Officially disguised as a Canadian
This is the most ridiculous headline I’ve read today, and I’ve been awake a bunch of hours already. Twitter Disputes Claim That ‘Mary Poppins’ Is Racist Because Of Characters’ Coal-Blackened Faces This is in reference to an article written in the New York Times this week by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, an American professor who lectures onContinue reading Yes, Mary Poppins is racist, but not because of “coal-blackened faces”
It has been said that I am the luckiest person I know, not least because I keep avoiding death by misadventure. At times I feel like Devon Sawa in Final Destination. One evening in November 2017, my lovely husband made dinner as usual, before going off to work at the hospital. It was chicken, andContinue reading In which Randolph almost dies by misadventure with a microwave
In my post about living with autism, I mentioned an incident from boarding school: I once took a phone message for a fellow pupil to call his family urgently. His father had died. I didn’t deliver the message. When the hostel was queried that evening, I looked around at everyone else, thinking “who could forgetContinue reading In which Randolph doesn’t fit through a window
This is one of the hardest posts I’ve ever written. On a late afternoon in July 1991, I spent several long minutes in a police holding cell, at the Randburg police station, to think about what I had done earlier that day. In 1990 and halfway through 1991, I spent 18 months of hell atContinue reading In which Randolph avoids doing hard time
On 15 February 2019, The French Kiss Off is opening at the Pumphouse Theatre in Calgary for eight performances. It is the third play I’ve directed since moving to Calgary, and I encourage you to check it out if you’re in the area. Tickets are available from Eventbrite.
My brother works in selling things. From being a copywriter to a creative director, he’s sold a number of things. He’s won awards for selling things. That’s literally his jam. (He does not work for Gillette.) Gillette, and Nike before them, has recently come to realize that their advertising has power to create change forContinue reading Gillette, Nike, and social justice
I was born in December 1976. My first cousin Luke was born in January 1978. We grew up together as cousins do, only a year apart. We had similar childhoods growing up in South Africa. We went to the same family events, we hung out. If the photos are anything to go by, we mightContinue reading Luke Potter
Car accidents, I’ve had a few… In what must have been 1997, because the song Barbie Girl was released that year (it was how I referred to my best friend’s girlfriend), I was in a car accident. Barbie’s family had a house next to a lake outside of Johannesburg, and we were going to driveContinue reading In which Randolph sustains a concussion and whiplash at the same time
In 1990 I started at boarding school, aged 13. In what turned out to be eighteen months of living hell* interspersed with a life-long friendship or two, I learned the value of reinventing myself. I remember lying on my hostel bed a few weeks into the first term thinking that I could be anybody IContinue reading Reinvention
Two major events took place in 2001, exactly a month apart. On 11 August 2001, my boyfriend at the time and I decided that I should play hooky from work. He was a student and wanted to go ten-pin bowling. We were due to meet with my best friend for lunch at his house afterwards.Continue reading In which Randolph is hit by a getaway car a month before 9/11