For many people in Canterbury, the earthquakes of September 2010, February 2011 and later had little or no effect.

Paul Little writes: Ostentatious overwriting, once confined to upmarket restaurant menus, has crept into the language used to describe that most basic element of our everyday lives, food.

Because I take the Northern Toll Road frequently, I have signed up for online payments.

Whenever humanity's baser side seems to be winning, whenever we lose our heads because we can't seem to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

Lorraine Cohen died as she had lived - confounding predictions of her imminent demise.

Last Monday I sat in Auckland Town Hall and watched people from 65 countries taking an oath that made them New Zealand citizens.

Kawerau is a community that's on the ropes and in need of a boost. What is questionable is whether that can be addressed by holding a "Mana Wahine" fight, writes Paul Little.

Researcher Hana Turner's reports of racist attitudes among her fellow teachers show prejudice is as deeply woven into our school system as ever.

NZ is a multicultural society with a special position afforded to the tangata whenua. The residents of Mt Roskill, home to more than 54 nationalities, know this, writes Paul Little.

To deny the reality of climate change and the need to do something about it is to ally oneself with the witch burners, cancer cure peddlers and purveyors of cars that run on water.

That the agonising uncertainty over flight MH370's fate was prolonged for two weeks was reprehensible, writes Paul Little. People wanted answers even if the more paranoid didn't believe we would get them.

Hekia Parata is all about being creative. But performance funding isn't thinking outside the square. It's thinking outside geometry, writes Paul Little.

We were just the width of a wobble board away from becoming a state of Australia at the time of that country's federation in 1901.

This will be the no-contest election, won by a government whose arrogance - already at Justin Bieber levels - will only grow as the year goes by, writes Paul Little. The losers will be us.

There was a time when staff inventing something and presenting it as fact would be taken very seriously indeed by a news organisation, writes Paul Little.

The brief of this column is to write about events that have been in the news during the week.

The experience, despite what some have suggested was not at all surreal. In context it was perfectly normal, writes Paul Little.

Tomorrow Paul Little will be sitting in the gold section of the Staples Center in Downtown LA with his fingers crossed.

It looks like this will be the year I finally give in and join the National Party, not because of any newfound political conviction, but for the investment advice.

In the course of 2013, I encountered two memorable examples of things that are wrong, that need to be put right and probably won't be.

It seems to be human nature to define and judge any group on the behaviour of its unloveliest members.

I've never been one to whinge about MPs' so-called high salaries. They are not high by many standards but most MPs come off the back of relatively lucrative careers in business and the law and don't need the dough.