We may have left the Morris Minor behind,but John Elder of Annerley (Qld) is not ready to give up on the oldies yet – in his case the 35 millimetre Leica I from 1928 he still uses as his day-to-day camera. “Some 25 years after it was made,around the time I was being born,the then-owner returned it to the Leica factory in Wetzlar,Germany where it received an upgrade including,among other things,a rangefinder and synchronisation for those new-fangled flash bulbs. I rescued it from a Leica dealer in Hamburg,had it overhauled by a specialist in Tokyo,and it works as well today as it did 95 years ago. Think what it has seen!”
Admitting that the sample size is only modest,Ian Aldridge of Goulburn “can report that of all the exterior rear-view mirrors of cars that were inspected,100 per cent bore spider webs.”
Denis Cartledge of Tenterfield says that “one of the reasons why protesters do so in English (C8) is to catch the global audience,in the hope that their homeland may do something about whatever they’re protesting about.”
Laurie Le Claire of Epping adds,“The whole of Europe singsHappy Birthday in English (C8),too!”
According to Bob Phillips of Cabarita,in 1969 students at Goroka Teachers College in the Highlands of PNG protested their insufficient allowances by making placards and gathering at the college before marching into town. “Although all of them spoke pidgin and a dialect,most of the placards carried messages in English (C8),their third language. When I asked the deputy principal if he was going to stop the demonstration,he said,“Hell no. I am going to check the spelling. You can help.” I saw one which read,“Strike while the iron is heat”. The use of the word strike in two senses was a winner. The student opted to correct the last word,but I still prefer the original version.”
Heather Lindsay of Woonona wonders ifHerald readers’ feelings are influenced by the newspaper’s headings. “My present collage work requires me to source the word ‘happy’. I have skimmed numerousHeralds and that word never appears in headings. I think that is weird.” Granny wonders what came first though – the headlines,or the mood of the readership? As an aside,where are all the histories of peace,and of people contentedly going about their lives? Did those times never exist? Or is happiness an untellable tale?
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