Latest news with #Ziggy
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Werribee family's almost $200k Amazon thanks to cat
A Werribee home sale that had even the auctioneer nervous by the halfway mark, has gone on to raise the home's price almost $200,000 in fewer than two years. And a homemade cat run for their pet Ziggy was a big part of the success. Josh Palmer and his partner Shayla were 'pretty nervous' as the 4 Amazon Place home started off with low level bidding and stalled in the middle of its price guide. Bulldogs great Mark Hunter lists $4m+ Williamstown home 'And then it skyrocketed,' Mr Palmer said. 'I was just in a whole lot of shock.' Ironically, celebrations for the sale boosted by the carpenter's renovation work had to be kept limited as he was booked in to help some family with a reno on Sunday. 'But we will be looking for another house to renovate,' he added. They'll also be taking some time to enjoy the space that they've filled with memories, including bringing their daughter Mia, 18 months, home to. While the renovation gave the buyers confidence they could just move in and enjoy the home, it was a cat run built down the side for the Palmer family's cat Ziggy that had them enthused. Hocking Stuart's Justin Tong said while the home's renovation, and feline-friendly reno, had given it an edge — buyers hadn't let on until well into the auction. 'It was at $550,000 at the halftime break, with only two bidders, and I was a little bit concerned,' Mr Tong said. 'Then I came out and threatened to pass it in and it just went off.' In a sign that fear of missing out (FOMO) is returning, the agent said such gambits hadn't been as effective recently as buyers were better at holding their nerve. Records show the owners paid $547,000 in 2023. 'So it has gone up nearly $200,000 in two years,' Mr Tong said. A young couple buying their first home outbid an investor and a downsizer. The agent said rising demand after rate cuts had created a 'perfect storm' for home sellers in recent weeks. 'Two underbidders is fairly common at the moment,' Mr Tong said. The agency sold three out of their four auctions yesterday, with the only one falling short priced over $1m. Co-worker Samantha McCarthy yesterday secured a $740,000 sale at the top of the advertised range for 22 Mirrambeek Rd, Hoppers Crossing.
The Sun
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Glastonbury pretends it's the wokest place on Earth – but do they think it's OK to murder Tories?
I'VE had some of the greatest days of my life at Glastonbury Festival. Michael Eavis's annual music jamboree is like nothing else and has to be experienced to be believed. If you know, you know etc. 5 Glastonbury also happens to be the wokest place on Planet Earth. Pin-balling around the 1,000-acre site, you will never stop bumping into people wearing Free Palestine shirts, so much so you'll think it was the festival uniform. You will find dreadlocked, middle-class white men called Ziggy performing 'pronoun poetry' or some such twaddle. You will discover vegan food stalls where non-binary folk in tie-dyed smocks hand out leaflets about Britain's nasty farming methods as they charge you £23 for a bowl of recycled lentils. There will be people reading The Guardian. Yep, whatever is right on, is right there. Yet amid all the hippy-dippy, save the world business, what you don't typically get is calls to murder anyone. This year, that might change. An excitable Irish band called Kneecap, named after a notorious IRA punishment, have been booked to perform — and they want you to kill your MP. Well, only if they happen to be a Tory MP, naturally. These rowdy republican rappers — a cross between Welsh p**s-takers Goldie Lookin Chain and Rage Against The Machine — have been caught telling fans: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.' Oh, and this Brit-hating band, who were happy to take more than £14,000 of government funding, despite Kemi Badenoch's best efforts to stop them when she was Business Secretary, also like to plug Hamas and Hezbollah. Never mind that supporting them is a criminal offence in Britain — the Kneecap lads decided to chant, 'Up Hamas, up Hezbollah!' at a recent gig in London. 'It just makes me happy', says legendary singer Elton John as he praises 'brave' Irish musicians Cue the counter terrorism police announcing yesterday that they are now investigating both that and the 'kill Tories' incident. Politicians have hit out. Both Keir Starmer and the now-Conservative leader Badenoch have condemned them. As have the families of MPs murdered for doing their jobs. Katie Amess, whose dad, Tory MP David Amess, was murdered in 2021, said she was 'gobsmacked' at their 'stupidity . . . and dangerous violent rhetoric'. The Belfast trio spat out their dummies and evoked the standard response offered by those when caught out saying something reprehensible — that their words were 'taken out of context', before offering a mealy-mouthed apology. 'We do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah,' they claimed, adding: 'Kneecap's message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion and hope.' Cool. So that's all right, then? Brendan Cox, husband of Jo Cox MP, gunned down in her constituency in 2016, doesn't think so, branding their apology 'not particularly genuine'. Kneecap, who fancy themselves as latter-day punks, probably didn't care about any of this when it all started to erupt. I bet they were dying for a headline along the lines of: Is This The Most Dangerous Band In The UK? (Sorry to disappoint, lads.) They've also been emboldened by their cheerleaders in the music biz, including Eton Rifles' geezer Paul Weller, who reckon it's just 'political repression of artistic freedom'. Would they have said the same if Kneecap had been condemned for calling for Labour or Green Party politicians to be murdered? Of course not. Conservatives are always fair game to the #bekind leftie brigade. 