Compiling the best reading of the week from your friendly local website.
Alex Casey and Duncan Greive: ‘I will come forward’
“At 11pm, in her inner city Auckland flat, a 26-year-old product manager named Bridget read Allison’s Facebook post. They’d known one another for 14 years, but she had been unaware of Allison’s history with Tidball. It brought memories of Bridget’s own relationship with him flooding back. They had chatted online nearly every day, escalating quickly to cybersex and eventually phone sex. Their contact began when he was in his mid thirties.
She had been 12 years old.”
Tim Murphy: Two hours, 88 questions, and just one baring of teeth: on Helen Clark’s massive job interview (+ video)
“It was billed as the ‘Job Interview in Front of the Whole World’. Live-streamed from the United Nations in New York, one person in front of 173 ambassadors intent on throwing all the world’s problems at the applicant.”
Katie Parker: Throwback Thursday: Being Eve and the fantasy of the Y2K New Zealand teen
“Attending a high school unconstrained by NCEA – or seemingly any fixed curriculum – Eve had far too much on her plate to concern herself with academics. Death, eating, disorders, bullying, pregnancy: Being Eve was there to cover it all.”
Stephen Stratford: “The book didn’t sell and yes, I was mean-spirited enough to rejoice”: An essay on the dark arts of book editing
“At least he didn’t call me a “cocksucker”, as one crime novelist did at the end of my edit of his latest best-seller. He was in New York at the time, so might have been joking. Possibly.”
Don Rowe: Playing with myself – the death of local multiplayer
“These days, not only do you need the bandwidth of a small Pacific nation just to download the rest of the game that didn’t fit on the disk, but your mate better have their own machine, TV and copy of the game if they want to play along. It’s almost more convenient to not have any real friends.”
Madeleine Holden: Hard cases make bad law: Why we shouldn’t rush to lower the age of consent
“More disconcertingly, though, lowering the age of consent opens up vulnerable teens to predation by adults as a side effect. The sexual exploitation of young people is a far more prevalent problem than senseless ‘statutory rape’ convictions, and a reduction in the age of consent would create a more permissive environment for adults who groom teens for sex, and weaker legal recourse for their victims.”
Madeleine Chapman: Dan Carter reveals his “disgusting” secret on The Crowd Goes Wild
“But suddenly things get juicy. Clémentine confesses that she has read his book and enjoyed it (!) but she wants to know more. She needs the next big scoop.”
Hayden Donnell: Waitangi Dildo: What the chilling police reports reveal
“Was the dildo chained up; interrogated for answers? What prompted the sudden and seemingly random decision to destroy it? Was it even given a last meal?”
Alan Perrott: Bum note – how Record Store Day lost its cool
“Just say no. While I appreciate they might be just the stuff to get the kidz buying records, I don’t care. Record shops are open most days, so pick another one to sell them this tat.”
Calum Henderson: What’s actually in Harvey’s record collection? Gabriel Macht reveals a shocking Suits secret
“The elephant in the room, and pretty much every room that Gabriel Macht ever enters, is this: he is ridiculously, spectacularly, disarmingly handsome. Even if you’d never seen an episode of Suits in your life, you’d know just by looking at him that this guy was a hot shot Hollywood actor.”
