ICYMI: Why fast-food shaming isn't about backing your local
20 April - 4 May
The Side Eye: Essential. Two years ago, Toby Morris met Tasia for the Side Eye comic ‘Empty Shelves’ where she talked about her financial struggle even after more than 15 years working as a supermarket checkout operator. Toby caught up with Tasia again to find out how the Covid-19 lockdown has changed her life, discovering that while in some ways her job has gotten harder, it’s also never been better.
Welcome to alert level three. Now let’s finish what we started. In many ways, writes Dr Siouxsie Wiles, alert level three may be the trickiest phase yet. “You know how I said that we’ve stopped Covid-19 spreading like wildfire? Well, here’s the thing. There may still be some smouldering ashes out there. And they have the potential to become a wildfire again if we give them the chance,” she says. “In other words, if we turn our backs for a minute, we’ll be on the path to a serious outbreak once again.”
Fast-food shaming is not about backing your local, it’s about being an asshole. After five weeks of home cooking, New Zealand rejoiced as food outlets were finally allowed to open their doors for takeaways. Many flocked to fast-food giants like McDonald’s and KFC who’ve been derided online as “pathetic” and that they should “support their local” – a wonderful sentiment that has somehow turned into a “rallying cry to shame people who miss Wicked Wings,” writes Jean Teng, who thoughtfully explains why fast-food shaming needs to stop.
“I love the way The Spinoff weave pop culture into hard news to make it relatable to a younger audience and gets them to engage with what's going on in the world.”
- Sophie Whitney, Spinoff Member
An unwanted intrusion: Grief during isolation. “Isolation is lonely enough as it is. It’s harder when your only company is grief,” writes Sam Brooks in this affecting essay on remembering his mother who passed away six years ago. “Today would have been her birthday. I can guarantee she wouldn’t have celebrated it or even noted it like I am now, but for the past six years I’ve thought of the day as a time to check-in, intentionally, with grief. I invite the usually unwanted guest in, open up a wine, and trot out pleasant memories that are, by the end of the night, painful ones. Of course they are. They’re all that’s left.”
The lockdown sanctuary at Lake Tekapo. At the scenic South Island tourist hotspot, things are quiet under lockdown and reminiscent of what it was like 30 years ago. And while the loss of visitors has been bad for business, it’s also restored some of the peacefulness and serenity that made it so special in the first place, writes Michael Andrew in this wonderful profile of the region.
The 10 most thrilling backdrops of the NZ parliament chez Zoom. Calum Henderson has gone ahead and ranked the 10 most intriguing Zoom backgrounds from the Epidemic Response Committee which for weeks has live-streamed its discussions to the nation. Like the rest of us, it turns out elected officials have a lot of weird stuff in their homes and offices, from fish on walls to mysterious van Gogh replicas.
How an Auckland school is responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Dilworth, an Auckland boarding school for boys, has a legacy of providing students with opportunities normally inaccessible because of family circumstances. With students receiving fully funded scholarships worth about $35,000 a year, it’s allowed many parents to upskill and further their careers. Teuila Fuatai talks to one such parent on the impact of having her two teenage sons at the schoo.
