- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
- Hits: 843
While the new aces argue about the runway, the old crew still knows how to land a plane.
What if you could hold one single moment from your entire life, just one, to carry with you forever? Which one would it be? The answer may tell us more about who we are than any story we tell ourselves.
There’s a photograph in your mind, faded, perhaps, but alive...a moment from your past that never quite lets go. Maybe it’s the day you first rode a bike, the night you whispered secrets to a friend, or the first time you saw your newborn child. Why do these moments cling, while others vanish without a trace?
What moments shape us, and what will our children and grandchildren hold onto in a noisy world?
That is my question today. What memories are we leaving to our new generation? Lockdowns? Climate Change? Global Warming? Guilt? What have we allowed to happen?
Read more: The Flight of the Navigator - Old Pilots, New Aces, and Why Childhood Matters
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Monty
- Hits: 919
When a lifetime isn’t enough to be believed
I know a person... in her older years. She has a smartphone. She knows how to use it, She tries to keep up with the modern world..even when it changes faster than her knees can carry her. She can type faster than me and while she is drop dead gorgeous in my eyes, you can tell she is not 18 anymore.
She’s not stubborn. She’s not lost in the past.She’s just… older.
And this week, standing at her front door, she was asked to prove how old she was. Yes, by a delivery driver from the local adult beverage shop...... with a bottle of Irish whiskey I had ordered for her. What happened next was shocking. Welcome to E- Australia...
Read more: Expired IDs, Expired Lives? What turns older People into In Valids?
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Ratty News
- Hits: 776
RATTY NEWS SPECIAL BULLETIN
By Roderick “Whiskers” McNibble, Editor-in-Cheese
It has been a busy week here in Dusty Gulch.
It all began with a report I filed a few days ago but held back from publishing due to rising duck-threat levels and escalating biscuit security.
But now, with the town in open uproar and the smell of conspiracy wafting stronger than Maude Elphinstone’s curried egg sandwiches, I can at last reveal the events that have shaken Dusty Gulch to its very poultry-plucked core:
“Mayor Abduckted!”
Read more: DUCKS, DECEIT & DUSTY McFOOKIT: The Marmalade Coup
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Monty
- Hits: 787
Before he was a U.S. Senator, Vice President, or bestselling author, J.D. Vance was just a kid in a holler in Middletown, Ohio - raised by his grandmother, shaped by chaos, yet grounded by a stubborn Appalachian pride. In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance wrote not just of poverty or politics, but of a cultural inheritance: the fierce loyalty, front porch wisdom, and the sounds that echoed through the hills and into his soul.
For many like him, Appalachian music wasn’t just background noise - it was the heartbeat of a people who had little, lost much, but clung fiercely to their identity. Carried across oceans from Ireland and Scotland, shaped by African, English, and frontier influences, this music tells a story that stretches from ancient highlands to the misty mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, and beyond.
It is a story of survival. Of belonging. Of a people bruised but unbroken - still finding harmony amid hardship.
Read more: Music That Refuses to Be Forgotten: Grit, Ballads, and the Appalachian Soul
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Happy Expat
- Hits: 857
From the rat-hunters of age-old sailing ships to the black-cloaked Catalinas prowling the Pacific skies, cats have served the military with a quiet, enduring presence. Agile, alert, and unflinching under fire, they’ve been more than mascots - they’ve been symbols of readiness and resolve.
My favourite of them all flew under the callsign PBY: the mighty Catalina, a slow but unstoppable flying boat that saved lives, hunted submarines, and watched vast oceans with tireless eyes.
Whether curled on a warship’s deck or gliding through enemy skies on midnight raids, cats - furry or winged - have always stood ready to fight or fly. The question is… are we?
Read more: Some Cats Slumber While Others Hunt - Cats of War and Peace
- View all
- Blog
- Hmmm....
