Saviour attire is relative for Dee Wyatt of Old Junee: “Don Leayr wonders if the capes worn by superheroes are annoying (C8). I’d imagine wearing underpants on the outside of one’s outfit would not only be annoying, but extremely inconvenient.” Andrew Taubman of Queens Park thinks that “Anyone who wears their underpants on the outside probably needs a secret identity.”
Peter Miniutti of Ashbury doesn’t think diminishing phone booths are a problem either: “As long as there’s a portaloo on a construction site, Superman will have somewhere to change. As for the disguise, I think it’s to avoid the paparazzi.”
“In response to Pauline McGinley’s question about a legal brief (C8), it refers to the only piece of clothing you’ll be left with after you’ve paid the bill,” summates Roderick van Gelder of Hunters Hill.
Maintaining the currency of the conversation (C8), credit where credit is due to Cherrybrook’s Allan Gibson, who recalls that 50 years ago today. Bankcard was launched in Australia “and by end of 2006 merchants no longer accepted the card″.
“Not even God understands the laws of rugby (C8),” says Col Burns of Lugarno. “But I’m sure he’d be pleased its referees follow his perennial example of working ‘in mysterious ways’.”
Heading up north now, with David Rodrick of Drummoyne: “Thanks to Steve Cornelius (C8) for pointing out that Vera is, in fact, a cunning piece of propaganda to deter any migration to the northern climes of the green and pleasant. I feel such a fool for attempting to interpret the patois, which is obviously impenetrable, and I can now let the whole thing flow over me as a wave upon the beach.”
“I had a Geordie friend who worked in the now defunct shipbuilding industry in Newcastle upon Tyne,” writes Jeff Stanton of Strathfield. “He said he would never complain about hot weather in Sydney. This statement would launch him into a vivid description of winter in Newcastle. Starting with fingerless gloves working on the stern of a ship suspended over the Tyne (‘little more than an open sewer’) with frozen fingers and finishing 10 minutes later with a choice of black ice making footpaths and roads dangerous, or alternatively slush covered pavements leaving salt stained high watermarks on your shoes.”
Speaking of Latin (C8), John McCartney of Mount Coolum (Qld) says he “noticed a job advertisement for a Latin teacher that said, ‘native speakers preferred’.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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