“Condé Nast Traveller has just decided Sydney is the best city for tourists, but Austrians have been stunned to read that their Readers’ Choice section has Austria as the friendliest country in Europe,” notes Merran Loewenthal of Vienna. “This has especially shocked the Viennese, who have long had a certain backhanded pride in Vienna being considered the unfriendliest city. They have taken to the comments section of the newspaper reporting it to insist Austria has been confused with Australia.”
There’s a new lemon for consideration: “Forget your Leyland P76 (C8),” says Geoff Carey of Pagewood. “The true Australian variation of a European-style classic is the Simca Aronde station wagon, assembled in South Australia. Engineers at Chrysler SA designed a wagon variant of their Armstrong 500 (the original Bathurst 1000) winning sedan for the Australian market. The kicker: it had a winding window at the back. As Graham Kennedy said on In Melbourne Tonight, ‘Mmm, Some car this Simca’.”
As a Mid North Coaster with a good short kicking game, Pete Repete has a son currently plying his trade for the Port Macquarie Sharks (C8) and is, therefore, well qualified to find a fitting victory song: “I know it’s a bit long in the tooth, but may I suggest Hammerhead by James Reyne.”
“Tubas (C8) are deceptive beasts,” says Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic). “A tiny dent in the wrong place, and they can be rendered useless! Much more fragile than, say, a violin, and easier to knock, being bigger. All brass require TLC, and the excellent but fiddly rotary valves on mine are veritable prima donnas. Plus, nothing beats the thrill of five or six perfectly smooth valves.”
Julie Campbell of Redfern makes a lot of sense here: “With all this fuss about what to call the in-laws (C8), have people ever wondered what these in-laws call their in-laws, which happens to be you? Maybe you should all get together and decide on a slightly flattering name to call each other or simply use your own names without any titles?”
“At my 70th birthday party, one of my sons-in-law gave a speech,” recalls Josephine Hill of Blackwall. “He asked, ‘What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws?’ The punchline being ‘outlaws are wanted’. I thought he was pretty brave.”
Messrs Gibson and Keating may disagree, but George Manojlovic of Mangerton reckons “town criers (C8) are just big sooks.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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