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Good Weekend

The September 21 Edition

It’s remarkable how the baby business has changed over the course of a single generation. In my mother’s day, getting pregnant in your late teens, out of wedlock, was cause for social ostracisation. The women were shamed and humiliated, their babies often whisked away at birth to be adopted out to the euphemistic “better home”. Today, thanks to the pill and other societal and governmental changes, the issues involving intervention often occur at the other end of the baby-making window – that is, when women in their 30s and 40s need help conceiving. Indeed, just as there was an entire industry built around what to do with babies born out of wedlock in the mid- 20th century, today there’s a booming business around how to make babies later in life. In both cases, the babies eventually grow up. And as Megan Norris writes in today’s cover story, their parents never forget the circumstances of their birth. Indeed, for many of the young mothers, barely out of childhood themselves when traumatised by the taking of their babies mid-last century, the grief, the rage, the enduring pain – and the sense of injustice – never really goes away. Editor, Katrina Strickland

15 stories
The September 21 Edition
Lily Arthur, now 74, has spent decades fighting for justice. When she was pregnant at 16, “my arrest had been unlawful, my detainment illegal, and the forced removal of my child a crime”.

‘I’m angry’: Lily was 17 when her baby was taken. Now, she’s asking the UN to help

Lily Arthur was one of the young, vulnerable women coerced into giving up their babies for adoption mid-last century. Now, she’s taking her fight for justice to Geneva.

  • by Megan Norris

From truck-stop tyke to international cake queen: The rise of Nadine Ingram

Flour and Stone’s cakes are adored by everyone from Nigella Lawson to teenage influencers – but that taste of success didn’t happen overnight.

  • by Amanda Hooton
Baby CC, a rescue joey, receives regular checkups at the Wildlife Health and Conservation Hospital in southwestern Sydney.

Finally, a good news koala story

Trials for a vaccine to prevent chlamydia in one of our most beloved native animals are yielding promising results.

  • by Amanda Hooton
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Local activists and forest saviours Hugh and Nan Nicholson.

They weren’t hippies, but Hugh and Nan started Australia’s first anti-logging protest

In the 1970s, an unlikely coalition set in motion the first generation of environmental defending.

  • by Stephen Wyatt
Former Fairfax and News Corp editor turned Crikey proprietor, Eric Beecher.

Eric Beecher on being sued by a Murdoch – and other media matters

The Crikey proprietor on the danger of moguls, why media is a manipulation business and how to keep quality journalism alive.

  • by David Leser
Two of Us
Two of Us

When Dean was locked up, he told Felicia to move on with her life

Miner Dean told his then fiancée, a former Miss Australia winner, not to wait for him when he was sent to jail for drug trafficking. Thankfully, she ignored him.

  • by Erin O'Dwyer
“We have our adolescence when we’re teenagers, but then we have this middle-escence … Everybody goes through it.”
Dicey Topics
For subscribers

Musician Michael Franti on ‘middle-escence’ – what hits when the kids leave

The American singer-songwriter discusses the state of the US, losing his biological father and what his wife said when they first met.

  • by Benjamin Law
Modern Guru
Modern Guru

When a fellow theatregoer flicks her hair in my lap, should I brush it off?

Think about it this way, says our Modern Guru: essentially, head hair is no different to armpit or pubic hair.

  • by Danny Katz
Early bird

Early bird

For the sixth consecutive morning, Jud was awoken by a squawking bird. If that’s a mating call, he seethed, the bird will die a virgin. The thought consoled him, but it didn’t help him return to sleep. When his rising pique overflowed, he sprang from bed and stormed outside into the dawn chill. Barefoot, clad only in undies, he scanned the trees until he saw it, heard it, high upon a silver birch. “Oi!” he yelled. The wanker didn’t so much as look his way. There’d be no reasoning with this one! Hitching his undies authoritatively, he began to climb. Words by Paul Connolly. Illustration by Jim Pavlidis.

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Alfred Place Gardens in London, before and after.

Cool stuff: The ‘depaving’ trend turning hot streets into green oases

Plus: get ready for the weekend with these fresh diversions.

  • by Various

Prawn, broad bean and lemon pasta

Once you’ve peeled the beans, this sauce comes together while the pasta is cooking.

  • by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Strawberry, coconut and lime sandwich cake.

Strawberry, coconut and lime sandwich cake

Bursting with bright flavours, this is the perfect cake to celebrate spring.

  • by Helen Goh
Potato churros with fermented capsicum puree.
Review
Samesyn

This newly two-hatted Torquay restaurant delivers zero-waste and maximum enjoyment

Chef Graham Jefferies’ compelling, startlingly creative waste-not cooking sees his rejigged Samesyn restaurant gain a second chefs’ hat.

  • by Dani Valent
Family pack into the Portuguese dining hall.

‘It’s a vibe’: The secret’s out about this Portuguese dining hall in a tennis clubhouse

Casa Do Benfica is roll-your-sleeves-up, bloody delicious family dining. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

  • by Callan Boys
Opinion
Opinion

No mouth is big enough. It’s time to slice sandwiches back down to size

These days you need two hands to hold doorstopper-thick bread and layer upon layer of filling.

  • by Terry Durack
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Good Weekend Quiz online index image

Good Weekend Quiz

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge.

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/the-september-21-edition-20240802-p5jyx3.html