Old writer on the block

The writing diary of a well-mellowed science writer who cares about the public understanding of science and knows the ropes. This blog bounces between my curiosity, the daily realities of professional writing, the joy of pursuing nature, and my recycling of ideas that won't be in some book or other as far as I can see, but still needed sharing. I welcome comments and suggestions! Spam will be blocked and reported. For my books, see http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/writing/index.htm

Sunday, 15 June 2025

The world is only six thousand years old

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 It's untrue, sorry, in spite of statements like these: The world was created on 22nd October, 4004 BC at 6 o’clock in the evening. —...

Noah's Flood: a no-no

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This is the first of a few excerpts that I will offer from a work, currently on the block, and likely to be called either MythConceptions . ...
Saturday, 10 May 2025

The nature of a hick

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Turning aside from my current onslaught on STEAM amusements , of which there are about 90 right now, what is a hick? H. L. Mencken once told...
Monday, 21 April 2025

I am busy elsewhere.

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The Old Writer on th e Block blog (where you are reading this) is being allowed to slide, just a bit, because I am busy on a companion blog...
Sunday, 6 April 2025

Food and drink in the city

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What colonial Australians ate  ROSETTA STABLER respectfully acquaints the Public that she prepares Boiled Mutton and Broths every day at 12 ...

Those magnificent men (and women) in their flying machines

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Those magnificent men (and women) in their flying machines  After the end of World War I, Australia had plenty of adventurous young men who ...

How colonial Australians travelled

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Tom Roberts, Bailed Up . There were plenty of coaches after the 1820s, as Friedrich Gerstäcker was aware in the 1850s. Wanting to travel acr...

Honest Australian History

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This is about my attempts to disrupt the flow of historical bilge that was churned out to me when I was at school. For example, we were told...
Thursday, 23 January 2025

Australia: a social history

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  A short sampler of one of the works up in the air, right now. While this is social history, we need to start with the geology, the rocks t...

Australianisms

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A short sampler of one of the works up in the air, right now.  There is room for a very interesting dictionary of Australianisms. But I ...
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About Me

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Peter Macinnis
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Peter Macinnis turned to writing after his promising career as a chiaroscuro player was tragically cut short by a caravaggio crash during the Trompe L'Oeil endurance race. He recently did remarkably well in the early rounds of the celebrity underwater cooking program, Moister Chef, but he was disqualified for using dried fruits and desiccated coconut. He has a pet leech named Gladys, which has lived in a container on his desk for the last six months, as part of another book, and he is an expert echidna handler and ant lion wrangler. He wrote both the score and the libretto for the acclaimed opera Manon Troppo.

Sorry, that’s not quite right. I write and sometimes broadcast about science, for young and old. I write mainly about science, environment, or social history for both adults and children, depending on how the fit takes me on a given morning. I usually have one book coming back after editing or in production, one being edited, one being written and one or more being actively researched.
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