The Beard heralds the age of the retrosexual

Jen Vuk Having recently shed a decent amount of weight, my husband has turned to insulation of an altogether different kind. The Beard arrived not with a bang but with a whisker.

Comments 79

Mr Kennett, you are wrong: The Age is doing its job

Paul Ramadge In my office in Media House, perched above Spencer Street, is a large framed poster announcing the launch of The Age on October 17, 1854.

Moral quandaries in the age of surrogate pregnancy

Clare O'Neil We've heard the feel-good stories - it's time we tackled the ethics.

Comments 4

Policy on drugs endangers youth

Vivienne Moxham-Hall When you get to high school, you are taught that drugs are ''bad''. The teachers show you pictures and tell you the horror stories about drugs, but at that age, you can never really believe that...

Comments 124

Colonial attitudes reappear in our plans for Christmas and Cocos islands

Richard Woolcott In the Asian century, we seem to ignore legitimate concerns of our neighbours.

I'm in training for music's marathon

Geoff Strong Staging Richard Wagner's four-opera Ring Cycle in the era of the 10-second attention span seems a bit like resurrecting the musical Hair in the age of the Brazilian wax.

Memories of stage fright at a festival in this old town

Martin Flanagan In the theatrical presentation that precedes the AFL's Dreamtime at the 'G game tonight, Shane Howard will sing Solid Rock, the protest song that slipped past the guardians of Oz popular culture 30...

Good cop, mad cop routine is fine for Hollywood, but let's keep it there

Bruce Guthrie Joyriding is dangerous, but police were way out of line last week.

The apostrophe is a mother of all battles, but it's no day to keep mum

Richard Castles Among the greater controversies to test mankind, lying in scope somewhere between the question of God and the issue of spanking, is the correct placement of the apostrophe in ''Mothers' Day''.

Truth is the forgotten family value

George Monbiot Cultural conservatives' moral concerns about marriage are based on a view of history that is almost entirely false.

Comments 201

A whole lot of dollars, but no sense of restraint

Bruce Guthrie In the late 19th century, in an essay entitled Gospel of Wealth, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie offered advice on how the rich should behave: Provide moderately, give generously and live...

When all else fails, society can too

Adele Horin It was a textbook case of society's failure to save a child. By the time she stood before magistrate David Heilpern in the Maclean Children's Court, aged barely 15, Diane* had a history of violent...

Bard of all time finds the globe is his theatre

Jonathan Bate "After God,'' said the 19th-century novelist Alexandre Dumas, ''Shakespeare has created most.'' Certainly no other writer has exercised such a universal appeal.

Safeguard vulnerable young from aged care isolation

Di Winkler and Libby Callaway Hundreds of Australians under 50 are forced to live in nursing homes simply because there is nowhere else for them.

Comments 6

Knowing about your biological origins is a basic right

Ian Smith Victoria can be a world leader with information on donor conception.

Pain of modern paeans

Heckler WHY doesn't God turn them into pillars of salt? Or at least send a bolt of lightning or two?

We're all narcissists now … or are we?

Tanveer Ahmed There are few more common insults thrown at public figures these days than ''narcissist''. It is considered, in the mouths of many, a more sophisticated way of calling someone a bastard.

Comments 46

Getting a few things straight about gay put-downs

Sam de Brito When it comes to social faux pas, asking a straight man if he's gay ranks up there with congratulating an overweight woman on her pregnancy.

MTR failure shows it pays to listen to your audience

Bruce Guthrie The axed talk radio station failed to heed the needs of Melbourne listeners.