Stump'd - Latest Comments

Re: Food carts of Melbourne (all four of them)

Gabbaz2002 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:23:12 -0000

What about the Taco van also in Brunswick food is nice but too expensive and small serving :(

Re: Project America: The peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Kate37768 — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:43:53 -0000

What are the things you need to make peanut butter and jelly. i hate it but it's an homework for school, and i don't make it and all (don't be too surprised, i'm one of the picky ones. not even vegetables or worst of all cheese). So could someone help please, i'm 11 year old and my mom is not much help :P neither are my two little annoying lovable brothers.

Re: Project America: Ice Hockey

Ruth — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:06:30 -0000

I use the terms interchangeably when talking to Americans because I have no other option (I would say "chav" if talking to a Pom), although I don't think they're identical. In some ways, I think the "redneck" stereotype has more in common with what we'd call a "yobbo" and "bogan" has more in common with "white trash", but y'know, they're all Venn diagrams. I also think "bogan" is generally a gentler term that those two might be used -- I'm a bit of a bogan, in some ways, and I imagine most Australians would say the same. I would never call myself "white trash" though.

In this context, I -- at least -- was specifically saying "bogans". I dunno if I'd have used the word "redneck" in this case. I wouldn't call the family from Roseanne "rednecks", but I would call them "bogans", and I guess that's what I was going for.

Re: Project America: Ice Hockey

kartar — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:44:30 -0000

I use the terms interchangeably. It's probably not 100% accurate to do so but they feel like similar sub-cultures raised using different cultural memes. Also I am lazy. :)

Re: Project America: Ice Hockey

Heumann — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:35:06 -0000

'The Boy observed, “There’s a broader selection of bogans here than I usually see in Portland.” I concur.'
Ruth, are you (or rather The Boy) saying that the States' rednecks are the same as Aussie bogans, or just using the word loosely?

In Melbourne I was roundly criticised for confusing the two, and so I'd hesitate to make the distinction in the other direction.

Re: Rag of the Week: Busted

Worthy_n — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 07:05:41 -0000

I think this magizine is horrible. What happened to innocent until proven guilty. Not only are these people being humiliated when they are arrested but the humiliation continues further with people buying this for cheap entertainment. I know some one who ended up loosing their job of 10+ years because his boss saw him in the magizine. If it wasn't for the magizine his boss would have never known he was arrested. And it was all over a minor offense. To top it all off his ex-wife was told by a friend that they saw him in "Busted" and she finally found her reason to not allow him to see his son, which they are very close and he is a wonderful father. Its been a few months and she is just now starting to let them see eachother. Mostly because the boy is old enough to voice his opinions and its causing problems in the mother son relationship. Why are they clogging up the jails with some of these petty crimes when they are releasing violent criminals to make room for non-violent ones? Why aren't the wealthy criminals exposed in this magizine? It sickens me to see people making a buck from the misfortune of others, and even causing someone who has almost nothing to loose the two most important things to him in life, his job and his son. I am certain he is not the only one with a similar story.So I ask, if this magizine is acceptable to the public then why hasn't anyone come out with a corprate version of "Busted" say with all executives, companies, legal criminals (banks, insurance companies), and/or politicans who cause millions of dollars worth of damage everyday like polluting our rivers, preying on people who are less fortunate, overcharging for medical care, raising insurance, allowing children to be the largest group of people in our nation living below poverty level, and wasting tax payers money jailing non-violent offenders. There is a much better way, people just have to take a stand and stick together. Look at the other industrial nations who take care of eachother instead of only taking care of ourself. Wow I could go on for ever because this kind of shit really pisses me off. Maybe we wouldn't need a busted magizine if we spent less on our military and more on helping single mothers and fathers raise their children properly, giving everyone rich or poor a chance to feel successful!

Re: Project America: The peanut butter and jelly sandwich

guest — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:04:27 -0000

Haha. Your writing had me cracking up. Fantastic. Now, I'm from the East coast of the U.S. so maybe things are done differently but I've never tipped someone at a food cart before. Now if they had a tip jar out I would put my change in it. I see it as most of what they're making off of the selling of their goods goes back into funding the business whereas any extra tips left goes directly into their pocket. But again, I've don't ever remember tipping a food cart vendor, not even at a farmers market.

Re: Food trucks of Melbourne II: Attack of the Clones

Jo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:33:58 -0000

I went to Taco Truck (in Melbourne) for the first time this week. Pretty good food, but not cheap at all. One tiny taco for $6 or two for $12 with a bit of salad, so basically costs the same as the Mexican restaurant around the corner. It was nice to eat dinner sitting in a park for a change, but mostly it seems to be a fad driven by the idea that it's cool in places like LA and Portland so we'd better do it in Northcote too. That's just my two cents worth...

Re: Food trucks of Melbourne II: Attack of the Clones

Den — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:02:56 -0000

Oh to have a foreigner tell me about food in my city! :)

I was in Malaysia last year and each day for lunch the people in the office would all hop into cars and drive for 20/30mins to some street cafe or similar to eat 'the best' soup/satay/seafood around. Food obsessed they were.

Anyway, many of these places started out as street vendors with a cart on the road side. Eventually they get to have a proper cafe if they are any good... and people travel for miles around to eat their specialty.

... don't see that happening in Melbourne. Looks like we do it a bit upside down. I see the next step here would be to have all those top chefs selling off franchise vans and the poor suckers cannibalising each other until they're all run out of business - all it will take is one food poisoning.

