In light of David Corry (C8) railing against the point of windscreen wipers on driverless Sydney Metro trains, Liza Rybak of Bellevue Hill asks: “Why do they have windscreens at all?”
As to the wipers, Dave Lewington of Heathcote explains that it’s “So Chris Minns and fellow politicians can get a clear view of all the money that has been spent,” while Jock Brodie of Port Macquarie thinks it’s “So the inspector on the platform can confirm that the train is, in fact, driverless.”
“Like Colin Littlemore’s hopes for a fun name for his son (C8), I had hopes for Milan’s Cardinal Scola getting the nod at the last papal enclave,” writes Julian Neylan of Dulwich Hill. “Pope Scola would’ve really put the fizz into those papal messages. And handed Coca-Cola’s marketeers an unholy challenge.”
“My niece’s husband, a devotee of a certain football club in England, proposed naming their daughter Crystal Alice,” remarks Lilian Andrew of Mosman. “It didn’t happen.”
Ian McKay of Yamba is the only contributor to have sampled both casu martzu (C8) and Train Smash of which he states: “Any member of the RAN from its inception, possibly up to now, knows this staple food. It was deemed to contain anything from Myxomatosis to the Chief Cook’s socks, in any given batch. It always had some glutinous matter, alleged to be cheese, but I don’t recall any meat involved. We ate it on toast, over eggs, bangers, steak, and polished brass with it.”
“I tried casu martzu in Italy in 1979,” adds Ross Leighton of Mortdale. “The maggots looked dead, possibly from the refrigeration or the cling wrap.”
Still on Sardinia, Michael Britt of MacMasters Beach says: “Diligent digging by longevity researchers has confirmed that regions, like Sardinia, with a high proportion of centenarians, share a common feature - historically poor record keeping!”
Jim O’Brien of Sanctuary Point wonders if Kent Mayo (C8) from Uralla “is the same one who Mr Jurd, our 3rd Class teacher at Bexley Primary, called ‘Mao Tse Tung’ (1950s spelling)?”
“Thanks for enlightening me, Column 8-ers, I’d always thought that B.T.C. (C8) was a bacon, tomato and cheese sandwich,” muses Barry Riley of Woy Woy. The variations are many, starting with Andrew Cohen of Glebe who offers “Bowel Trauma Coming”, while Gregory Abbott of Macleay Island (Qld) offers the trinity of “Back To Class”, “Biting The Carpet” and “Big Time Charlie”.
Column8@smh.com.au
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