Paul Orrock of Stragglethorpe,Lincolnshire (UK) says he “had a giggle reading William Perry’s piece regarding multiple people using the one ticket for a parking meter (C8). We used to do the same thing here in the UK. It was wonderful. A constant swapping of tickets emersed in smiles and chuckles,but it seems a bean counter cottoned on,and we now have to input our registration details,so the ticket is only valid for said vehicle. If only governments spent as much time improving themselves and their service delivery as opposed to finding new ways to shake us down we’d be living in Utopia.”
“Perhaps topical for the festive season?” offers George Zivkovic Northmead. “The origin of the term ‘hangover’,is the Victorian ‘penny hang,’ the cheapest overnight stay,if too wasted to be accepted elsewhere. For a penny,you’d be allowed to hang over a rope. At 6am,the owner would untie the rope for a rude awakening!” Must be why taking a break from the bevvy is known as “drying out”.
We we’re about to wrap up the name game (C8),but got hemmed in by Mark Paloff of Lake Conjola:“Years ago I was watching a game show on TV and one contestant was a woman called Polly. The host inquired as to her surname. ‘Cotton’,she replied,then added that her parents were hippies and her middle name was ‘Ester’. Apparently Polly was a Barrister. Is Polly still out there? Or is that now immaterial?”
As we went from odd names to the ubiquitous,it was only a matter of time before we got to the rare. Stein Boddington of St Clair explains:“It’s alright for the homonymous(?) to bang on about their social clubs (the Northern Rivers Shirley Club and the Sharons etc),but I belong to a more exclusive club - those who have never met anyone with the same name in their life. I refer of course,to my legal name,‘Graydon’,and not my nickname ‘Stein’,although that also qualifies me for membership. Anyone else?”
“Hopefully,that ABCDE kid (C8) always minded his Ps and Qs,” says Joy Cooksey of Harrington.
Column8@smh.com.au
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