PAUL THOMAS
Paul Thomas is a NZ writer. This website’s currently a work-in-progress, but feel free to have a look around!
RECENT WRITINGS
Trump and being an ass
For the sake of argument let’s assume Donald Trump is, in American parlance, an asshole. So the question is: why is an asshole – and not just any old asshole but someone widely regarded as a gigantic asshole, one of the world’s biggest – holding a commanding poll lead…
Republican Party Trump Card
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called it “the darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history.” What was he referring to?
Polynesian All Blacks
Next week’s All Blacks-Samoa test in Apia will be, among other things, a celebration of the Samoan influence in New Zealand rugby.
The Ugly Game
For years the English satirical magazine Private Eye has boasted about the Curse of Gnome, the bad karma that tends to befall powerful individuals who take legal action against it.
Jerry Collins
Jerry Collins’ fatal accident is a stark reminder that there’s one form of sudden death to which we’re all susceptible.
Luis Suarez
Many top-line athletes are combinations of beauty and the beast but few more so than Uruguayan soccer player Luis Suarez.
Buck Shelford
Almost 30 years on, Buck Shelford’s scrotum is back in the headlines.
Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker-prize winning novel The Luminaries shows she knows a thing or two about astrology, but I doubt she foresaw the stoush triggered by her remarks at an Indian literary festival.
Charlie Hebdo and the But Brigade
Writer Salman Rushdie calls them the “But Brigade”: those who deplored the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but then watered down their condemnation with context, caveats, extrapolations and warnings against “over-reacting.”
Best Films of 2014
“Best of” lists are a silly season staple.