Judith Ridge

So for the love of all that Jane stood for, stop sharing those shitty AI generated fake funeral posts.

I have no opinion on Taylor Swift.

Still struck by a Merriam-Webster IG post I saw on legal doublets: artefacts of the bilingual Norman legal system. The English synonym went first in the pair

law (English/Germanic) & order (French/Roman)
cease & desist
all & sundry
lewd & lascivious
breaking & entering
free & clear
will & testament

Rick’s one of the good guys. Really happy about this.

Woman awarded $93,000 in damages after 'humiliating' festival strip search A Sydney woman subjected to an unlawful strip search at a music festival has been awarded $93,000 in damages, in a judgement that could see thousands of others also receive compensation.

They made her remove her tampon; it’s about control And humiliation

“The state government has lost a landmark case involving the illegal strip search of a woman by NSW Police at a music festival in 2018. Sydney woman Raya Meredith was awarded $93,000 in damages”
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

These absolute clowns.

I know it's not the point of this article at all but Briggs is ridiculously good at what he does. If you haven't heard his stuff, I recommend checking him out. Either solo work or A.B. Original, or any one of the multitude of collabs he's done - it's all good! Briggs is amazing.

Yellow-footed rock-wallaby ... on a rock.
Boolcoomatta Reserve.

That feeling as a writer when you see a line that just has you going "Damn, I wish I had written that"

"AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations"

I've read some of this in an earlier form, and it's REALLY interesting. Especially if you like children's fantasy and have sensitivity to and curiosity about absorption and/or appropriation of indigenous myth and the way fantasy can give a "way in" to the Land (or Country).

Thanks Debbie!

Tile preview of a Substack post called "Keeping Alive Their Fancy or, All Aboard the Nostalgia Train". Background image is of a 19th century painting of children in a schoolroom reading books.

New post on Substack, link in my bio. On the latest moral panic around young people and reading and why Dickens will not save us all. #reading #childrensliterature #fauxstalgia

I mean, my brother-in-law owns a stack of Toranas. He restores them and then sells them. It’s his retirement plan. So they could have one if they really wanted one.

Australian children’s fantasy fiction and the Settler Colonial desire for a connection to Country. An overview of research towards my PhD in Children's Literature through the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

I've posted on Substack about my PhD research. I'm writing about the way White children's writers have worked within the fantasy genre to explore a different relationship to Country than the realist "everything in Australia will kill you" mode allowed.

open.substack.com/pub/msmisrul...

@kermodeandmayo.bsky.social Margot Robbie American? Shrieks in Australian!

A few days after Brian Kilmeade suggested “involuntary lethal injection,” two separate mass shootings targeted homeless encampments in Minnesota, injuring at least a dozen people. Yet Jimmy Kimmel is indefinitely suspended.

Robert Redford, giant of American cinema, dies aged 89 Redford achieved huge critical and commercial success in the 60s and 70s with a string of hits including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Way We Were and The Sting, before becoming an Oscar-win...

You were lovely, Hubble.

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Good lord, did anyone just hear Matt Canavan on Radio National? Shouting down Sally Sara, arrogant, scathing of science, gobsmackingly rude.

“If you can’t honor a man by quoting him directly because his own words seem disparaging to his legacy, then perhaps you shouldn’t try to honor him at all.” Watch my latest here: www.youtube.com/live/2Mv50KZ...

A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class.

This is Kirk's legacy.

You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.

Opinion | Charlie Kirk Didn’t Shy Away From Who He Was. We Shouldn’t Either.

"The Professor Watchlist is a straightforward intimidation campaign, and you can draw a line directly from Kirk’s work attacking academics to the Trump administration's all-out war on American higher education, an assault on the right to speak freely and dissent." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

1 / 1 Letter in support of Meanjin’s future As members of the Publishing and Communications program’s staff at the University of Melbourne, we strongly support the continued existence of Meanjin Quarterly. From direct involvements with the journal during the past 25 years and more, we personally attest to the formative role Meanjin has played in the development of writers, editors and publishers, and an independent Australian cultural voice. The creative labour of thousands resonates deeply in the fabric of this cultural institution founded by Clem Christesen in Meanjin/Brisbane in 1940. We call on the University of Melbourne to recognise the rich and continuing social, political and literary value of Meanjin by ensuring its future. The journal is a living resource for our teaching, and vital to our students. Its publications fill our reading lists with ideas from the best minds of our time. It has uplifted many of our students through publication, internships, partnerships and employment, and its connection to the University is part of what makes our writing and editing programs valuable and comparable to other leading universities on the international stage. We believe the University’s enduring purpose of benefiting society compels it to take swift action to preserve the journal and sustain its continued publication, preferably within the University itself. At the very least, the University should do all it can, acting in good faith, to transfer the journal’s cultural and IP assets to another institution prepared to save it. Culturally, the University of Melbourne has benefited immensely from its support of the journal since 1945; the extinction of the journal would be its enduring loss but an even greater loss to the community the University serves. Signed by: Sybil Nolan Tim Coronel Matt Holden LJ Maher Fiannuala Morgan Sharon Mullins Beth Driscoll Claire Parnell Nicola Redhouse Hollen Singleton Bec Kavanagh

