Long-distance songwriting? (C8), Ray Brown and the Whispers (20 Miles) and Gene Pitney (Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa) have nothing on the Scots. Loads ’o readers have referred to the Proclaimers hit I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), starting with a perplexed James Cheeseman of North Ryde: “They proclaimed that they would walk 500 miles and then 500 hundred more to be the man to walk a thousand miles to be outside your door. So, assuming the destination was in Scotland, where did they start? Madrid? Warsaw?”
And, while Tony Sullivan of Adamstown Heights asks: “Did they even try? And was she there when they arrived?” Lance Dover of Pretty Beach reckons a whisky might’ve been needed “as a reviver.”
“Has anyone ever found out how to get to Sesame Street?” asks Jim McAlpine of Moss Vale. “Is there a map reference?”
C8’s philatelic vexillologist Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook notes that Sunday (September 1) marks the sesquicentenary of the opening of the Sydney General Post Office fronting a narrow laneway between George and Pitt Streets, then called Moore Street. “In the mid-1970s I submitted my first contribution to Granny’s column, noting that the flag atop the GPO clock tower was flying upside down! From 1891 until the AWA Tower was completed in 1939, the GPO was Sydney’s tallest building. The clock tower was dismantled in 1942 as it was deemed a target for an air attack. In 1964, it was re-erected.”
“Your echidna story (C8) reminded my of when we had a total solar eclipse back in the 1970s,” says Glenys Quirk of Forster. “It reached its maximum about 4 pm when the light had turned to dusk, which was fine. We lived on a large block with countless trees and the scary thing was, suddenly, the silence! Not a bird or dog to be heard. Amazing what animals sense.”
“I agree with Edward Loong (C8) that both Column 8 contributions and letters to the editor seem to be getting longer,” declares Margaret Grove of Concord. “I blame all that extra hot air on climate change.”
“Not just protracted. Loong,” adds Don Bain of Port Macquarie.
Spider tales (C8) leave Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic) brassed off: “After reading Column 8, I have one thing to say to Colleen Starkey: AAAAAAARGH! I hold her and Column 8 totally responsible for any nightmares I may have tonight.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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