Editor's Letter
The Age
Friday January 25, 2008
Much as it's great to get away down the coast, summer is a special time in the city, too. You can go to Ikea on Saturday mornings and actually find a parking spot. You can decide to visit friends in Coburg/Templestowe/Mount Martha and not have to plan the expedition around rush-hour/school pick-up/Christmas-shopping traffic. If it's stinking hot, there's the movies, the pools, or even just hanging around at Chadstone or Highpoint, soaking up all that evil, carbon-producing air-conditioning. Even if you've been back at work since Boxing Day, you can take a certain grim pleasure in the knowledge that those lucky buggers who can afford holiday houses at Portsea and Lorne for the whole of January (at $3000 a week!) spend more time in beach-road traffic jams than on the beach itself.
Of course, it all comes to an end right about now, no more so than for our cover star, Myf Warhurst, who starts the new year in a high-pressure role at Triple M, which hired her and co-host Peter Helliar at great expense in an effort to drag its ratings into respectability. Australia fell in love with Warhurst's effervescent personality on the ABC's Spicks and Specks, but will she translate to the faceless - and far more inane - world of breakfast radio? Also on the radar this year is a massive new production by Channel 9 that chronicles the gangland wars. Called Underbelly, it is based on books by Age writers Andrew Rule and John Silvester. On page 26, they explain why the war happened and speculate on what we can expect next from Melbourne's career criminals. Elsewhere in the issue, we go back to school with the lucky few who won a place at Melbourne's only two selective schools - Melbourne High and MacRobertson Girls' High - and meet the students who score an average of 96 out of 100 in their VCE exams. Writer Peter Barrett climbs aboard some of the super-luxury yachts moored at Docklands, which cost thousands of dollars to fill up with diesel. Three of Melbourne's grill kings give their tips for the perfect backyard barbecue (page 52) and you'll find Tom Ryan's summer film guide on page 68.Hope you enjoy the issue and, as always, feel free to give me a call on 9601 2397 or send me an email to aholland@theage.com.au. Enjoy February.-- Angus Holland
© 2008 The Age