Dutch courage with a Tuscan tendency
Like David Perst (C8), our friend Mike Fogarty from Weston (ACT) is well aware of the practice of hiding the flock at sea: “HMAS Melbourne returned from the USA after Halloween 1967 carrying A-4 Skyhawks and S-2E Trackers as replacement aircraft for the RAN’s aging Fleet Air Arm. The wine supplier found a cache of lost Chianti during a mission. It had been forgotten after a brief port visit.” and was stored in a paint cupboard in Naples in 1956. The disgusting wine did not taste like Fly-Tox, but beau coup aspirin was distributed in the infirmary the next morning.
“The bartender asked ‘red or white?’ The question put to David Rose’s request for shiraz (C8) was not as stupid as it seemed,” thinks Allambie’s Peter Lewis. “Kies Family Wines of the Barossa makes a lovely, full-bodied, off-dry white shiraz.”
Terry Cook of Ermington puts his extra rubber bands (C8) in a bottle, “and when it’s almost full I give them to a teacher who lives across the road. She says they’re invaluable in the classroom.”
A recent rehashing of the parfait glass debate (C8) reminded Dungog’s Greg Mudie of a family trip to Europe in 1978: “Mum and Dad bought in Venice what their six children unanimously agreed was the most disgusting decanter of six glasses. It was also agreed that no child would want to be bequeathed as a monstrosity in any future will. Fortunately, breakages in the years that followed reduced the set and with my mother’s passing in 2016 “And all that’s left is the tray.”
Pymble’s Daniel Low knows his place: “Thank you to Adela Parkes for keeping alive the fond memory of Year 4 Geography with Jack Eyles’ entry (I’m fine) on the Stevenson screen (C8) in 1963.”
Readers who have been following the recent discussion of past remedies (C8) will recall that Ross Storey noticed creosote in the ingredients list of the Waterbury Compound. According to Janita Rankin of North Dandalup (WA), this has useful value: “An old pharmacist I once worked with recommended a medicine containing creosote. After explaining its benefits and dosage, she would add: ‘If it doesn’t cure your cough, you can paint the fence with it.’ Most customers couldn’t understand what he meant, but it brought a smile to my face every time and still does.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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