Shooting for the moon - 6/7/08
Forty years ago this month, the dusty, rilled footprint of Neil Armstrong was historically planted on the moon as man walked on the lunar surface for the first time. About ten years before that –when I was a teenager – I used to wrestle with my Dad for first go at the daily newspaper to read about the latest exploits of seven men chosen to be the first human voyagers into space.

........................................................................................................................................

twenty years on - 31/5/08
It would be easy, even tempting, to start this column with those sorts of  attention-grabbing tabloid newspaper headlines like “My Health Nightmare “ or “My Cancer Scare”.

........................................................................................................................................

AN EXPLANATION - 21/3/06
Hinch newspaper columns – which have been appearing on this page for more than five years – will be more sporadic in future.  The reason? The Editor of the Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun sacked me. My crime? I signed a contract with New Idea magazine for stories and photos of my engagement to Chanel Hayton and our wedding.

I wasn’t aware that when a newspaper hired you to write 1000 opinionated words about politics, or crime or life that they assumed they owned every inch of your private life and private thoughts.  But as I said to the boss “You’re the editor. It’s your call.” Thanks for the lend of the hall – as they say in vaudeville.

........................................................................................................................................

diet? try it - 19/2/06
It would be easy, even tempting, to start this column with those sorts of  attention-grabbing tabloid newspaper headlines like “My Health Nightmare “ or “My Cancer Scare”.

a flat argument - 5/2/06
Tax reform is in the news yet again, especially with the Howard Government having a belly full of money in the lead up to the next federal Budget.

a deadly debate - 22/1/06
Eight paragraphs. Buried  in the Herald Sun this week. It concerned the fate of two young fishermen in Thailand . They pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of a young British backpacker. It happened less than three weeks ago. They have already been sentenced to death.

legal or illegal? - 8/1/06
There was a story in the news recently that claimed almost 50,000 people are living in Australia illegally.  More than 10,000 in New South Wales and about 3500 in Victoria .