It was one of those television moments when millions of viewers across the world exhaled a heartfelt sigh of delight.

Just when you think things are getting back to normal the hand of fate and quake knocks you back down on the mat.

Family First's day care report has to be filed under 'clutching at straws'.

I'm sorry we upset the British with our antics in London on Waitangi Day. They're not used to this sort of thing.

In August, two goons marched up the drive and slapped a sticker on my house.

The ebb and flow of Maori-Pakeha relations, from guilt- ridden patronage to populist recrimination, is as old as the Waitangi Treaty.

I couldn't tell you how many conversations I have had over the past 20 years about Maori or iwi owning a slice of New Zealand infrastructure assets.

If only more rich people had the class of Mr Dotcom, whose habits have seized my imagination.

Since a cross-dressing Bulgarian came to live under my roof, I've become used to having my underpants ironed.

Cantabrians deserved better from the Christchurch City Council.

Recently a friend's daughter returned for the first time since the February grand mal to her rented digs in Peterborough St to salvage her belongings.

Lucky for us, Martin van Beynen could be just the man the Christchurch City Counil needs.

Our homegrown protesters have simply ended up being portrayed as a rabble.

Men are weird, and also lazy. That is why we have prostitution.

JOE BENNETT - © Fairfax NZ News

When pursued by a mob, you have a few options.

For Americans, "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" is much more than a slogan.

Last year I was in the water as early as October but this year it's only in the last two weeks that I've ventured into the brine, and boy do I feel all the better for it.

The Holden doesn't get out much these days, mainly because it needs its own petrol tanker toddling on behind so it can be refuelled between service stations.

I have been absolutely flabbergasted by the number of drownings reported this summer.

So Blanket Man is dead. I see the call for a sculpture has begun already.