Short, sweet Easter treats
Mini-egg sized snappy articles for the long weekend.
Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend! This is a shorter-than-usual special Easter edition, featuring some favourite Easter Spinoff reads from the last few years and then a quick link round up of pieces from this week. May your mini-eggs be non-waxy, your church songs (if you attend) be bangers, and your shops be open (if you live on particular streets).
-Shanti Mathias, staff writer
And the award for best disciple goes to…
Every Easter, we republish Madeleine Chapman’s ranking of Jesus’s disciples, and every year it never fails to be a least a little controversial. Philip is ranked fourth because of his interest in kai: “When Jesus held his sermon on the mount and didn’t organise catering for his 5000 fans, it was Philip who asked him how he was going to fix the problem. This sort of pragmatism and interest in food is what ranks Philip so high. Otherwise he was incredibly underwhelming, so much so that he is now the patron saint of hatters.” But if you want to know which disciples is first, you’ll have to read the whole ranking!
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How Easters have changed
David Hill remembers the Easters of his childhood as four solemn days, no shops open, and nothing to do, even if you weren’t religious. These days, with religiosity at record lows, Easter isn’t as widely observed as a religious holiday. But perhaps, Hill muses, it’s still an opportunity for more nebulous spiritual reflection. “Are we less spiritual? I don’t believe so. If you define spirituality as a belief that there’s more to existence than sensory experience, plus a willingness to explore universal emotions such as love, altruism, compassion, then I suggest the numbers are rising – though it’s hard to find statistics which measure anything so intimate and personal.”
What to watch and listen to over the long weekend
From a tender and funny drama about marital tension and the lies we tell ourselves to a documentary about Steve Martin to interviews with Anika Moa to a show about a person without super powers, there are heaps of gems that various Spinoffers recommend for long weekend entertainment.
Another Easter watch: Last Home Renters
More Easter rankings
Last year, we tasted and ranked all the supermarket hot cross buns we could get our hands on. Do the rankings still hold up?
Mini Easter eggs, from “maltiness like a milkshake” to “the right amount of creme egg for an adult to eat” to “an egg with an unexpectedly spectacular crunch”.
Easter bunnies of 2021, with and without surprises inside.
Everything else
Some of this year’s best Sunday Essays: the rage of being 44, making broth and reminding yourself that home looks different than your grandmother might once have expected, how cities make us great, the extraordinary opera singer institutionalised in a mental hospital, and a cat on the ice.
How Whakaata Māori changed the game.
“My flatmates are so stingy. Help me, Hera!”
The paralysis diary that became a Sky comedy series.
Cuba Street businesses bravely face down the existential threat of wider footpaths.
What if we made PR professionals pay for journalism?
I loved loved loved Tara Ward’s hilarious but also quite moving interview with Married At First Sight darling Lucinda Light.
As a Naomi Novik mega-fan I thoroughly approve of Danielle Hawkins’ Spinoff Books Confessional.
If you haven’t listened to the incredible limited-run Spinoff podcast series Dear Jane, maybe this weekend is a good opportunity.
Yes, the supermarkets are watching you. Do you care?
No, feijoas don’t contain iodine.
Chris Hipkins might just be the leader who can make a wealth tax work for Labour.
