I pass brief judgement on Pete Buttigieg and Penguin Batman.

Look, I try not to be self-deprecating but this is a low-quality ramble. I discuss again the war in Gaza and left-wing strategy.

I write about how movies from Taxi Driver to Joker are part of a long-running narrow stereotype of community breakdown and isolation.

I take a swing again at a poorly written Stuff article, and give a quick nod to a new all-time favourite film of mine.

I skirt around Rule One re: the novel Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and judge Narcos: Mexico compared to the original Narcos.

I discuss Haitiangate and a celebrity endorsement in the US presidential election.

It's that time again! Play along from home, or stare on in slack-jawed horror.

(Gonna roll together the non-fiction and fiction categories today.) The Weekly Defrost is changing from always responding to current...

In this week's edition: why do we still teach 1066 in schools, and after watching Season 2, do I recommend the Game of Thrones prequel show?

I talk about narcotics. Frozen Peaches does not advocate for or endorse drug usage and cannot be held legally liable for ignoring Nancy.

I write without much enthusiasm on the nuisance of a one-track political mind, and with a lot of enthusiasm on a new mature animated show.

My archive of good news articles to read, to be updated occasionally from now on (instead of creating a new one every year).

I talk about vice-presidents one last time - was Walz the man for the hour? - and recommend "Waiting for Godot, but good".

Keep MMP by all means, but we deserve real choices in our electorates, not Nat/Lab dominance.

Serious writeups on Imane Khelif and a post-March 15th report, followed by a more lighthearted look at veepstakes.

A serious one. I talk about the state's systematic abuse over decades of thousands of vulnerable New Zealanders taken into "care".

I briefly gripe about glib takes on diversity, before moving on to nine options to take up the crusade under Harris against Trump.

I very pettily take apart a pedestrian puritan article on Stuff, then discuss the stuff American vice-presidential nominees are made of.

I use the weekly newsletter to seriously discuss the dangers of the Trump shooting, and offer a list of totally, definitely real suspects.