“Speaking of OAMs (C8), regular contributor Kersi Meher-Homji was also a recipient, for Services to the Indian Community and Cricket,” notes John Lees of Castlecrag. “Well deserved, and I’m sure all readers will congratulate him.”
“The OAM award to Alexander Graham Bell reported by Richard Stewart sounds phoney to me,” reckons Tim Slack-Smith of Castle Hill.
Keiraville rock scribe Jeff Apter asks: “Elvis? (C8) What about the day J.O.K died (October 6, 1978)? I clearly recall a few friends and me sobbing into our middies when the news broke. Then someone piped up: ‘I’m not a fan, really.’ So much for our wake.”
John Loveridge of Tewantin (Qld) is also a Wild One proponent: “In 1978, I was working in a large office in London with quite a few other Aussies when one of our colleagues came in bawling his eyes out and told us Johnny O’Keefe had died. There was a reverential silence at the news.”
“Forget Elvis and kubbutzim,” says Suzanne Saunders of Koonorigan. “I was working on moshav Ein Yahav when Bob Hawke crying was the entire front page of the Jerusalem Post. Weird on many levels.”
“Non-event on a kibbutz? We heard about Whitlam’s dismissal by transistor radio at the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine near Mount Isa,” recalls Garrett Naumann of Cammeray. “We faked unionised solidarity and outrage and repaired to the wet canteen (l’chaim) on full pay. None of us were dismissed.”
Tony Moo of North Sydney writes: “Thank you, Mike Forgarty (C8), my understanding of this particular Greek term is much clearer under your tutelage. I erroneously believed that the terms ‘hoi polloi’ and ‘ordinary people’ were semantically related. Sadly, I didn’t attend North Sydney Boys’ High; notwithstanding, I do like animals and love nature despite what nature has bestowed on me.”
“Am greatly enjoying the thong (C8) and dance thread and have to confess to owning, at one stage, a pair of bottle opener thongs,” says Richard Hale of Paddington. “But thongs ain’t what they used to be.”
Stephen Tait of Rose Bay recalls: “While putt-putting by Clark Island, I recovered a well-maintained fibreglass dingy with oars and fishing gear with a mobile phone number. This bounteous flotsam had likely come adrift from a passing sailing vessel. The dingy owner phoned back to arrange recovery. His only question: ‘Are my black thongs still on board?’ They were. Must have been his ‘sea thongs’.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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