With all the discussion around the word of the year (C8), Ron Wessel of Mount St Thomas would like to “put forward a nomination for the misused word of the year: influencer. These people get paid to spruik products and, therefore, in my opinion they are advertisers. I see them as the weird love child of Joe the Gadget Man and Joyce Mayne.”
Donna Wiemann of Balmain recently “received a meme that suggested the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 were like a horror movie based on a book by Stephen King, directed by Quentin Tarantino and featuring a soundtrack by Yoko Ono. The only thing missing was a title. Thoughts?”
Last Friday, one month out from Christmas, Mike Fogarty of Weston (ACT) saw it. “A young woman was wearing a Christmas Tree Hat on her head. A timely reminder to never wear a hat which has more character than you.”
Leo Corbin of Kogarah is peeved. “I’ve only ever known nectarines as ‘nectruns’, but now they’re called ‘nectareens’, even on the ABC. It’s just another example of the relentless Americanisation of Australian English. I even heard someone on Radio National the other day pronounce buoy as booey.”
“Well may Greg Oehm claim that the solution to any knotty Trivial Pursuit question is Thor Heyerdahl (C8), but I have it on good authority that in any debate, if you mention Hitler you have immediately lost the argument,” writes Derrick Mason of Boorowa.
Adding to the optics, Angus McLeod of Cremorne says, “CR-39 (C8) is certainly easier to say than its official name: 2-(2-prop-2-enoxycarbonyloxyethoxy)ethyl prop-2-enyl carbonate.”
One person who was pleased to see that Bull, Son & Schmidt (C8) are still going strong, was Paulette Grady Hay of Elizabeth Bay. “As a 16-year-old, in 1956, my first job as a junior copy typist was with Bull, Son & Schmidt in Martin Place. There was no Mr Bull or Son, but my boss was Mr Schmidt. Happy memories.”
The other day Wendy Crew of Lane Cove North received a telephone call “asking if we were on the Do No Not Call register. So, it would appear our inclusion has been deleted. Did the caller not see the irony?”
While Jack Dikian of Mosman is “pretty sure that The French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley, California has a proclivity for ironing tablecloths (C8)“, Colin Taylor-Evans of Lane Cove is thrilled. “The iron maiden strikes again. I love those flat noodles!”
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