5 But now the row is starting to hit Kneecap in the pocket. A big gig planned for the Eden Project has been kyboshed and two festivals in Germany have dumped them. The spotlight has turned to Glastonbury. Will this hugely influential festival, with its ethos of 'peace, love, music and community', drop them from the bill? Dairy farmer Sir Michael Eavis — knighted last year under a Conservative government — is no stranger to the rough and tumble of politics. The 89 year-old stood as a Labour MP for Wells, Somerset, in 1997 but was beaten by the sitting MP, David Heathcoat-Amory . . . a Tory. The history books record that Eavis did not call for his constituents to then execute him. So does he, or indeed his daughter Emily, who now runs the show, condone those who do? POSH TO GET PUSH 5 SO a Spice Girls reunion is back on (again) but missing one key ingredient (again): Posh. Victoria Beckham is still refusing to perform with her old pals, despite demonstrating that she can bear to be in the same room with them after reuniting for her 50th last year. Much has been made of the fact that she doesn't need the cash. OK. But what about the fans? They know she wasn't the vocal heart of the group, to put it lightly, but they'd love to see her sashay on to a Wembley stage in one of her trademark LBDs (which, let's face it, she could definitely still get into). Instead, they might have to make do with an 'avatar experience', whatever that is. Boo! Come on, Posh, you didn't get where you are today without all those millions of loyal fans. Would it kill you to give them something back? As one Nineties girl group famously sang: 'Who do you think you are?' HISLOP IN PUB PUZZLE HAVE I Got News For You posho Ian Hislop has been claiming he's had a brush with real life and visited a Wetherspoons. But rather than just enjoy a quiet tipple at Britain's beloved bargain- booze chain like the rest of us, he apparently found himself in the belly of the beast. The jowly jester said he witnessed domestic abuse and drug dealing when he turned up, presumably for a pint of Spitfire, at a branch in Wales. Oh really, cried 'Spoons gaffer Tim Martin, who described his claims as 'fantasy'. Martin invited Hislop to tell him which pub this was so he could investigate, having found nothing on CCTV footage from any of his Welsh watering holes. Cue radio silence from the usually fastidious editor of Private Eye. So which one was it, Ian? IT'S weeks like this I feel blessed that, despite fast approaching 50, I still have a full head of hair and don't have to grapple with some sort of dodgy baldness 'cure'. I refer to news that billiard ball-bonced blokes taking a certain prescription-only hair- loss treatment have seen their libido slump and, horror of horrors, their manhood SHRINK. That's one hell of a dilemma for a chap to face. What's more important, an impressive upstairs or downstairs? I'm now praying the penis enlargement tablets I've ordered won't make my hair fall out. Dannii covered herself in glory HOW sad to read that Dannii Minogue always felt like a fatso next to Polly Pocket-sized Kylie. My cold heart breaks. So I would like her to know that there is a small army of us straight blokes out here who have always preferred her to her more famous sis. My devotion to the one-time Home And Away star has lasted more than 30 years. When I was a young pillock in the mid- Nineties, I cleaned the industrial kitchens of Edinburgh for the best part of a year so I could jet off to Australia for some fun in the sun. My arrival Down Under coincided with the delectable Dannii gracing the cover of 'men's sophisticate', Playboy. I skipped a few shrimps on the barbie to have enough cash to procure a copy of this most special of Special Editions. Perusing it in my bunk at the backpackers' hostel, a room mate took one look at it and joshed: 'Who's that mate, your girlfriend?' Cue a heavy sigh from me and the reply: 'I should be so lucky.' POPE? NOPE I WAS busy mowing the lawn last Saturday so forgot to tune in to the 'funeral of the decade' or whatever the Pope's final hurrah was billed as. I know some people were excited, but I haven't had less interest in a global event since Meghan Markle dropped her last podcast. My daughter, 11, summed up the occasion, saying: 'Daddy, I'd never heard of Pope Francis until he died.' Which did make me chuckle until I suddenly thought: So what the hell are they teaching you in R.E. these days? I feel sure I won't like the answer. I'VE said it before and I'll say it again, the whole transgender toilet row could be ended overnight if we just directed trans people to use the disabled loo. Providing accessible, safe and private loos is a legal requirement, so you will struggle to find any public building or office without one. 'Oh, but what if there's a disabled person already in there?' I hear some cry. Look, if you're a trans woman looking for a genuine female experience, then you'd struggle to find a more authentic one than queuing for the bogs.
