“There’s a large metal plate covering a hole in the road near our house,” reports Barbara Ryan of Caringbah South. “Originally, it had three witches’ hats on it. Today, there is a miscellaneous collection of 10, varying in size. Would this constitute a coven?”
Noting Bruce Hyland’s (C8) curious choice of a Cadillac for his Italian jaunt, Peter Thornton of Killara recalls that “growing up in Sydney I thought Italians must be really poor because they drove tiny cars like Fiat 500 Bambinos. Decades later, after driving and trying to park in Tuscan hilltop towns, I realised the foolishness of my thought and recognised the virtues of the micro car.”
Wayne Duncombe of Lilyfield finds Bruce’s story of his being lost in Italy highly improbable. “After all, don’t all roads lead to Rome?” Bob Doepel of Greenway (ACT) was just thinking the same thing.
“Yes, Chris Keane (C8), English is stupid,” agrees Murray Hutton of Mount Colah. “However, I managed to understand it through tough thorough thought, though.”
Speaking of English (the King’s this time), George Zivkovic of Northmead reports that “on a recent trip interstate I had lunch at a local bowling club that had a library tucked away in one corner. Three of the four ‘rules’ seemed fair enough – ‘Our library operates on an honour system’, ‘Please always bring as many books with you to replace the ones you take’ and ‘Please do not turn down pages always use a bookmark’. However, the fourth rule of ‘Novels to be in English’ conjured up images of Tolstoy’s Russian/French version of War and Peace being left by the bowls outside instead.”
Col Burns of Lugarno isn’t sure “my childhood dog appreciated Shakespeare as much as Julian Neylan’s pet, Toby (C8), but when it returned home from a dip in our local (Hamlet’s) creek, covered in mud, it certainly understood Mum’s command of ‘Out, damned Spot!’”
“Following up President Poincare Parade with alliterative botanical thoroughfare names (C8) reminded me of a street in Shoal Bay named Flannel Flower Fairway,” says Rob Woof of South Hurstville. “Triple-barrelled alliteration at its finest.” Enid Murphy of Manly “once lived in a modest ‘penthouse’ (read two-storey walk-up) apartment in Monte Carlo Villas, Monte Carlo Avenue, Surfers Paradise. I could barely contain my mirth whenever asked.”
“While strolling around Reigate, England, I came across Effingham Street,” writes Peter Cowan of Mount Keira. “How rude, I thought.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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