Legal advice required: “Last Friday, I was arrested for sticking Macquarie’s Appin Massacre order to his statue in Hyde Park,” reports Stephen Langford of Paddington. “Day Street Police Station imposed bail restrictions: I cannot go within two kilometres of Sydney Town Hall. Presumably because Macquarie’s statue has been known to stroll around the CBD. How can I challenge this crazy bail restriction that means I cannot attend the weekly ‘Refugee Lives Matter’ demonstration at Town Hall? To see a magistrate, I have to go to the Downing Centre. And that’s inside the two-kilometre radius exclusion zone.” Time to shine, Edward Loong.
Pauline McGinley of Drummoyne can see an upside to users putting their mobile phones on loudspeaker (C8) in public: “At least I can hear both sides of the conversation before making my mind up and letting them know whose side I’m on!”
Like Jack Dikian, David Atherfold of Avalon Beach remembers the age of the brick: “Back in the early days of mobile phones, we had a television with a rotary channel knob. If you turned it fully in one direction, it would pick up a phone conversation. Only those who were rather well-off had mobiles back then, and I thought that I might have picked up some insider information on hot stocks to buy or such. Unfortunately, the most frequent calls were. ‘Darls, can you pick up a litre of milk on your way home?’”
“Before mobile phones came along, no one ever shouted: ‘I’m on the bus!’” reminds John Burman of Port Macquarie.
In what could be construed as a bit of a loophole, Robert Nielson of Watsons Bay has “always considered that the lifetime guarantee (C8) of anything relates to the life of that thing. The day that it ceases to function is the end of its life, thereby bringing the lifetime guarantee to an end.” To which a seasoned George Manojlovic of Mangerton adds: “Judy Jones, your pepper mill will grind to a halt when there’s no more spice in its life.”
“Years ago, my friends and I had a brief, but impressive, over-coffee discussion with Rosemary Stanton (C8),” recalls Joy Cooksey of Harrington. “This convinced me, years later, to buy her Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal, a book full of down-to-earth suggestions and advice on nutrition that I still continually refer to, and quote in ‘over the back fence’ discussions.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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