The recent passing of Tom Pritchard, Australia’s last Rat of Tobruk, reminded Mike Foale of Maleny (Qld) of a former colleague, Charles Lamond, another survivor of Tobruk: “After the Rats returned to Australia, he impatiently made his way to England via Canada, and joined the RAF where he became a rear gunner on Lancaster bombers. Once northern France had been liberated, the RAF bombers would sometimes need to refuel after unloading their bombs in Germany. English media discovered that Charles was taking a folding bike into his Lancaster that enabled him to cycle around the nearby French countryside while the crew refuelled at an airfield, which earned him some fame at the time.”
“Don McLeod’s saying (C8) reminds me of a couple in our family,” says Pamela Kerr of Moonta Bay (SA). “What are you making Dad? A wigwam for a goose’s bridle. What’s for dinner Mum? Duck under the table.”
Roderick van Gelder of Hunters Hill agrees with Bob Doepel regarding the garmentless games: “The nude luge (C8) could be the start of returning an old vibe to the Olympics. The original Greco-Roman wrestling was in the nude and just imagine how much interest nude break dancing would attract? Unfortunately, high jumpers would miss out.”
“I have a question for the C8 intelligentsia,” challenges Graham Lum of North Rocks. “If something is neither here nor there, where the hell is it? And please don’t tell me it’s hither and thither.”
It’s a credit to Steve Hulbert (C8) that he can generate such a lather with an item on the use-by date of soap, but readers continue the spray: “Perhaps instead of writing to C8, a letter from Steve to The Times of London would have been a better alternative as their readership apparently uses soap far less frequently than us convicts,” offers Andrew Cohen of Glebe. “Nevertheless, in partial response to your public query, I’m told that some fancy English soap bars are intended to be purely ornamental and accordingly don’t bear a use-by date.” John Weir of Bigga was thinking the same thing: “So Steve wants to know how long an unused cake of soap will last. I wonder how long until someone says ‘ask a Pommie’?”
“I’m disappointed there hasn’t been more of a response to Chips Mackinolty’s Walzing Kamala,” (C8) says Arthur Richards of Port Macquarie. “I thought someone would try to Trump it.”
Column8@smh.com.au
No attachments, please. Include
name, suburb and daytime phone