Melvyn Byrnes of Wahroonga read in The Times that the City of Christchurch, New Zealand, had parted ways with its paid official city wizard after more than two decades. “Even more interesting was the comment from a reader that he be invited across the ditch and become The Wizard of Oz.”
“Calle Calle Street (C8) takes the recursive prize, but for brevity and accuracy, The Road in Penrith deserves a mention,” thinks Stein Boddington of St Clair. To which Bill Hardy of Caddens adds: “You can live up The Road, down The Road, or along The Road.”
Geoffrey Cowling of Surry Hills says his favourite name of a route “was seen from a car while travelling in Canada: Round Tuit Lane”.
The treatment of people in Florence during the Middle Ages (C8) reminded Martin Everett of Katoomba of how breaking quarantine was treated in the 1840s, with thanks to historian Alexander William Kinglake: “If you break quarantine, you will be tried with military haste; the court will scream out your sentence from 50 yards. The priest will console you at duelling distance and, after that, you will find yourself carefully shot and carelessly buried.”
“Speaking of rugged dials (C8), as students we used to refer to one teacher as ‘the moon on the man’,” writes Brendan Lawler of Sherwood. Principal’s office now, Lawler!
“Apropos the bus routes in the Cook Islands (C8), I recall a bus service in New Delhi in the ’70s that travelled on the Ring Road that encircled the city,” says Vivek Krishan of Beecroft. “While the service had a name, the directions were simply labelled + and –. Seems to me clockwise and anti-clockwise are more accurate.”
Back to Kūki ‘Āirani, and Kev Condell of West Wollongong reports that: “One of our sons once travelled to the Cook Islands and remembers that the clock at the airport had no hands but had ‘WHO CARES?’ written across the face.”
“Surely Alan Phillips (C8) has got his times mixed (people who like to show off their understanding of the 24-hour clock sometimes do that),” reckons Jock Brodie of Port Macquarie. “It would make more sense if he and his wife aimed to reduce their lockdown alcohol consumption to zero by 8.30pm and 50 per cent by 8.50pm.”
David Isaacs of Eastwood worries that “Santa (C8) may not be allowed to visit homes unless Rudolph has had a recent COVID swab”.
Column8@smh.com.au
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