11 November 2023 - Saturday Squiz

Entering salad mode with Sunbeam Foods

Feeling run off your feet like this showy little dude? Us too… This Saturday, if you have a TV show you stress-watch, a wacky-but-delish sandwich recipe, or anything else you want to share with us, hit reply.

⏱️ Reading time: 7 minutes

🎧 Get the Weekly Wrap podcast with Claire Kimball and Kate Watson

🤷‍♀️ IDK: If it’s provable that knitters have a gene that makes them more patient than the rest of us…

This week's top stories

In an unwieldy week of news, we couldn’t let Kmart’s ham bag kerfuffle go unnoticed…

1. A greenlight for humanitarian pauses in Gaza - Israel’s agreed to put in place 4-hour daily stoppages in their war on Hamas in Gaza to allow residents to leave/receive aid. Overnight, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “far too many” Palestinian civilians have been killed and have suffered in the past few weeks.

2. Optus goes dark - Three reviews/inquiries were launched after more than 10 million customers and 400,000 businesses were affected by the telco’s 13-hour network outage on Wednesday. Here’s some info about your consumer rights if that’s you.

3. Albanese says ni hao - Our “handsome boy” PM Anthony Albanese (more on that later…) was in China for a “very positive” meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Looks like we’re out of the deep freeze…

4. An Aussie cricket legend calls it a day - Longtime women’s cricket captain Meg Lanning bid an emotional farewell to the international game this week. And the Aussie men’s team confirmed their spot in the World Cup semi-final thanks to a record-breaking double-century from Glenn Maxwell. What a ride…

5. And a tragedy in Daylesford - Five Victorians, including 2 kids, died after a 66yo driver crashed into a roadside beer garden in the regional town of Daylesford on Sunday. The driver was an insulin-dependent diabetic who was discharged from hospital on Thursday.

Picture of the week

PM Anthony Albanese channelled his inner John Howard when he took an early morning stroll on the Bund in Shanghai this week decked out in a Matildas jersey and Rabbitohs cap. He was a sensation on Chinese social media app WeChat, earning the nickname ‘handsome boy’. Wrack that up to one of the weirder episodes of 2023… 

Question of the week

The question: What’s a mishap you had that caused you to miss out on a big event? 

The story: We just mentioned Glenn Maxwell, whose record-breaking feat happened after he missed the previous match because he fell off a golf buggy. 

Holly Wulf, a fishy story - “Speaking of golf, I missed playing at Royal Melbourne Golf Club for the final of a school tournament because I sliced my thumb trying to open a can of tuna for lunch. I still have the scar 15 years later.”

Emily Jordan-Baird, fair enough - “My friend had a free ticket to see the Birds of Tokyo play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, but I was in the middle of a 24-hour urine collection for a test and didn't want to manage that while out.”

Annelise Taylor, the most accident-prone member of the Squiz team - “I was the lead child actor in a Salvation Army bushfire appeal TV ad. On the way to the 'red carpet' premiere, we got into a minor car accident, and I never made it. Everyone was ok, but my Hollywood dreams were shattered.”

Squiz Recommends

Reading - The world’s greatest chicken sandwich was the most clicked link in the Squiz Today email this week, so you might also be interested in the man who’s made it his goal to find the best sandwich in the world. He’s been busy testing a bunch of sambo recipes dating from 200BC to the present day - with mixed results… The comments section is a goldmine of recommendations. 

As for books… We’ve been hotly anticipating the release of the legendary Barbra Streisand’s new memoir, and now the book is out*. We’re adding it to our cart, and you can read an excerpt here. 

Listening - You don’t have to be a tech nerd to enjoy listening to the Down Round podcast. Hosted by 2 Aussies, it’s a conversational deep dive into all sorts of interesting aspects of the tech world, including QR code menus, Wikipedia, and the smartphone camera arms race. You can listen to it on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.

Watching - If you’re eagerly counting down to season 3 of The Bear and need a fast-paced chef show in your life, Boiling Point ticks the box. It follows on from the 2021 movie (which some people say you should watch before the show, but we didn’t…), and it’s about all the struggles of getting a new restaurant off the ground. You can watch it on Foxtel/Binge.

*Buy using this link, and The Squiz may earn a little commission.

In the kitchen

We’re in salad mode, so this Pearl Cous Cous salad is something we’ll be throwing together to have with a lamb chop, some roast chicken or ham, and it also works solo. The recipe is here, and the ingredients are in the baking aisle of your supermarket.

What we Squized this week

Your Squiz Shortcut to the business of Taylor Swift (part 1) - You’ve probably heard of Taylor Swift – she’s one of the biggest pop stars in the world. She’s also now estimated to be worth US$1.1 billion... So in part one, we cover how she started out, her recovery from a rough 2016, and her epic 2023 so far. Read it/listen to it here. 

And get educated about the history of education in Oz - If you haven’t had the chance to get across the second season of our How Far We’ve Come series, we highly recommend you do… There are 3 episodes out so far covering the birth of compulsory education, vocational education and training, and HECS. You can find it in the Squiz Today podcast feed.

Squiz the Week

Saturday - Shhh for a minute’s silence at 11am on Remembrance Day to honour the millions who have died and suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. It also marks the anniversary of when the guns fell silent on the Western Front in Europe to end WWI (1918)

Sunday - It’s Diwali – where those of Hindu, Sikh, and Jain faiths celebrate the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. And it’s the 90th anniversary of the first photograph of the Loch Ness Monster (or a tree branch or something…) that was taken by a bloke named Hugh Gray (1933)

Monday - Do a good deed on World Kindness Day 

Tuesday - King Charles turns 75yo (1948)

Wednesday - The Bureau of Stats releases its latest October inflation data. And Aussie music’s night of nights, the ARIA Awards, begin at 5pm

Thursday - The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between the Socceroos and Bangladesh kicks off at 8pm in Melbourne. And the first part of the final season of The Crown premieres on Netflix

Friday - PM Anthony Albanese attends the APEC Economic Leaders’ Retreat in San Francisco. And hooray - Bluey: The Videogame is released today

Let’s get Squizzical

Reckon you know the main reason Aussies gave for why they hadn’t taken up a vegetarian diet? Have a crack at the Squiz Quiz.

Double-Tapping

We’re not knitters ourselves, but we got a kick out of this post of a photography series titled ‘Invisible Jumpers’. We have a lot of questions, namely: how do these knitters have so much patience, and where can we get some?

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