George Zivkovic of Northmead reckons “talk of the NRL having to move the 2028 NRL Grand Final because of Pope Leo’s visit to Sydney on the October long weekend ignores the possibility of including the pontiff in the bunker for a truly impartial perspective.”
Before we submerge this debate, here’s Col Burns of Lugarno: “Our national underwater hockey team (C8) deserves a catchy, alliterative name that irreverently embodies both reaching the top of one’s game and having a reputation for aquatic invincibility. I’ve left the porch light on for the Harold Holt Hockeyroos.”
It was happy days for Hong Kong resident Richard Cunningham when he realised our quiz compilers get some material from their own backyard: “My first order of business of each day is the Herald Superquiz (I save C8 for lunchtime diversion). While I’m still chasing the elusive perfect 30 score, I have to thank you for providing me with the knowledge to score five of my points on Wednesday’s quiz. Had the questions not seemingly been directly scraped from recent C8 items, I would’ve otherwise been clueless about meatball recipes and underwater team names.”
Crossing certain borders will always cause a scene. Graham Russell of Clovelly recalls that “during our two-person road trip around Europe in April 1971, my colleague and I drove from Spain to Morocco via Ceuta. I was accepted with a smile, but my colleague was rejected because his hair was too long. He had to drive from Ceuta back to a village twenty kilometres away for a haircut. It was a dreadful haircut, but Ceuta accepted him.”
Mary Carde of Parrearra (Qld) finds that some inventions leave her cold: “I’ve been wondering, has there been a more spectacularly pointless invention to date than the single bottle electric wine chiller that was trendy in the early 2000s, and which was about as useful as a solar-powered torch in a cave?”
“Captioning (C8) at the Sydney Opera House can be a bit terse,” thinks Coral Button of North Epping. “Towards the climax of Verdi’s Il trovatore, the mother and son are imprisoned prior to being burnt at the stake the next morning. Wishing to sleep and referring to the coming conflagration, the mother sings in Italian : ‘Should that dread vision rise in my slumber, rouse me! It’s horrors then may depart.’ The translated surtitle read: ‘Wake me if they light the fire’.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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