“Congratulations to Jordan Baker on her appointment as the next editor of the Herald,” declares Ronald Binder of Hurstville. “However, curiosity compels me to ask whether Ms Baker’s parents were fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald and, more specifically, The Great Gatsby?”
Bill Reid of Crace (ACT) has another SCG (C8) yarn: “Accompanied by my nan and her sandwiches, biscuits and thermos in 1963, I sat through the notoriously tedious fifth Test where England played three spinners on a grass-less wicket. Apart from the privilege of watching Neil Harvey’s last innings, the tedium was only relieved by Fred Trueman. Handed the ball by the detested Ted Dexter on the somnolent last day, Freddie bowled a few balls half-heartedly and then began to limp. Off he went, and was seen soon after, boots off and schooner in hand, sitting on the players’ balcony. The crowd roared its admiration.”
“On the SCG hill in the early 1960s, before the days of ‘Hoggy! Hoggy! Hoggy!’ the call was ‘a little dab’ll do ya’ for Richie,” recalls Robyn Hansen of Pennant Hills.
Stephanie Edwards of Leichhardt isn’t a fan of the constant mentions of “Australian values” in the press: “The most commonly displayed one in many news stories is selfishness!”
The final “Fang” (C8) fling comes from Ron Besdansky of Northbridge: “I had an English teacher named Jock Fraser at Balgowlah Boys’ High in the ’60s (great bloke). Some years ago I was saddened to read of the death of Jock Fraser, teacher at Mosman High. Shortly after, I attended a school reunion, and there he was, large as life! Turns out there were two teachers of that name in Sydney’s north. He wasn’t impressed when I told him, ‘I thought you were dead’.”
Peter Moran’s (C8) pondering of the doubled-up name got Toby Waters of Emerald Beach thinking that “if Whitney Houston had married Mike Whitney when she visited Australia, she could have become Whitney Whitney. She visited in 1988 and 2010 but missed her chance. I’m not sure if they crossed paths at Expo.”
Some cricket-critiquing Jaguar aficionados can do it all: “I believe the very same John Elmgreen (C8) recently adorning your page is the same guitar-strumming troubadour who won the heart of a young lady at a party in Ocean Avenue, Double Bay, in the early 1970s, and showed me the door,” laments John Kouvelis of Neutral Bay.
Column8@smh.com.au
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