Re #MeanjinJournal, a letter from myself and some of my colleagues to The University of Melbourne. #Meanjin is such an important part of Australia's literary ecosystem and losing it would be culturally and industrially devastating. #AusLit #AustralianWriters #Publishing #Unimelb

Planning an essay on the Whitlams. Bigger than my head.

I just saw a comment that said "I don't support what happened to Charlie, but Charlie supported what happened to Charlie."

THAT ... that's what I've been trying to put into words.

University of Melbourne Creative Writing Program Statement on Meanjin Closure 11 September 2025 The creative writing program at the University of Melbourne is distressed by the recently announced closure of Meanjin, one of Australia's oldest and most revered literary journals. Its international reputation carries Australian stories and voices to the world. For 85 years, Meanjin has supported, elevated and launched the careers of a staggering number of writers, including many of our own staff and students; it's also an important resource for all teachers and students of Australian literature. The Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature, Professor Tony Birch, says, 'Meanjin has been a major supporter of Blak writers and artists in Australia. Without the support of such a significant literary and cultural journal, many of us would not have been able to publish as emerging writers and may not have gone on to have a publishing life at all. We must ensure that such support continues. If Australian society is genuinely committed to truth-telling, these truths will be told by Blak artists.' As writers and creative writing academics, we know how precious journals like Meanjin are to the continuing development of Australian literature, although of course its scope goes far beyond that. While we hope new literary journals continue to emerge, Meanjin is irreplaceable. It has survived for almost a century, through the Second World War, the Cold War and numerous budget crises, and has retained its undeniable significance as part of the University of Melbourne and Melbourne University Press. It continues to publish vital, timely work that, to paraphrase Sylvia Martin, keeps the intellectual and aesthetic fires of this continent alight.

We continue to hear from our students and will be sharing more of their responses. From two: "Meanjin has and will always be the one literary magazine I look up to when I think of literary perfection." "Meanjin was my dream publication. I feel that yet another opportunity has been taken from me before I can even get my foot in the door." These students are completing their degrees while our industry is in crisis. Now is the moment that we, the University of Melbourne, must step up. The cost of maintaining Meanjin to the University is minimal, but the value is enormous. As the University of Melbourne Public Humanities initiative puts it 'culture is something that we care for, just as it cares for us.' We call on the University of Melbourne to embrace its responsibilities to students, staff and the public good by acting promptly and housing this important journal within its Community and Cultural Partnerships portfolio and resourcing it appropriately for the long term. Meanjin is vital to each and every member of the creative writing program and we can't imagine our future without it. Dr Romy Ash, Dr Clem Bastow, Dr Quinn Eades, Dr Rachel Hennessy, Dr Andy Jackson, Dr Odette Kelada, Bec Kavanagh, Dr Emma Marie Jones, Dr Liz MacFarlane, Dr Helen Milte, Dr Cath Moore, Dr Nadia Niaz, Dr Radha O'Meara, Associate Professor Eddie Paterson, Dr Hayley Singer, Dr Soren Tae Smith, Associate Professor Maria Tumarkin, Associate Professor Julienne van Loon, Dr Jessica Zhan Mei Yu.

A collective statement from my University of Melbourne Creative Writing Program colleagues and I about the closure of Meanjin - and thank you to Julienne and Bec for representing us at the rally!

🤣 People ripping down the covering over Banksy's art.

Lets stop being ridiculous, let the world see its beauty.

Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman remembered as funny, savvy and 'a true leader' Friends and colleagues remembered her as grounded, kind and compassionate.

This is a Melissa Hortman appreciation account for the next 24 hours.

Political violence is abhorrent. I have not celebrated Kirk's death.

But Newsom calling for his followers to "continue Charlie Kirk's work," someone who praised stoning gay people as "god's perfect law," who called for men to "take care of" trans people like they did in the 50s and 60s, is not it.

Gaza, now

(Credit - Muhammad Smiry)

Screenshot

Maru’s person’s message on Youtube after he died.