Get Out of the Ghetto: Queenstown Edition

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013

When Phoebe Harrop of “Get Out of the Ghetto” fame found herself unable to “research” this feature, she selflessly passed the torch on to me. Go to Queenstown for the weekend, I was instructed, and try out some of the fun stuff on offer. I was forcefully reminded of how awesome this job is. Read more...

Mann vs. Wild

Posted 2:26pm Sunday 12th May 2013

Although the prospect of doing so was all that got me through the experience, it has taken me months to work up the nerve to write about what I now refer to, usually in a sepulchral whisper, as “the worst eight days of my entire life.” The following is an account of my experience climbing Mount Read more...

Brittany Mann and the Abortion Protestors

Posted 3:14pm Sunday 28th April 2013

In my other life, I moonlight as a receptionist at a medical centre. Arriving at work one afternoon, I found the building surrounded by men holding enormous signs emblazoned with disingenuous slogans and graphic photos of aborted foetuses, not dissimilar to the subject of Maddy Phillipps’ Read more...

The Strange Phenomenon of Christian Flatting

Posted 4:40pm Sunday 7th April 2013

With Easter behind us and the mid-year break just around the corner, soon it will once again be the time of year to embark on that perennial venture we all love to hate: the flat hunt. For some, particularly newly-rounded freshers, decisions on flat group formation will involve fraught, Read more...

Marriage 101

Posted 5:43pm Sunday 17th March 2013

It may be 2013, but plenty of students are still getting engaged, married, and even divorced. Brittany Mann tracked down six married Otago students to ask them the why, when, and why? With my debut as a bridesmaid for a friend’s wedding looming menacingly on the horizon, I have found myself Read more...

Three Dunedin North MPs

Posted 9:40pm Sunday 24th February 2013

Michael Woodhouse Michael Woodhouse is a Dunedin North-based National MP. So it has been about a year since you last chatted to Critic and I understand you’ve undergone some professional changes. You’re now a minister, congratulations. Thank you. So when I spoke to Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012

For many, if not most (going by the sheer number of bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked freshers in the first flush of academic fervour), med school is something of a holy grail. But in reality, to milk the biblical metaphor, this cup can be very difficult to bear, to the point of sacrificing one’s own life. Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012

When I was getting travel vaccinations recently, the nurse administering them said she had not heard of the recent Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I made no real effort to veil my scorn (hello, she is a nurse at a travel medicine clinic…) and wasted no Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 25

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012

I saw a group of people doing a tag-team keg stand in the middle of the Cumberland/Dundas intersection on Saturday, while the Cumberland lights were red. It pretty much made my life. If you were one of those brave, carefree whippersnappers and you’re reading this, well, I take my hat off to you. I Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 24

Posted 4:57pm Sunday 16th September 2012

This is a bit of a departure from tradition – I’ve suddenly gone all PETA on yo’ asses. But as they say, animals are people too. Elephants, for example, mourn and bury their dead, and can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Given the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo Read more...