Latest news with #Tooheys
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Tim Minchin: ‘A cheap pinot noir is an offence'
Milo, which is like Nesquik but as Australian as Vegemite, was my favourite drink as a child. You put a tablespoon of it in your cup of cold milk and it tastes like Maltesers. I was 15 when I first tried alcohol and that was my friend's dad's mid-strength Tooheys 2.2% beer. My folks were pretty laid back about alcohol, but I didn't feel the need to drink properly until uni. I'm a bit depressed until I have my first coffee of the day, which is ridiculous. We live on Coogee Beach, Sydney, and my wife Sarah and I will walk half a kilometre up the headland over the hill to get a coffee. Sarah was my first girlfriend. We've been together for 32 years, and before that we were mates who clearly fancied each other, so we never went on a first date. I do remember being at the uni tavern playing pool together and drinking midis, or half pints, of Swan lager, and that being the first time she said 'I love you' to me. I pretty much exclusively drink red wine now. It doesn't get better than a good red in a big glass at the end of the day. There's a place in Sydney called The Theatre Bar At The End Of The Wharf. I remember being there in 2015 looking at the Opera House, knowing Matilda The Musical [for which Minchin wrote the music and which won a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards in 2012] was about to open in Australia. My kids were curled up on the sofas of the outdoor deck and I ordered an Aperol spritz, which is what I get when it's not dark yet and I want something sweet, silly and celebratory. For the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016, in Stratford-upon-Avon, I did a sketch riffing on 'to be or not to be' with David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Harriet Walter, Sir Ian McKellen and Paapa Essiedu. Afterwards I was looking across the Avon at the moon, a glass of wine in my hand, while the luvvies were having a smoke. Ian, who I've met lots of times, was talking about how sexy Judi was when she was young, and I was reflecting on how she is the one octogenarian who I really, properly fancied. 'Oh, you must tell Judi that, she'll die', he said. I am not particularly interested in famous people, but I am interested in intelligent people. I've had a fantastic dinner with Richard Dawkins and Stephen Fry in Los Angeles, the physicist Brian Cox and I have got together in many places in the world and had wine, and I've had an amazing bottle of wine at Ian McEwan's house over dinner with Zadie Smith. I've also had a beer with Bono, a fantastic wine with Tom Stoppard and a limoncello at Steve Sondheim's house. It's a huge privilege, but it's really the authors and the scientists who get my balls tight – or whatever the phrase is. I like an espresso martini if I want to stay awake, but it's not classy. I'm not someone who seeks to be classy. I wouldn't have this haircut if I was going for class. A cheap pinot noir is an offence. There's something about a bad pinot that makes me think that it is deeply wrong to have it in my mouth. The song I'm most likely to sing after a few drinks is One by U2. It's a beauty. I'd have loved to share a glass with Kurt Vonnegut or Douglas Adams. Quirky, nerdy science guys. White wine is my wife's drink. Mine is red. And if I dropped dead I'd probably expect my wife to insist on red wine being the toast at my funeral. She would sensibly think that would be my wish.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Science
- Sydney Morning Herald
If the cap fits ...
Regarding Barry Lamb's question on the dunce cap (C8), few readers actually remember seeing one, and only one, Bob Cameron of Coffs Harbour, had to wear one: 'At 71, I certainly experienced the dunce cap during my formative school days. Rather than humiliation, I wore it as a badge of honour.' Simon Staines of Mudgee, who went to school in Barry's neck of the woods, at Eastwood Public, remembers a dunce cap 'being placed on the head of anyone deemed by the teacher to be slow. I, for one, never had the privilege.' Bob Pitts of Epping 'never suffered the ignominy of a dunce cap, but was, on separate occasions in high school, made to stand in the waste bin as I was 'nothing but rubbish', and on another occasion made to stand behind the closed door. Unfortunately, for my teacher, the door had a glass panel, so I could see the class, and they me. In both instances, when my hand shot up to answer questions (I was pretty good at maths), the class erupted in laughter. Chaos. And sweet revenge.' 'Clearly that flight attendant's foot brought the coffin's movements [C8] to a dead end!' reckons David Gordon of Cranebrook. 'An interesting body check.' 'My father used to tell a tale about two men arguing over which was the better beer [C8], Reschs or Tooheys,' writes Glenda Taylor of Stanwell Tops. 'They agreed to send samples away for analysis to prove which was the superior brew. The report came back: 'Both these horses are unfit for work'.' Time for readers to get sleuthing to help out our friend Anne Baillie of St Georges Basin: 'I only visited the Science and Technology Museum in Ultimo once, on a visit from Melbourne in 1971. My lasting memory is the Foucault pendulum in a stairwell. Since moving to NSW, I've been to the Powerhouse Museum, but none of the volunteers there knew of it. Does anyone know where it is now?'
The Age
6 days ago
- Science
- The Age
If the cap fits ...
Regarding Barry Lamb's question on the dunce cap (C8), few readers actually remember seeing one, and only one, Bob Cameron of Coffs Harbour, had to wear one: 'At 71, I certainly experienced the dunce cap during my formative school days. Rather than humiliation, I wore it as a badge of honour.' Simon Staines of Mudgee, who went to school in Barry's neck of the woods, at Eastwood Public, remembers a dunce cap 'being placed on the head of anyone deemed by the teacher to be slow. I, for one, never had the privilege.' Bob Pitts of Epping 'never suffered the ignominy of a dunce cap, but was, on separate occasions in high school, made to stand in the waste bin as I was 'nothing but rubbish', and on another occasion made to stand behind the closed door. Unfortunately, for my teacher, the door had a glass panel, so I could see the class, and they me. In both instances, when my hand shot up to answer questions (I was pretty good at maths), the class erupted in laughter. Chaos. And sweet revenge.' 'Clearly that flight attendant's foot brought the coffin's movements [C8] to a dead end!' reckons David Gordon of Cranebrook. 'An interesting body check.' 'My father used to tell a tale about two men arguing over which was the better beer [C8], Reschs or Tooheys,' writes Glenda Taylor of Stanwell Tops. 'They agreed to send samples away for analysis to prove which was the superior brew. The report came back: 'Both these horses are unfit for work'.' Time for readers to get sleuthing to help out our friend Anne Baillie of St Georges Basin: 'I only visited the Science and Technology Museum in Ultimo once, on a visit from Melbourne in 1971. My lasting memory is the Foucault pendulum in a stairwell. Since moving to NSW, I've been to the Powerhouse Museum, but none of the volunteers there knew of it. Does anyone know where it is now?'
