Peter Riley of Penrith is on the case, and he's on our case too! "A letter to the editor of the Illawarra Mercury on 23/11/1857, calling for less government regulation, includes the line 'and we'll all live together, like Brown's cows, and be as happy as Larry.' The allegedly 'Happy' Larry Foley was born in 1849. Seems unlikely that he was already a champion boxer by the age of 8. Also, Hats off to Larry was a hit in 1961 for Del Shannon, not the Everly Brothers, and only reached No.1 in Canada. Back to the drawing board!"
"September 28 and there were Christmas decorations already in David Jones in the City," notes Peter Mayes of Petersham. "But I can't tell whether they are decorations or decorations that they are selling!"
Kersi Meher-Homji of St Ives writes: "When a batsman hits a six, the commentators call it 'a maximum'. But a six doesn't denote the maximum runs scored off one delivery. Batsmen have been awarded eight runs due to overthrows. Even that is not the maximum: 'When playing in a Governor’s Cup match in Malta on May 28, 1903, Lt-Col Philip Mitford ran 11 runs from one scoring shot,' wrote Bill Frindall in Guinness Cricket Facts and Feats. Is this a record? Can C8 readers inform us about more than eight runs scored off one scoring stroke?" No, the backyard doesn't count.
Time to come in from the cold for Margaret Bowman of Macquarie (ACT): "At Swansea High School in the '70s, a class (C8) contained a Burgess, a Maclaine and a Blunt. We think there was a Philby but he was always away."
Bill Young of Killcare Heights says that "Craig Lilienthal’s memories of the ‘arries to the ‘n’ power' (C8) reminded me of a fellow classmate of mine in the '60s, a chap by the name of Peter Bassingsthwaites who was always written down on class lists, by our English teacher, as B16." Wonder if he ever attended school in pyjamas?
"Apropos of children visiting the cockpit during a flight in the 1970s, in today’s context, kids might very well be invited to the cockpit due to their skills in computer games, so that the captain could ask these kids: 'Could you please show me know how to land this thing?' Especially after a long absence of flying due to the pandemic," thinks Tony Moo of North Sydney.
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