin. at least those of us with IQ’s higher than our boot sizes understood the importance of talking about it. By the way, what is someone of your type doing in here. Would have thought the words would be a bit of a struggle for you. @Acotrel, sometimes… Read more »
If people didn’t donate their tissue and organs to others, the following people wouldn’t have contributed nearly as much to the Australia we know: Kevin Rudd, Derryn Hinch, Kerry Packer, Jimmy Little, Fiona Coote…
We’d be a lot poorer for it. But Australia is already a poorer country than it could be. There are plenty of sick people who need organ transplants but can’t get them. Australia has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world. There are some 1,566 Australians on the waiting list for a transplant right now and every week an Aussie dies waiting for a kidney transplant.
The way to ease this crippling shortage is breathtakingly obvious. When you die, your organs should automatically go to someone who needs them. End of story.
Continue reading "Festival of Obvious Ideas #2: Compulsory organ donation" »
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Brian kptx says:
I am a very strong supporter of organ donation AND I absolutely support the right of the family to have the final decision on all end of life issues. So what is essential is that the family is given the best support and care while they make these difficult decisions.… Read more »
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Holly Northam says:
Hello Lee, I am sorry to hear of your loss. I am a PhD student (and a nurse) and I am currently researching family experiences of making organ donation decisions. There is very little research in this area and your views are very important. It would be very helpful if… Read more »
With a total absence of intelligent life in the Capital Hill region of Canberra, we thought we’d ask a Canberra-based academic, the ANU’s Dr Paul Francis, if there’s any hope of something with a pulse up there…
The search for extraterrestrial life has been going on in earnest for decades now. Are we any closer to finding intelligent life?
It’s pretty clear that there is no intelligent life elsewhere in our own solar system. But what about on planets orbiting other stars? If you go out on a starry night, it could be that every star you see has planets with intelligent life, and that aliens are staring back at you from every star. Or it could be that there is no other life in the universe and all those planets are dead and dusty.
Will we ever be able to learn more about those distant worlds?
Going to visit these other stars is far beyond current technology, so the only thing we can do it listen for radio signals from them. Until now nothing has been detected. But our current surveys could only pick something up if one of the nearest few stars had a highly advanced technological race on a planet orbiting it, and this race was broadcasting enormously powerful radio signals in our direction. So it’s not really conclusive.
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Jay says:
Let us for argument assume that there is alien life on our planet, and this life has been with us for say 63 years. What if the US & Russian Presidents fessed up and told us the truth? How would the world react?How do you tell two thirds of the… Read more »
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davidl says:
We are just conglomerates of genetic matter, and now we are starting to come to grips with that, we may one day decide to produce our own ‘alien’ race, one that for example could live on Mars quite happily breathing methane or whatever. If we could do that, then the… Read more »
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.
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Danny B says:
BTK, Then I’m not complaining about you. I’m talking about those with the music loud and windows down - who do nothing to stop disturbing other people. Read more »
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Eloise says:
I wonder if it would cause a stir if I changed a sanitary napkin or tampon in the middle of a childcare centre/day care centre/kindy whilst the kids are eating? It shouldn’t cause a fuss, because it has to be done and I just can’t be bothered with going to… Read more »
What do you do with your life when what is left can be counted in years, rather than decades?
When the realisation hits that you are sliding into oblivion?
This new fear is aided and abetted by the overwhelming attitude of the community towards the elderly.
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Damocles says:
Yeah, well picked “rickety” Reg (blah..blah…blah), but I think you’ll find that “their or they’re” is a GRAMMATICAL error, not a SPELLING error, so go and bark up another tree! My “breathtaking, assumptive, god damn statement” is true and correct and one you didn’t respond to, but feel free to… Read more »
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sherry says:
At the age of 45 I was bemoaning my state of ‘already too oldism’ to an 85 year old friend who had immigrated from England at the age of 75 to be near a particular spiritual community. She looked penetratingly at me and smiled indulgently; ‘My dear, 45 is a… Read more »
When it comes to managing “the stuff” in your life, what kind of person are you?
Are you a) the type of person who would think nothing of holding onto files or banking receipts for 10 years and shudder at the thought of a spring clean?
Or are you b) more likely to throw out Christmas and birthday cards the day after they arrive and manage your household with a cleaning system of which Shannon Lush would be proud?
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Cate says:
The link to Brendon King’s interior design business and life organisation services appears to be incorrect - can you post the correct one? Read more »
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Nicky says:
I keep everything - tax returns, birthday cards, bank statements, that receipt for a $8 salad I bought at lunch. Fortunately my partner is ruthless and it’s gone the moment my back is turned. Read more »
Excuse me for a moment while I prepare for my mid-life crisis - apparently it’s due sooner than I thought.
No more waiting for mid-to-late-40s, the new done thing is to freak out when you’re 35. According to a new study (British, but also cited by an expert as relevant here), those aged 35 to 44 are the lonliest, most miserable bunch of all the age groups.
We’re (actually, they’re, I’m still a few months off the magical age of misery yet) lacking in our relationships, insecure about our jobs, wish we had more time with our families and think we spend too many hours at work. Are all these people waiting for someone to come along and fix everything for them?
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Michael says:
Perhaps some of us are just wired that way. I’ve just been miserable as long as I can remember - I guess hitting 35 a couple of years ago made it dip but it was hardly noticeable. 40 might be worse but who knows. My work is about the most… Read more »
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Joe says:
I am 48 and I have spent the past 20 years working my butt off to try and give my kids a chance.No holidays or extensions on the house. I have already had a heart attack, a prostate the size of a watermelon,overweight,stressed, and survive on various medications that keep… Read more »
Please, don’t regard me warmly. I’m not that nice. And why are you offering your best wishes? It’s not my birthday. I enjoy ‘cheers’, but it makes me feel like a drink, even in the morning (and that can’t be good).
How you sign off your emails shows more about your personality than you realise.
‘Warm regarders’ tend to be touchy-feely types who used to watch Oprah (but are now ‘turning’ for Ellen), do scrapbooking and believe in reiki.
If aged over 40, she’s an eccentric middle-aged lady, draped in purple, muttering quietly to herself.
Continue reading "Email sign-offs: Cheers, best, farewell, get a mullet up ya" »
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Paulus says:
I’m confused as to why you should sign off fully in an e-mail anyway? Unless you are working for a large nameless company who has a crappy e-mailing setup, your name is already on the e-mail, so why the double emphasis that it was you who sent it? I got… Read more »
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bam says:
“with love and respect”.... that’ll shock em. Read more »
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