Technology is revolting. Just ask Carole Baxter of Woodgate Beach (Qld): “Coming back from Brisbane during a mega storm last weekend, husband realised the petrol indicator was on red. Service station number one had pumps out of order; number two had no power and number three had power and some pumps working but eftpos took over half an hour for each transaction. I normally carry cash, but was returning from hospital whereas husband relies on plastic. On that same day, an 80-year-old friend was locked out of her home because of the power outage. She didn’t take a key, instead depending on her electronic garage doors. How many people will that happen to these days? She actually broke into her house by climbing in a window!”
This spells trouble. In naming the “quaint little town” Tombulgum, Dave Williams (C8) has opened the floodgates, which is fair, considering he was discussing rainfall: “While we’re talking pronunciation, let’s talk spelling,” says Annie Smith. “I live in Murwillumbah and Tumbulgum is the village next door. It’s pronounced Tum-bul-gum.”
Odille Esmonde-Morgan of Glenorchy (Tas) has a technique: “Both ‘u’s are pronounced as in gum, not as in bull. I lived nearby for ten years, and woe betide you if you pronounced it differently. It also has a terrific pub.”
Stan Goodacre of Pennant Hills will keep it brief: “Can anyone explain why Jockey Y-fronts are almost invariably inside out when taken from the tumble dryer?”
Readers are no doubt impressed with the regal ascension of Hobart’s finest, but Alison Brooks of Hope Island (Qld) claims that “Mary of Denmark will not be Australia’s first queen. Her Majesty Queen Susan of the Albanians 1941-2004 was born in Waverley.”
Well, yes and no. Husband, Crown Prince Leka, was proclaimed King by an “Albanian National Assembly-in-exile” with Susan “joining her husband in the life of a Ruritanian Ronnie Biggs”. We thank scribe Mark McGinness for that characterisation. Izzy Perko of Gundagai recalls that in 1975, “it was the biggest royal news story in the Australian Women’s Weekly at the time”.
Forget about the death of Test cricket, Michael Fischer of Coogee is more concerned about the very fabric of the game: “Did I really see men in shorts in the sacred hallows of the Members’ Stand at the SCG on day one of the third Test? And T-shirts? What is the world coming to?”
Column8@smh.com.au
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