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FLYING THE FLAG
Something strange happens to me whenever I see the Greek flag, especially the variant without the stripes which has been the flag of that country for most of its existence and which now is taken to be...
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THE THIRD PAPPOU
There are mysteries, and mysteries within mysteries, especially with regard to our progenitors who, having given us life, assume in our eyes, Olympian, pre-historic dimensions, given that they existed...
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BOLLYGREEK
I have always idly entertained the implausible theory that Cypriots have some manner of connection with the subcontinent. I base this absurd hypothesis on the generally darker hue of the Cypriot skin...
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ΤΣΕΛΕΜΕΝΤΕΣ
In the beginning when the world was young, I had no concept of a cookbook. Instead, my late grandmother would make notes of ingredients at the back of an old telephone directory that was so ancient...
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THESSALONIAN JEWS
The recent event commemorating the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, organized by the Thessaloniki Association “White Tower,” with the support of the Jewish Community Council in the Victorian...
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THE MEETING SPOT
“Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.” Benjamin RushRecently, Neos Kosmos featured an important piece of writing penned by Elena Piaki, a year 12 student of literature who sought to...
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SAINT DEMETRIOS
The traditional iconography of some of the “warrior” saints of the Orthodox Church has always disconcerted me a little. Saint Eustathios, Saint Minas, Saint George and Saint Dimitrios are invariably...
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LITTLE ENGLAND
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show, comprising sketches involving exaggerated parodies of British people from all walks of life in various situations familiar to the British...
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OXI REVISITED
There are a number of reasons why OXI, an event that took place some seventy four years ago, still resonates with the Greek people, quite apart from the obvious fact that it is an event that is still...
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20 YEARS OF 3XY RADIO HELLAS
20 YEARS OF 3XY RADIO HELLASOn Late Night Live a few weeks ago, the sagacious Phillip Adams asked Graeme Blundell if 3XY, a Melbourne radio institution still exists. Graeme in turn mused that it had...
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MEMENTO MORI
The year was 1987. I was accompanying my grandmother on her weekly excursion to acquire groceries, when, passing by the local opportunity shop, we chanced, in the window, upon a rather large 19th...
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THE TWELVE GREEK APOSTLES
My octogenarian great aunt, my grandmother’s sister, is a most formidable woman. Possessed of a steely brow, piercing eyes and thick hair, carefully restrained within a plait the thickness of a...
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GIVING DEVISING BEQUEATHING
The first thing that aged Greek clients ask me when they attend my office for the purposes of making their wills is whether their assets are protected when a concatenation of circumstances causes the...
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GREEKS WHO WHISTLE DIXIE
By now we are used to seeing Greeks crop up in the most unconventional pages of world history. There was a Greek prime minister of Siam and a Greek Protestant king of Romania. A Greek bishop was behind...
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PEACHY
In the vernacular, a kopanos is held to be a person possessed of sufficient mental and physical density as to render themselves able to be pummelled in frustration, hence the verb «κοπανάω,» wherein...
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ROBBER'S RIGHTS
It was the Goatboy, an incisive former contributor to the august pages of this publication, who, commenting on the state of Greece a few years ago, observed: "Boyfriend, Hellenism is a superseded...
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THE YEAR OF SPEAKING GREEK DANGEROUSLY
Καλή Χρονιά. Owing to the indifference of my educators, up until the age of ten, I labored under the misapprehension that the term 'Οράιτ' (alright), optionally suffixed with 'ρε μάιτ' was acceptable...
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VALE KOSTAS NIKOLOPOULOS
"Institutions and organizations are not eternal. People are." It was with these words that the late and much lamented journalist Kostas Nikolopoulos accosted at me at the Greek Film Festival last year,...
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LOS CONQUISTADORES GRIEGOS
"We came to serve God and to get rich, as all men wish to do."- Bernal Diaz del CastilloWhen asked by a priest as to his motivation for conquering the Inca Empire, and when he intended to begin the...
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THE THREE HIERARCHS
In the top drawer of my desk resides a stained chromolithograph icon of the Three Hierarchs. This was given to me by my grandmother when I was studying for my first exam in year seven. Informed that it...
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