The Sydney Morning Herald Column 8: December 22, 2025
There’s not much to go on, but Anna Beniuk of Mount Saint Thomas needs your help: “At the Wollongong Lifeline Book Fair in October, I purchased The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver. Once home, I opened it to find a beautiful handmade card that I hope I can return to the recipient. The card is hand-drawn by a child, it has two figures on the front that are female in appearance, one blonde the other brunette. Inside, written in big beautiful handwriting is: ‘I’ll miss you so, so much, [a drawing of three red hearts] Love Orly’. The card may have sentimental value and I hope the fabulous Column 8 readership can help me find the recipient.”
Ian Torrance of Dunlop (ACT) has “an anticlockwise analogue clock (C8) that I’ve labelled, ‘Brain training for my Grandchildren. Love Granddad’.”
“The taxi stories [C8] are fascinating, but the NRMA had a solution in the past,” reckons Seppo Ranki of Glenhaven. “The NRMA used to have a point on the outskirts of metropolitan areas where country members could pick up a ‘pilot’ to take them into the big, bad city. I’m sure there was a pilot station at Hornsby on the northern approach. Details were advertised in the Open Road.” This is confirmed by Peter Waterman of Griffith (ACT), who recalls one such station on the Pacific Highway at St Leonards.
Stewart Copper of Maroubra requires some retail therapy: “How come when you’ve selected a piece of ginger, the piece selected by the person next to you looks better than your bit?”
Following some commendable suggestions for an alternative name for Christmas Day (C8), there’s been somewhat of a blowback from some, so, with that, we’re going to finish things with this (hopefully) non-toxic offering from Barry Galbraith of Cranebrook: “John O’Brien named Christmas Day in his poem Tangalangmaloo. When the bishop asked his congregation about the significance of Christmas Day, the answer from a young lad was ‘It’s the day before the races out at Tangalangmaloo’.” Shout out to Jim Martin of Narooma and the beautifully named Austin Rummery of Armidale who suggested the same bush lyric.
David Baird of Burradoo has another exam howler (C8): “The question: What is an economic indicator? Give an example. The response: An atomic indicator lets you know when an atomic bomb is coming. An example, Hiroshima didn’t have one.” Too soon?
Column8@smh.com.au
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