Right? Of course we went straight there.

It would be if she were Latina, but she’s Samoan (but she does often make that exact name joke in her stand-up, though).

Thanks, I just came here to make the same comment. The article should include Ita O’Brien’s name!

The Queen by herself cannot dissolve the monarchy, that would need to be done by Act of Parliament (which would need to signed off by the monarch, of course). There’s no way the government would abolish the monarchy during her lifetime, she’s far too popular.

So many gorgeous, friendly kitties! Thanks again for sharing them with us this year.

Did you see Tom Hollander’s A Life in the Day column from a couple of months ago? Highly entertaining.

I managed to rediscover my reading mojo this year, (although my attention span for other things was tiny at times). Here are my fiction favourites:

How thrilling to see a MI reference in the wild! Bless you.

You’re right, self-identification is crucial. I don’t know if anyone ever really asked Wake how she identified, most people probably had no idea of her background, so we might never know. I don’t think it’s particularly well known even in NZ that Wake had Māori ancestry (though there was certainly discussion of it in…

You’re probably right as to NZ Pākehā law at the time, but those laws would have almost certainly been brought in to disinherit Māori of mixed ancestry. Laws like that based on percentage of ancestry don’t exist anymore as far as I’m aware. It’s hard to know for people back then how they would’ve identified, certainly…

I was just going to say, I wonder whether they will completely gloss over the fact that she was Māori. I guess that’s a yes...

“Upstart Crow” is an absolute delight. Hugely underrated.

God how good was Galavant. Time for yet another rewatch.

To be fair that is a very low bar. American chocolate is just...no.

Same, I’m a big Bill Bailey fan.

I’d just add I haven’t seen this myself but this is what I’ve seen people of social media report from Dylan Moran’s more recent stand up. But generally he seems like a good egg (and I’m hoping so are Bill Bailey and Tamsin Grieg).

Also for further context, his shows have also been pretty successful outside of Ireland/the UK. Father Ted was definitely on TV when I was growing up in NZ, and Black Books and The IT Crowd more recently too. They’re also very well known in Australia, where I live now.

But also he was the creator of The IT Crowd which I’m pretty sure was mildly popular (or at least better known) in the US? Bit weird to only mention the show he did in the 90s when he’s also had successful shows since.

Cute clows, definitely. If we didn’t want our sheep murdered we shouldn’t have put them where kea could murder them.

Kākāpō are so fricking charming. I once paid maybe NZ$60 to stare at one through glass for 20 mins at Auckland Zoo and it was totally worth it. It was Sirocco, the kākāpō who got up close and personal with Mark Cawardine’s head.