Whether you’re lurching about in dazed disbelief or dancing a merry MAGA macarena, The Donald will be POTUS once more. Orange is the new orange.
Womankind have again been beaten back from the blokey White House, its glass ceiling still gallingly impenetrable.
Will the new Pres drive the 10 million “illegals” back over the Rio Grande as promised, disrupting the centuries old, cheap labour backbone of the US economy? Will he ‘drill, baby, drill’ a planet teetering on catastrophic climate collapse?
Will his proposed weighty tariffs slow global commerce and drive the Chinese berko? Will he “stop the wars in one day” as vowed before a sea of frenzied red caps? Curb crime and reduce the number of people being shot (currently 327 per day) in the Land of the Free?
Will Trump Make America Great Again, or just Grate Again? What the notorious, divisive, septuagenarian, comeback kahuna does next, remains to be seen. Whatever transpires, strap yourself in for one hell of a hectic ride.
Meanwhile, back home, to the consternation of many, it’s the time when prescribed burns, or controlled burns (a term that’s regularly an oxymoron) take place. Having a small plot in the south, we recently received a government notice about a plan to set fire to nearby fragile forest.
While this highly controversial practice is ostensibly done to protect communities, it has the opposite effect on native flora and fauna, which can be absolutely devastated by the flames, particularly in spring during growth, breeding, and birthing times. A lot of rare life forms go up in smoke. What’s more, the burns are often nowhere near populated areas. Is there another agenda afoot, perhaps?
The notice even asked us to make sure our insurance was all paid up, in the event their burn got out of hand and flambéed the hacienda. “Prescribed burn is not without risk,” it read. “It is timely therefore that you check to ensure that your insurance cover is current and will provide you with adequate coverage to protect you from property losses.” Isn’t this a bit like being told, we are about to rob your house, so make sure you are covered for theft? Shouldn’t Roger be checking his insurance? Ah, the ever-self-serving folly of the bureaucracy…
Back here at The Starfish we have quite a varied edition for your reading delectation.
Margot has filed a piece on the last Black Swan play of the season, The Seed, a semi-autobiographical work by celebrated WA writer and actor, Kate Mulvany, about the personal, yet universal trauma of war. It is currently on the boards at Subiaco Arts Centre.
Jacqui chats to prolific novelist Alan Carter about his Tassie based thriller, Prize Catch, a murder mystery touching on shenanigans within the Apple Isle’s questionable salmon farming industry.
Ros kicks off the British Film Festival with her take on Mike Leigh’s powerful new movie Hard Truths, which delves into race and societal structure in the UK.
We also get a swag of stars from Margot for the film Lee. Kate Winslet is magnificent in this gripping film about the trailblazing World War II photojournalist Lee Miller.
On the recipe front, we select a deelish Calamari Pasta Salad from Alice Zaslavsky‘s great new book Salad for Days. Give this yum summery salad a go!
Enjoy!
Cartoon by Bay Rigby
Peter, your commentary on prescribed burns is excellent….’controlled burns – an oxymoron’. Also hardly believable that the notice tells you to check your insurance is up to date.
They are totally unnecessary, Margaret, and doing a huge amount of damage to flora and fauna, not to mention adding to the climate change problems. High time it was stopped.