This Otter is just kicking back and enjoying life. Photo by Russell Mondy on Flickr, under a creative commons licence.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a great book? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: arts & entertainment, Culture, Miscellaneous
Otterday! And Open Thread 
Hoyden About Town 
Sure.
What’s happening to Sydney night life?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/would-last-person-sydney-please-turn-lights-out-matt-barrie
It’s broken enough that several young musicians I know (and dozens of their friends) have already moved elsewhere so they can get enough work to make a living wage.
I like the link the author makes between these laws and what used to be called “wowserism” – the sort of anti-socialising thinking that is more about preventing sin than preventing crime (except in the sense that if everyone stayed home and sober like good moral people, they wouldn’t be preyed on by criminals[1], now would they?).
(Mind you, I note the author has fallen victim to the common delusion that Sydney is the only city in Australia. The rules which apply in Sydney don’t apply in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, Brisbane or Hobart, and it might be worth while for tourists and so on to head elsewhere in Australia if they’re wanting to get a bit of fun).
Oh, and I’d question whether the NSW state government is attempting to turn Sydney into Detroit. I think they’re aiming much closer to home – they’re trying to turn it into Canberra (where you’d be hard pushed to get an umbrella to stay open after about 10pm on a weeknight).
[1] Well, except for burglars and home invaders. But you should have had stronger locks, and bars on the windows, and security doors, and an alarm system, and look, there’s bound to be a spare cell or two in Darlinghurst jail, why don’t you just move in there so you’ll be safe and the nice warders can keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t do anything naughty.
Apologies to megpie71 for not publishing this comment several weeks ago when it was first submitted. For some reason I never got the email-notification about a pending comment in moderation, and only just saw it now because I’ve logged in for the first time in weeks.
Please, if this ever happens again just drop me an email yourself and I’ll get it sorted ASAP.
I must confess, as someone who gets about on pneumatic tyres on the footpath, the author completely lost me when they started talking about how great it is when people can stand around drinking out of glasses on the footpath.
On reading a great book, I’ve picked up the Vorkosigan saga again (I’m up to Brothers in Arms), and am greatly enjoying that. On books more generally, we’ve commenced the Great Book Cull of 2016 today, with two huge crates filled so far to donate. More shelf space (or at least fewer double-shelved books) ftw!