Commuters didn’t stand a ghost of a chance

“On Saturday,there was mass dejection on Cabarita wharf as three ferries going to Circular Quay were unable to take us on board due to the perfect commuter storm of great weather,holiday long-weekend,free fares and not enough ferries,” reports Bob Phillips of Cabarita. “Our timeline for getting to the Opera House to seeBlithe Spirit shrunk,then disappeared altogether when Big Brother announced that the next two ferries would be unable to accommodate us. We were back home when the email arrived informing us thatBlithe Spirit had been cancelled for the day due to COVID-19. We failed to get to the venue to see a play that wasn’t on. Is there a conspiracy theory to cover this turn of events?”

Mickey Pragnell of Kiama assumes “Peter Hill’s pizza brochure (C8) included the good old ham and pineapple?[ScoMo calls it a Hawaiian - Granny]. Just pork-barrelling by another name.”

“It’s time that Granny updated herself and changed her column name to C5. Why not?” queries Graham Russell of Clovelly.

Column 8 remains a dumping ground (C8). Brian Harris of Tamworth writes:“Having grown up in Tennyson Road,Gladesville,I can attest to Mark Olesen’s story regarding buried WWII planes in what was then Putney tip. I still have some aircraft nuts and bolts from my father’s collection. One of his favourite hobbies was to scrounge there and come home with a bucket full of aircraft parts. He would also reclaim and reuse nails from wooden crates he found there. Of course,this was long before Bunnings.”

Jeff Stanton of Strathfield hates to spoil a good urban myth,“but I asked my son Nick,who lives in Seattle to fact-check the buried steam engine story. Yes,many streets in Seattle were raised as much as 20 metres over 100 years ago using all kinds of fill. Yes,in 2014 a large tunnel boring machine struck an unknown object and there was speculation about the object,including the possibility of a buried locomotive. Sadly,it turned out to be an eight-inch steel pipe installed a couple of years earlier for a well.”

“With ‘gotcha’ questions back in the news,I’m reminded of the time during the history wars when John Howard was asked to name any ship in the First Fleet,” says Peta Bourne of Batemans Bay. “When he replied ‘Sirius’,the hapless journalist responded ‘Of course I’m serious’.”

Column8@smh.com.au

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