“What are the most unlikely words that you would expect to hear as song lyrics?” asks George Zivkovic of Northmead. “For me by far the strangest is ‘gavotte’, which Carly Simon used in You’re So Vain because she needed a rhyme for ‘yacht’. A gavotte is apparently a medium-paced dance, popular in the 18th century. Who knew? Maybe Warren Beatty or Mick Jagger?”
Ian Bryce of Rozelle notes that “In addition to the police commissioner named Outlaw (C8), there’s a Belgian astronomer named Henri Boffin, and a paper Marine Borers in Australian Waters that was written by a John Barnacle.”
“I’m with you Charmaine Brinks, both geographically and sentiment-wise, about not wanting to be reminded of the existence of Tom Cruise (C8) by the time you are 80,” says Ann Babington of Newcastle. “But I only have six weeks to go, so I hope it works much, much longer for you.” There goes the free personality test.
“Thinking about my aspirations for 80, I realised that, having passed that point a few years ago, I now can’t remember what they were,” says Brian Caller of Willoughby.
“Peter Miniutti (C8), I’m reliably informed that worrying excessively about your footy team can take 15 years off your life,” warns George Manojlovic of Mangerton.
Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook felt the need to forewarn “Just remember Granny, you will be 80 in 2027.”
While attempting Robert Bradley’s elephant stir-fry (C8) might be a forgettable experience, David Gordon of Cranebrook thinks he “should be grateful he isn’t transported four millennia back in time, or he’d need a mammoth wok.”
“Answering Robert’s query about where to find an ‘elephantine wok’ I’d suggest in the room,” offers Rosemary O’Brien of Ashfield.
“I’m sure I’m not the only person who knows the proper saying that Susan McLaren referred to (C8) is, ‘Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink’,” says Greg Oehm of Robertson. “It is, of course, the oft-misquoted second part of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Pedants, pedants everywhere, nor any stop to think.” Andrew Taubman of Queens Park reckons “Coleridge must be turning over in his opium dream!”
Shout out to some savvy Herald subs from Debbie Phillips of Balmain: “Loved the Shakespearean pun synchronicity in the headlines ‘Shakespeare print event proves all the world’s a page’ and ‘A tree is not a tree – and therein lies the shrub’.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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