“Whether it’s a case of death takes a holiday, or he was a VIP deserving a solo appearance, Frederick Hartnell ‘Rich’ Greene III appears to be the only death notice in Saturday’s online Herald,” notes the appropriately-named Mark Vale of Murrays Run. “Whatever the reason, it seems like he was a fine fellow.”
“In 1970, my year 4 teacher at Quirindi Primary School wrote in my autograph book (C8), ‘Good, better, best, may you never rest, until your good is better and your better best’,” says Kate Prosser of Armidale. “I’d always considered it special until my husband produced his autograph book from the 1960s. It included the signatures of Don Bradman, Alan Davidson, Frank Tyson, Graeme Pollock and Peter Philpott, dated January 13, 1964. Being a North Sydney Bears supporter, the book also contains signatures from Ken Irvine and Ross Warner, collected at North Sydney Oval, dated July 12, 1964.”
Ross Leighton of Mortdale still has his late mother’s autograph book from the 1930s: “The first entry dated October 16, 1936 when she was 11, is by my grandfather. It reads ‘Pretty verses I cannot write, I fail at each endeavour. Forgive me if I only say, bright be your life forever’.”
“Has anyone else noticed how Donald Trump’s signature looks like a positive polygraph test?” asks John Swanton of Coogee.
“Anne McCarthy’s fried bread (C8) may have had the additional piquancy offered by kerosene fumes, but I maintain that fried bread, done in lard, is true ambrosia,” opines Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic). “And it’s even better accompanied by two fried eggs, black pudding, and bacon.”
“Sometimes I wonder whether I was the only kid to think that Kiwi boot polish (C8) was made from real kiwis (the birds, I mean, not our trans-Tasman frenemies),” says Dave Horsfall of North Gosford.
It’s OK, Dave. You’re not alone. Richard Stewart of Pearl Beach recalls hearing of “an American and his wife visiting Auckland Zoo and looking at the kiwi pen as the zoo host noted that very few lived in the wild. The American then turned to his wife and said, ‘not surprising given the numbers they must have used over years to make that shoe polish’.”
“No matter what people think about the kayaker who found himself inside the mouth of a whale, he will inevitably be known as Jonah from now on,” surmises Nola Tucker of Kiama.
Column8@smh.com.au
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