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
The accent children are judging at age five
Children as young as five assume that people with Yorkshire accents are not clever, a study has found. Research on 27 children from Essex found that they subconsciously linked intelligence with southern English accents. They were played samples of three accents – Yorkshire, Essex, and received pronunciation – by researchers at the University of Essex. The children were asked to link the accents with two cartoon characters: the 'very clever' Ziggy, who they were told could read, speak and write well, and the 'not very clever' Zoggy, who lacked such skills. Across all measures, the children showed a strong association between received pronunciation – typically described as a middle-class accent, or the Queen's English – and cleverness. Prof Ella Jeffries, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Essex, told the Conversation website: 'This accords with what we know about how children will grow up to associate standard English as the 'correct' form in the UK. 'Our research suggests that by age five, this association is already fairly well-entrenched.' For one of the measures, the children associated the Yorkshire accent with a lack of intelligence. Prof Jeffries, who led the study, said: 'This corresponds with the prevalent accent prejudice against northern accents in the UK. 'Worryingly, this finding again suggests that bias may have already become embedded in children who are only just starting school.' She has called for a better range of accents on children's TV and films to help address the bias. Children perceived their home accent as being clever on one of the brain measures, despite previous research finding that young adults in south-east England have negative attitudes towards the Essex accent. The study also found that children exposed to a range of accents at home were more positive towards different accents. Researchers said that increasing children's exposure to a diversity of voices could be key to challenging 'accent prejudice' before it takes hold. Prof Jeffries said: 'Children are not born judging speakers to be uneducated based on the way they speak. It is something they are socialised into believing. 'Our research suggests that exposure to accent variation may be key in tackling accent discrimination from a young age.'
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Daily Mail
A mum tried to shame a restaurant for kicking her family out... the response from Aussies was not what she was expecting
A single mother has sparked debate after complaining about a restaurant that kicked her out because her toddler wouldn't stay in his seat. Adelaide woman Renèe Barendregt went to Lemongrass Thai on Main Beach with her son, Ziggy, and her mother while on holidays on the Gold Coast last week. She claimed staff warned her she would have to ensure her child stayed in his seat despite no high chair being available. However, during the first round of drinks, her son left the table to visit a nearby couple eating with their young baby. 'He started playing with the pot plant – a fake pot plant,' she said in a TikTok video. 'He wasn't doing anything wrong; he was just minding his own business, not pulling it apart or anything.' Ms Barendregt said there were only about six other people in the venue as they had gone to eat at 5.30pm. '(Staff) came over to me, and they said, "Could you please put your child in the seat? If he can't sit down the whole time, I'm going to have to ask you to leave",' she said. 'I said, "Well, you haven't given us a high chair. He is not doing anything wrong. He is not harming anything. He will sit and eat dinner when it comes." 'The staff said, "Sorry. If he's not going to sit there the whole time, I'm not going to serve you here".' The mother returned to her hotel room and ordered food via a delivery app instead. 'Maybe (the staff) would have thought twice if he knew I had been waiting for (Ziggy) to wake up so we could go out for dinner as a family, just us two and my mum,' Ms Barendregt said through tears. Social media users were divided with many saying they agreed with restaurant staff. '(Some parents) really think that "it takes a village" means "everyone must keep an eye on my kid except me while I have a drink",' one said. 'Parents like this make the rest of us look so bad,' another added. 'Kids are allowed to exist in public spaces, but we as parents need to show them how to respect public spaces. She can have him sit down or leave,' another said. Others defended the mother, arguing the restaurant should have been more patient. 