The Sydney Morning Herald Column 8: December 22, 2025
There’s not much to do but Anna Beniuk from Mount Saint Thomas needs your help: “At the Wollongong Lifeline Book Fair in October I bought: Jaws: A Family, 2029-2047 By Lionel Shriver. When I returned home, I opened it to find a beautiful handmade card that I hoped I could return to the recipient. The card was hand-drawn by a child, and on the front there are two female-looking figures, one blonde and the other brunette. Inside, written in big, beautiful handwriting: ‘I will miss you so, so much. [a drawing of three red hearts] ‘I love Orly’. The card may have sentimental value and I hope Column 8’s wonderful readership can help me find a buyer.”
Ian Torrance of Dunlop (ACT) “has a counterclockwise analogue clock (C8) which I’ve labeled ‘Brain training for my grandchildren. I Love My Grandfather’.”
“Taxi stories [C8] fascinating, but NRMA had a solution in the past,” notes Glenhaven’s Seppo Ranki. “NRMA had a spot on the outskirts of metropolitan areas where country members could pick up a ‘pilot’ to take them to the big, bad city. I’m sure there was a pilot station at Hornsby on the northern approach. Details are published in the advertisement Open Road.” This was confirmed by Peter Waterman of Griffith (ACT), who recalled one such station on the Pacific Highway at St Leonards.
Maroubra’s Stewart Copper requires some retail therapy: “How is it that when you pick out a piece of ginger, the piece the person next to you picks looks better than your piece?”
Following some laudable suggestions for an alternative name for Christmas Day (C8), there has been some pushback from some, so we’ll wrap things up with this (hopefully) non-toxic proposal from Cranebrook’s Barry Galbraith: “John O’Brien named Christmas Day in his poem tangalangmaloo. When the bishop asked his congregation about the significance of Christmas Day, one young lad’s reply was, ‘The day before the races at Tangalangmaloo.'” Shout out to Jim Martin from Narooma and the beautifully named Austin Rummery from Armidale, who suggested the same bush words.
Burradoo’s David Baird has another quiz tout (C8): “Question: What is an economic indicator? Give an example. Answer: An atomic indicator lets you know when an atomic bomb is coming. There was no such thing at Hiroshima, for example.” Is it too early?
Column8@smh.com.au
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