“Sadly, I can’t relate a musically shattered glass story (C8),” says Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven. “However, yonks ago, when theatre restaurants were still a thing, a group of us were sitting around after a Dimboola wedding reception playing with our wine glasses – dipping a finger in the dregs and wiping around the rim to set up a standing wave ringing sound. What joy when the guys packing up the sound equipment couldn’t figure out how they were getting feedback after everything had been turned off.”
“I was replacing a window at home and asked my local glazier for a quote on enforced glass as the window in question is close to the woodpile and is thus at risk of flying timber,” writes Toby Waters of Emerald Beach. “He said: ‘All glass is breakable, thank God.’ Every time I chop wood it gives me a chuckle.”
Peter Wotton of Pyrmont explains that “Nickel sulphide inclusions are a recognised cause of tempered glass spontaneously failing (C8). This is not a new problem, remembering that a few years ago, a similar thing was happening to glass balustrades on high-rise apartment buildings.”
“Is it a record?” wonders Renee Salaverry of Freshwater. “Three generations: Grandmother Toni, daughter Kate and two Pudney grandsons, all appearing in C8 or Letters in the same year?”
Self-confessed technophobe from Orange, Col Begg, says he needs to buy a new television set. “But do these new ones with Artificial Intelligence shout back at you?”
Stephen Knox of Chatswood is happy to explain to Brianna Wilson the definition of the term ‘thoroughbred’ (C8) when applied to cars: “By the 1920s cars had come a long way and among the mass-produced dross there emerged a handful built to the highest standards. Marques like Rolls-Royce came to epitomise quality and innovation. This time became known as the ‘vintage’ years. In the 1930s, mass production increased and the fine cars of the vintage years struggled to find a place, but there were always a few that placed quality over price. They became known as ‘post-vintage thoroughbred’, or PVT. That was how the name was first associated with cars. Still with me, Brianna? I think I’ve lost her.”
“How intelligent are houseflies?” ponders Jennifer Stevenson of Maroubra. “They buzz around you despite you waving them away. Then you reach for the fly spray or swatter, and they disappear and cannot be found.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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