'These comments are wild. Children have the right to exist in the world and parents have the right to eat out just like every other paying customer,' one argued. The video has raked in more than 1million views since it was uploaded last Monday. The daughter of the restaurant owners, who released a statement on behalf of her parents because 'English is not their first language' said on Instagram they had been 'overwhelmed' by both negative and positive reviews. 'Our restaurant typically does not have toddlers dining there,' the post read. 'Whilst (the adults were) consuming their drinks the child had wandered out of their seat and started to play with the plant, which was in arms reach, yes, however, it is also located near the entrance of the restaurant. 'During this time we started getting busy with takeaways and customers walking in and out of the restaurant. Because of the location, it was a safety hazard.' The restaurant claimed Ms Barendregt couldn't control her son and elected to leave. 'They stood up, drank their alcohol and left without paying,' the post read. Addressing the claim in a separate comment section Ms Barendregt asked: 'Why would I pay for a drink I had one sip of?' Ms Barendregt shared another TikTok video revealing she had been the target of 'hate and harassment' as a result.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: Sacré bleu! Foie gras banned by City Council.
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on April 26, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 89 degrees (1986) Low temperature: 27 degrees (2006) Precipitation: 1.76 inches (1995) Snowfall: 0.8 inches (1910) 1941: The Chicago Cubs became the first Major League team to have organ music at a ballgame. But the Tribune reported organist Ray Nelson had to cease playing at 2:30 p.m. 'because his repertoire includes many restricted ASCAP arias, which would have been picked up by the radio microphones hooked up a half hour before game time.' Also in 1941: Brookfield Zoo's Ziggy the elephant threw down his keeper George 'Slim' Lewis and tried to gore him. Lewis stunned Ziggy with a punch to the eye, jumped into the enclosure's moat and escaped. Vintage Chicago Tribune: Our favorite animals who became celebrities The zoo's management wanted to put Ziggy down, but Lewis begged that the sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, indoors. Ziggy remained chained to a wall inside the Pachyderm House for 29 years. An appeal by then-Tribune reporter Michael Sneed in 1969, started a movement — and a collection — to free the 52-year-old pachyderm. Lindsey Laughlin: Saying goodbye to Ziggy, the elephant in my room More than $15,000 in donations (or more than $132,000 in today's dollars) was raised to build an outdoor enclosure for Ziggy to roam. On Sept. 23, 1970, Ziggy got his long-deserved taste of freedom. 1951: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, ousted from his Far Eastern command weeks earlier by President Harry Truman, thrilled a vast audience at Soldier Field with a fighting defense of his stand on the war in Korea. He had been welcomed to Chicago earlier that day with a parade down Michigan Avenue and State Street. Throughout his dramatic speech, MacArthur was interrupted 19 times by 'tumultuous applause,' the Tribune reported, for calling for a 'realistic' policy that would be aimed at ending the war with a minimum loss of lives of American troops. 2006: The Chicago City Council voted to ban foie gras — the fatty livers created by force-feeding ducks and geese — effective Aug. 22, 2006. 'The City Council will be sitting in your kitchen to determine … what you should (eat) on a Sunday after church,' Mayor Richard M. Daley complained. He began working on a repeal soon after aldermen approved the ban. Chicago celebrity chef Charlie Trotter brought local attention to the issue of foie gras and animal cruelty when he announced in March 2005 that his famous namesake restaurant would no longer serve the delicacy. Trotter said his visits to foie gras farms convinced him that the force-feeding process causes the birds to suffer. Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, led the anti-foie gras charge in the City Council, saying it caused the 'torture of innocent and defenseless creatures.' In September 2005, he introduced an ordinance banning the food. Former 'M*A*S*H*' actress and animal rights activist Loretta Swit appeared at a City Council Health Committee meeting on Oct. 25, 2005, and compared the practice of raising foie gras with the abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The foie gras ban was mocked on 'The Colbert Report,' and TV food personality and author Anthony Bourdain said it made Chicago look like 'some stupid cow town.' Several restaurants still offered foie gras on their menus in defiance of the new ordinance. The ban was repealed on May 14, 2008. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
