“Being around about Granny’s age and with a number of friends who sport artificial joints, I watched, with wonder, the five-hour-45-minute marathon between Murray and Kokkinakis,” says Patricia Fraser of Balgowlah. “How long, I ask myself, before Andy is offered sponsorship by the maker of his prosthetic hip?”
Made for the game. Nick Walker of Springwood was “greatly amused to see one of the players in the Australian Open is American Katie Volynets”. Staying on court, Kin Wong of Chatswood thinks Rafael Nadal’s injury “must be serious for the ABC to call it a battleship injury! Let’s wish him a speedy recovery.”
“George Manojlovic, I know your bird (C8),” claims Susan Newman of Mona Vale. “Many years ago, one of them would wake me with ‘Chappaquiddick! Chappaquiddick!’ followed over and over by ‘It’s terrible! It’s terrible! It’s terrible!’ Wattle it fixate on next?” Probably not the primaries.
“My son, Scott, was indeed still in his shoes when they went missing at an airport baggage carousel (C8),” recalls Bob Phillips of Cabarita. “As a toddler, he decided to explore the carousel while we were busy trying to identify our baggage. After a frantic ‘someone has taken my baby!’ period, he emerged, undamaged, through the flaps, looking very pleased with his free ride.”
Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven, who has had his ups and downs, also has advice for Meri Will and Peter Neufeld: “An elevator (C8) is how they get grain into a silo – think Grain Elevators Board, later renamed GrainCorp. Some used bucket conveyors, others were pneumatic.” Bruce Graham of Waitara adds: “In the golden years of Hollywood, short cowboy actors had elevators dropped into the heels of their boots.”
“The discussion about elevators reminded me of learning the delightfully practical Cantonese translation for an elevator when living in Hong Kong,” writes Sheba Brener of Rushcutters Bay. “The translation is sing gong gei, which means ‘ascending falling machine’ – perfect!”
Fee MacGregor of Randwick wants to thank Arian Bell “for ascribing the slogan to Teague’s Bread (C8), but I’m still in the dark. What on earth does it mean?”
Toni Stevenson of Fairlight remembers a similarly creative catchphrase “at Hurstville Station around the 1950s/’60s on the back wall of a shop that read ‘If your hair is not becoming to you, you should be coming to us’. Not my station, so I never found out whether it was true.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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