As we say goodbye to 2019 and welcome in 2020, it's a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views ouraudience loved the most. Today it's the top five from Newstalk ZB's Kerre McIvor.
Good riddance to World's Biggest Bogans
At the beginning of 2019, the country was captivated by the ongoing antics of a British family, who came to be known simply as the "Unruly Tourists". Travelling the country and leaving behind a trail of litter, unpaid restaurant bills and unfinished roofing jobs, Kerre McIvor's most read column of the year was a roundup of the saga.
Begum is an entitled, dangerous idiot
Shamima Begum was one of three schoolgirls who ran away from Bethnal Green in London to join Isis in Syria - and decided in early 2019 that she wanted to return to the UK. However, she didn't do herself any favours in an interview with the BBC, in which she reacted dismissively to the Manchester Arena bombing. McIvor described her at the time as an "entitled, dangerous idiot with absolutely no respect for the country she left behind".
In October, MediaWorks announced that it was putting Three, the television arm of the business, up for sale and selling off its Auckland studios. As a former employee of the station, McIvor reflected on her time as a fill-in presenter on Nightline. She was offered a job presenting the weather - but was told by the head of programming she'd have to lose weight first.
Why I'll continue to listen to Michael Jackson's music
Leaving Neverland was the documentary series everyone was talking about in March. It alleged, with interviews from two alleged victims, that Michael Jackson was a predator and abuser of young boys. McIvor wondered if it was right to make the doco at all, considering The King of Pop had already been through a sex abuse trial and found not guilty. But as for the music, she'd still listen to him.
'OK boomer' is the new 'whatever'
Generational divides aren't a new concept, but relations between Baby Boomers and Millennials became even more fraught with the rise of the dismissive phrase "OK boomer". The meme reached its heights in November and had many Boomers het up about the whole thing. McIvor pointed out that it was a bit rich to be upset about it, when Millennials had been branded as "avocado-eating snowflakes" for years.
