The sniping begins from behind opposing drafting tables. Long-time civil engineer Leon Patterson of Mount Annan says that “engineers tend to be a bit more reserved than architects (C8). I have had neither the opportunity nor desire to pash the clients. They have usually been big boofy construction workers who would have, similarly, not taken too kindly to that sort of greeting.”
And from the architect (C8), Robert Hosking of Paddington. “Everyone knows us architects are gentle, sweet and loving types. Engineers and surveyors will always greet you (before COVID-19) with a bone crushing handshake, even when they are of the opposite sex.”
Barrie Restall’s story of medieval nuns stuffing codpieces with rags to make “codswallop” (C8) has been universally decried as being a prime example of codswallop itself. While admitting it is a good story, “as folk etymologies often are”, Gerry Foley of Turramurra observes that “the term is not attested before it was heard on a 1959 episode of Hancock’s Half Hour.”
This definition of the much-disputed codswallop (C8) came in from Mike Millard of West Vancouver (Canada). “‘Cod’: A fish (usually dead). ‘Wallop’: a hard smack. ‘Codswallop’: A smack (usually ‘in the kisser’) with a dead fish.”
On a trip to Broken Hill in his youth, Michael Sinclair of Melbourne mistakenly thought he was on the home stretch when he took a left at Mildura onto the Silver City Highway. Ah yes, the supreme overconfidence of youth! “With the fuel gauge on empty, I spotted a house with one of those fuel tanks on a stand and I meekly asked the owner if I could buy some petrol. To my relief, they were very kind and filled up The Blue Rocket (a sluggish Mazda 626). On arrival, I told my friends I stopped at a farm for petrol and I was quickly corrected – they don’t have farms they have stations. So when does a farm stop and a station start?”
Ron Schaffer of Bellevue Hill thinks “fantods (C8) are like the heebie jeebies – disconcerting feelings any way you look at them”. Joy Cooksey of Harrington suggests that “many old-timers display fantod (C8) behaviour, as they fidget about, venting their concerns and worries over things they are unable to control,” adding that Column 8 sometimes provides them with an outlet for soothing and calming the outbursts.
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