-
When Truth Had to…
There are moments in history when telling the truth plainly becomes dangerous - not because…
110 hits
-
The Memories that Make…
As a child, we spent our Christmas holidays at a remote coastal sheep farm in…
239 hits
-
Field Report Part One:…
From Dusty Gulch Part One of the Honklanistan Series By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble The lamingtons…
285 hits
-
The Price of Unity,…
When the bonds that hold us together are tested, the cost is often borne in…
301 hits
-
Dreamers, Witch Hunts, and…
In 1948, Preston Tucker dared to imagine a safer, smarter car - and paid dearly…
370 hits
-
The Future Is Not…
Leonard Cohen once said, “I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder.” For a long…
367 hits
-
What I Thought I…
When I was a young girl, I wanted to be beautiful.Clever. Successful. Happy. As the years slip…
351 hits
-
We rebuilt a city…
On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia, destroying 70% of the city's homes…
368 hits
-
Sonic Pineapples Save Dusty…
By Our Special Correspondent (and Occasional Hero), Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble (Filed from the front row,…
315 hits
-
Lest We Forget The…
Only minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve, 1953, the engine driver of the Wellington to…
139 hits
-
Never Lived So Merrily:…
Samuel Pepys is probably one of the most famous diarists in history and his words…
428 hits
-
A Beer Carton, a…
A neighbour was telling me about her Christmas shopping expedition to Brisbane recently. She wanted…
468 hits
-
Starlink vs NBN: Outback…
Starlink vs NBN: An Outback Reality Check (With Bonus Waiting Music) One Outback resident tests…
422 hits
-
Australian Prime Minister Is…
Sadly, the beautiful country of Australia has become a bastion of progressivism. The country’s government…
180 hits
-
From Pedal Car to…
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by non animal means…
454 hits
-
Do We Still Love…
Do We Still Love our Nation to Fight For it? Reflections 81 years after the…
418 hits
-
Still No Sparkle: The…
Australia's Spirit at the Crossroads – Time to Shake Off the Mud At dawn, when…
427 hits
-
We are the Ball
Muddy, Battered, and Waiting for the Next Kick-Off After a rugby match, the ball always…
386 hits
-
Let the Paddock Decide
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Edition (Front Page) RUCTION AT THE GULCH OVAL: SETTLED THE…
570 hits
-
Bruce Ruxton - the…
Some men belong to history. Others belong to the national conscience. Bruce Ruxton was the latter.…
433 hits
-
Harold Holt - the…
The Prime Minister Who Disappeared There are many ways for a Prime Minister to leave…
505 hits
-
The Men We Chose…
From Whitlam to Bondi Beach, how moral evasion became cultural habit Australia has woken up…
510 hits
-
Comfortably Numb: Ten Years…
At 9:41am on Monday, 15 December 2014, Man Haron Monis forced Tori Johnson, the manager…
600 hits
-
Lindsay Fox - The…
Recent news in Australia has sparked debate: a ban on social media for under-16s. The…
478 hits
-
The Duck, the Diva…
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Scandal Edition By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble – Foreign Correspondent, Rodent…
451 hits
-
Has the ‘Woke’ movement…
Back in 1904, H. G. Wells published a short story called “The Country of the…
467 hits
-
Young Minds Under Siege:…
Education, often celebrated as a beacon of enlightenment and progress, can also become a potent…
469 hits
-
White Island - A…
On December 9, 2019, New Zealand's White Island erupted .claiming 22 lives and leaving survivors…
475 hits
-
Drawing Blood With Ink
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and nowhere is that truer than…
463 hits
-
Pearl Harbor - a…
Before the sun had fully risen over Hawaii, a chain reaction had begun — one…
549 hits
-
Little Johnny Outsmarts eSafety:…
“Minor Problem: I Identify as a 73-Year-Old Tabby, Therefore I’m Legally Entitled to X (and…
597 hits
-
Town Ticks 'Duck' en…
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Duck Census Edition By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble – Foreign Correspondent,…
451 hits