However I really think the High Street souvlaki restaurant can do with a bit of competition - that business model is very tired.

May the best place for me to get food win (unless I hate the outcome)!

Re: Food trucks of Melbourne II: Attack of the Clones

EasternDave — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:13:56 -0000

This is a good-to-great read for me as I have had little interaction with food carts. You answered my curious side about two aspects of the cart proliferation... if they were all gourmet grills on wheels or not and what their impact is on brick/mortar cafe's/restaurants around them. Food carts fit into two scenarios for me; 1) driving along a busy street and there is a food cart pod and no parking. My thought is how does any one stop and eat there? And poof, I am a block away. 2) While waiting in line the visable menu prices are about the same I would pay in a brick/mortar eaterie... and they lose my business. Why sit in the cold for the same price as a heated cafe or restaurant?

Re: Food carts of Melbourne (all four of them)

Yongbongfong — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:48:42 -0000

Nice article. i am from Malaysia, I miss the cheap supper and morning breakfast at street stall and night market.
I hope i can bring it in here too

Re: On Hipsters

Stephen Robinson — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:30:08 -0000

Young people really are dickheads.

Re: On Hipsters

Ruth — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:39:50 -0000

It was my impersonation of, say, Dad, trying to talk about an X-Box.

Re: On Hipsters

jo — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:34:55 -0000

What's an X-wiggie? You can tell I am not a hipster or Gen Y!!

Re: Road Trip: Los Angeles

Ruth — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:32:29 -0000

Yeah, your money is probably better spent elsewhere, but if you do find yourself in the States one day, it's worth a day or two, as chances are that if you're flying from Australia, you'll land in the dreaded LAX (it really is as bad as everyone says) anyway. It's an important place when you think about how one city so far away has had such a profound influence on Australian culture.

Re: Food carts of Melbourne (all four of them)

Kamagra Europe — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:13:19 -0000

The city is supporting this and a handful of other fruit and vegetable carts to improve access to fresh produce in undeserved areas.

Re: Road Trip: Los Angeles

Raoul Duke — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:08:56 -0000

A very enjoyable read. I too as an aussie grew up of hopefully one day visiting LA but as I got older and learnt about all the less glamorous stuff like the poverty & homelessness my interest waned. But it was nice to experience this via you, still sounds interesting but no longer on the "if I ever win the lottery" list.

Re: Adventures in US health care

Ruth — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:09:36 -0000

Ah feeding the trolls again, but to answer: I guess, on a fundamental level, one could argue that - if access to health care is every Australian's right - it is unfair for those who have more money to get substantially better health care.

But on a more pragmatic level, the government props up the private system by giving a "rebate" to those who purchase private insurance, money that could go to the public system. It also penalises people in higher income brackets for not having private health insurance by charging them a levy surcharge. It also penalises people who don't take out private health insurance by age 30 with higher premiums if they do take it out later.

But more interesting to me: does spamming blogs like this one really help you sell more health insurance? Are people actually being paid to do this?

Re: Adventures in US health care

Speed Star — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:04:02 -0000

"That's because people have the option of private insurance -- you get a higher standard of care with it, which is unfair, but there it is. If you don't have it, you're still covered by Medicare." I don't understand. How is it unfair to have an option to get high quality insurance? If some people can afford it, why not?

cheap health insurance for individuals <- This was spam for some company called Aegis Health. Lovely. - Ruth

Re: Mum and Dad do America

K Jetson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:22:43 -0000

I tink your spot on about the anti-america stuff. When I told some people that I was going to the US, their reactions were like why would you want to go there?

Re: Mum and Dad do America

Ruth — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:53:19 -0000

This was a spoken interview - I recorded and then transcribed. They are both former radio broadcasters. Mum has done some writing, but I don't think she would mind me saying she is more gifted as an orator. It was funny, actually, my father immediately slipped into performance mode and was, at least initially, deliberately combative, whilst my mother definitely didn't -- she seemed wary of how I would steer the conversation (they raised me, rightly, to be distrustful of journalists). By the end, as you can see, it had shifted and my mother is willing to say some negative things and talk more about her opinions and experiences, whereas my father had switched "off" a bit and was being more casual.

Re: Road Trip: Viva Las Vegas

EasternDave — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:38:27 -0000

Las Vegas, in my opinion, cannot be described. You have to experience the city and all it offers.
My last time there I almost signed up (for a fee) for a "Pink Jeep Tour" of ancient indian sites, including petroglyphs. My reason for not going is that they lacked pink jeeps, instead they had a different make/model of SUV painted an extremely nauseating pink with bold black letters... PINK JEEP TOUR. My thought was that if they are going to blatantly lie... I can go elsewhere.

Re: Mum and Dad do America

EasternDave — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:23:56 -0000

Very interesting interview of how outsiders view America. Are your parents also writers??? Their answers flow as if they were writing for a reading audience of their own, not your audience.

Re: Adventures in US health care

Ruth — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:38:41 -0000

Wow - a private health insurance company spamming my blog. You stay classy, HIF.

But to address your statement seriously (I'm not sure why): yes, according to "one study" (I presume you mean the rather important National Health Survey) about 50% have private health insurance. That's because people have the option of private insurance -- you get a higher standard of care with it, which is unfair, but there it is. If you don't have it, you're still covered by Medicare.

Re: Adventures in US health care

medical insurance in australia — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:48:07 -0000

In Australia, health care is largely covered by private insurance. According to one study, almost 50% are privately covered.