Why do we keep calling Osama ‘Obama’?It’s a trap that journalists — and the Crikey office is not immune — have been falling into all week: accidentally saying “Obama” not “Osama”. Linguists explain why it happens and it’s not just that they sound similar.
May, 2011
comedy 
Review: Greg Fleet at the Sydney Comedy Festival
Greg Fleet’s new show has the atmosphere of a family slide night – minus, of course, the mind-numbing boredom, writes Michelle McLaren.
Life as a brekkie TV star
ABC News Breakfast presenters Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland give the inside scoop on working on breakfast TV at the ABC. Think 3am alarm clocks but “no orange-faced guy from Los Angeles telling you about J-Lo’s butt implants.”
Ebert: how I stay alive and how I grew out of the habit of eating
Thyroid cancer sufferer Roger Ebert confronts the question of how he eats and drinks, explaining the ins and outs of a life saving device known as a G-Tube.
Holden: Pride in the world’s oldest profession
Author — and former prostitute — Kate Holden writes about the intrinsic relationship between sex work and feminism. It’s a fascinating look at an industry that gets little good press.
Osama bin who?
The death of Osama bin Laden may be one of the year’s biggest stories, but according to data published by Yahoo! a great deal of American youth have no idea who he was, reports Jamelle Bouie.
A Prize of One’s Own: sisters create a lit award for themselves
The 2001 Miles Franklin shortlist was a “sausage-fest” with no Aussie female author making the cut, again. It was enough to anger writer Sophie Cunningham to start up an award similar to Britain’s acclaimed Orange Prize.
Crikey Says: The fog around bin Laden’s killing
The Obama administration is blaming the “fog of war” for confusion around the actual events in Abbottabad that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, but its record of obfuscation and deception makes it easy to see other agendas at work.
Seinfeld to launch ‘portion controlled’ comedy site
Jerry Seinfeld is set to launch a massive ‘portion controlled’ website that will showcase nearly every one of his recorded stand-up performances from a career in comedy than spans 36 years, reports Dave Itzkoff.
Tiger and CASA get some extra Senate scrutiny
The Senate Inquiry into pilot training and airline safety standards has deferred tabling its report from today until June 15 in order to seek further evidence from CASA and Tiger Airways, reports Ben Sandilands.
comedy Review: DeAnne Smith in About Freakin’ Time — Seymour Centre, Sydney
Canadian comedian DeAnne Smith cuts an edgy path through comedy that even if you can’t relate to, you can’t help but find appealing, writes Matt Smith.
Don Whyte’s Offcuts: where art really is the bomb
Every year Don Whyte, who runs a Darwin-based framing shop, holds Offcuts, an exhibition up there with the best anywhere in the NT. Bob Gosford chews the fat with Whyte and contemplates where art and explosions collide.
travel Avoiding the JAFA tag: tips for living in London
Aussies living in London are often quickly slapped with the JAFA (Just Another F*cking Aussie) tag. Grace Jennings-Edquist offers tips on how to avoid the stereotype.
Fairfax yet to sign on the dotted line
For all of Fairfax’s talk of quality guarantees and conditions of service in its arrangements with Pagemasters, it has emerged that the contracts are not actually signed yet, reports Margaret Simons.
How to improve Indigenous patients’ access to medicines
For years it’s been a struggle for indigenous patients in remote communities to access PBS medicines, but efforts are finally being made to improve this significant underuse of the scheme. Dr Noel Hayman outlines the initiative.
podcast Televised Revolution: episode 40
AFL Broadcast Rights were announced, there was a Royal Wedding, Logies, and then there was that Osama business. Dan Barrett and Dennis Dugandzic discuss the massive week that was in the land of TV.
The new Virgin Australia, one brand, all markets, long, short and inbetween
Whatever the fine details, which neither Richard Branson nor John Borghetti would reveal, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin’s global management, have agreed that the name Virgin Australia is to apply to all the former Virgin Blue group brands by the end of December, reports Ben Sandilands.
theatre reviews As You Like It — Carriageworks, Sydney
There are moments of amateurism in director Kate Gaul’s new production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It but there are also plenty of fresh ideas — way more than enough to make for a thoroughly enjoyable experience, writes Lloyd Bradford Skye.
Borrowing bonanza: state budgets confirm soaring public sector debt
While next Tuesday’s estimated $50 billion federal budget deficit is the big one, we did get budgets from Victoria, the ACT and the Northern Territory yesterday which all confirmed the debt-funded proclivities of Australia’s public sector.
‘Cheeky Australian’ in shock Canada election scandal-gate
Canadians were prevented from learning the results of their own elections yesterday, until social media lent some assistance.
Political snippets: A year is a long time in politics
In a year from now Australia will either be on the verge of the introduction of a price on carbon emissions of the idea will have been scrapped.
Victorian budget marks the day the music died
The Victorian rock and roll community is reeling in the wake of yesterday’s state budget, which saw funding for the contemporary music sector slashed by 56% and the popular FReeZACentral program abandoned.
Bartholomeusz: RBA holds, but not for long
Another Reserve Bank board meeting yesterday and another month in which official rates remain unchanged. The next rate rise, however, now definitely appears to be on the RBA’s horizon.
Our shrinking asylum seeker problem
While Australia’s asylum seeker numbers fall, Labor is ensuring it will always lose the debate by remaining wedded to mandatory detention.
Crikey Clarifier: was it legal to kill Osama?
The euphoric chanting crowds at Ground Zero didn’t care, but the killing of wanted-terrorist Osama bin Laden raises a series of legal questions about the lawfulness of his death. Was it as assassination? Was Osama a “combatant”?
