Peter Riley of Penrith “noticed in the background of a TV report from London,a yellow van with ‘Burke and Wills Removalists’ on the side. Considering how our heroic failures bumbled their way into the outback and disappeared,you’d be forgiven for wondering,as the van drives away,if you’ll ever see your stuff again.”
“The 2032 Olympics in Brisbane will be the 50th anniversary year of the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games,” notes John Swanton of Coogee. “Please don’t tell me they are planning on wheeling out Matilda the giant winking kangaroo again?”
“There is one social group that only exists in the refugium of Column 8,” thinks Alan Watterson of Hastings Point. “It’s the last of the fogies who start sentences with ‘Apropos’.”
Apropos of nothing in particular,Peter Donovan of Lindfield draws attention to the 2006 BBC TV drama entitledThe Amazing Mrs Pritchard in which she leads an alliance of semi-independent female candidates to victory in a British general election.
Jenny Stephenson of Wollongong thinks the perfect dessert for George Manojlovic’s updated election day menu (C8) would be iced teal sorbet.
“I’m given to understand the Harold Holt Memorial Swim Centre is known locally as Dead Harry’s”,notes Greg Oehm of Moss Vale. “Such is Australian reverence for pollies past or present.” Jeffrey Gabriel of Gladesville adds that “when people point out how peculiar it is that Australia has a swimming pool named after a prime minister who drowned (C8),I point out that the airport in Porto is named after Francisco Sa Carneiro,a Portuguese prime minister who died in a plane crash in 1980.”
Joining the topic of extravagant produce (C8),Russell Hill of Hobart delves back to the time of Louis XV:“Pineapples were such a novel luxury in Europe that only royalty could indulge,but only after renting them out for a display of opulence.”
Barry Ffrench of Cronulla can solve Tony Bennett’s capsicum problem:“Cut into 1cm rings,put onto barbecue hot plate,drop in bacon pieces and add one egg. Viola! Edible egg ring and tasty breakfast. But then again,given Tony’s moniker,he could even sing about them.Yellow Capsicum State of Mind,anyone?”
Column8@smh.com.au
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