Chip & Dip Day – When the Facts Change – Drunk Sir Peter Blake
...and other recs this week!
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
According to an Instagram ad I was served several times last week, yesterday was “Chip & Dip Day”. At first I figured this was just an arbitrary date invented by the Nestlé marketing department to try and sell more reduced cream and onion soup mix, but it turns out March 23 has been Chip & Dip Day in the US since at least the 1950s, when it was no doubt invented by some other dip company’s marketing department.
I don’t blame the Kiwi Onion Dip marketing team for riding the coattails of international Chip & Dip Day, but something about it doesn’t quite sit right. I think we should have our own national Chip & Dip Day, or Kiwi Onion Dip Day, and it should be celebrated on Rosemary Dempsey’s birthday.
For those who aren’t aware of this culinary icon, Rosemary Dempsey is the original inventor of Kiwi Onion Dip. Her story was uncovered by journalist Hayden Donnell in his 2017 Spinoff investigation ‘Finding Rosemary: In search of the unsung hero who invented Kiwi Onion Dip’. Hayden will tell you Rosemary deserves nothing less than a damehood for her creation – until that happens, I think the least we can do is formalise a new tradition of eating Kiwi Onion Dip on her birthday.
–Cal
When the Facts Change
If you want to get to the bottom of things like the new housing package the government announced yesterday, Bernard Hickey is probably the person to ask – and When the Facts Change is the podcast to subscribe to. The first episode, which came out last Friday, got stuck straight into New Zealand’s housing crisis and what – if anything – can be done to make it more affordable. Not a lot of people can make subjects like “interest rates” so accessible and, well, interesting, but that’s exactly what you get with When the Facts Change.
Drunk Sir Peter Blake
Duncan says: “Here’s a video of Sir Peter Blake at a press conference after the ‘95 America’s Cup victory, refusing to confirm the new challenger of record because "I'm not really fit for anything right now". It's part of a great lineage of victorious sportspeople having to do media admin when gloriously inebriated and/or hungover, but despite its clearly iconic nature I'd never seen it before. I was pointed to it by an excellent new-ish (and free) Substack from NZ tech founder and investor Rowan Simpson (Trade Me, Xero, Vend, heaps more), where he writes on a lot of interesting and knotty issues from business to investment to sports in a way that is both heady and accessible at the same time.”
The Real Pod
Things are getting serious in the world of nightly reality TV – MAFS AU was rocked this week by the premature departure of the season’s two best characters and the arrival of three new couples, while on The Bachelor NZ Moses continued to slowly whittle down the group of lovely women he doesn’t seem to have much of a romantic connection with. All this and much, much more will be up for discussion on this week’s two The Real Pod episodes – The Bachelor NZ one out after tonight’s episode, the MAFS AU edition out tomorrow.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
Eddy says: “George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is one of those great ‘how to’ books that completely demystifies a process and turns it into something accessible and really enjoyable. He takes seven Russian short stories he’s been teaching for years as a professor of creative writing and uses them to explain how fiction works – great for anyone who enjoys storytelling, either as a writer or a reader.”
Te Papa
Emily says: “I haven’t been to Te Papa in so long, but the kids wanted to see the squid again so I went on the weekend. Their new earthquake house is very good – Rachel House is in the new video and you’re at her place sitting down for tea when SPOILER ALERT there’s an earthquake. When it hit my kids jumped under the table very fast. It’s probably now equally as good as the Auckland Museum’s volcano house, maybe even better because it’s shorter. Very much recommended for tired parents on a Sunday.”
The Fold
The NZ Media Fund was introduced by New Zealand On Air in 2017 to cover television, radio, music and online media, in hopes that it would more successfully represent the growing diversity of media than past funds. Now, three years later, former Mediaworks head of news Hal Crawford has conducted an independent review into this fund, hoping to grasp the industry's feelings about how the money is being spent. He joined The Fold last week to talk about what he learnt about New Zealand's unique media landscape and why this review was important.
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
Sam says: “Where WandaVision went weird, Marvel’s new series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (Disney Plus) goes intimate. It’s less about heroes shooting lasers at each other, and more them dealing with the trauma of losing their closest allies, disappearing for five years and being superheroes when the fight is long over. It’s more pathos than punches, which is deeply my thing, and I suspect the thing of a lot of other gentle nerds everywhere.” Read Sam’s full review here.
Remember When…
For a few years there it looked like vowels were going to become obsolete, and the blame for this fell solely at the feet of the telcos. Duncan Greive and Mark Kelliher join Jane Yee on Remember When… this week to discuss the pain of being charged 20 cents to send a single 160 character SMS – and wonder if this enforced brevity made us all way more effective communicators back then than we are now.
The Mill Bakehouse Titirangi
Charlotte says: “The curry mince pie from The Mill Bakehouse Titirangi is a holy grail of Tāmaki Makaurau pies. It’s perfectly spiced in a way that spice enthusiasts will be satisfied with, while their spice-averse friends won’t be passing out on the spot after taking a bite. When you buy a pie at The Mill Bakehouse the meat is good and the pastry is good; it’s buttery and flaky. I’m begrudgingly sharing this knowing full well it will only increase the chances of me showing up to the bakery and missing out on my $4.50 first choice, which is already hot property – but I’d also feel equally guilty for keeping it a secret.”
Business is Boring
The problem with stuff is we don’t have enough time to use all the stuff we have, and we don’t have enough money to buy all the stuff we want. Is that profound? Anyway, this week’s Business is Boring guest Toby Skilton may have cracked it with his app Mutu, a platform for users to lend out and hire all sorts of stuff. Get those kayaks in the garage making money for you by hiring them out! Rent a circular saw for that DIY project instead of going out and buying one! The possibilities are theoretically endless.
That’s all for this week! Please reply to get in touch and share with anyone else who might like to subscribe too. See you next Wednesday 👋
