“My friend and I decided to explore Garden Island and Trip Planner said that the Double Bay ferry stops there,” writes Alison Soutter of Davidson. “When we turned up, we found no ferries use the stop, apparently because of fear of terrorism. I wonder what else is no longer available just in case?”
More on palindromes (C8), this time from Russ Couch of Woonona: “Ted Richards may well know that the longest palindrome in English is from Joyce’s Ulysses in which he invented the word ‘tattarrattat’, the onomatopoeic term for the sound of knocking on a door. ‘Onomatopoeia’ is another one of those errant words that does not obey itself.” Meanwhile, Col Burns of Lugarno prefers “emordrome” to Ted’s own “palinilap”.
“Wednesday’s paragraph about palindromes reminded me that I live in one,” offers Ron Burke of Arrawarra. Can we please stop now? Spellchecker is about ready to cave in.
“Now that Christmas matters (C8) are making an appearance in Column 8, here is my contribution,” declares Richard Keyes of Enfield. “As grammarians will tell you, Santa’s helpers are known as ‘subordinate clauses’.”
“There appears to be quite a proliferation of those large inflatable Santas this year,” ponders George Manojlovic of Mangerton. “Must be a huge let-down for kids at the end of the festive season.”
Keith Appleton of Wolfville, Canada, “ex-Yamba” recalls that “Decades ago, a fellow student was extremely proud of his new (very used) car and offered to take me for a ride. Unfortunately, being curious, I asked ‘what’s this knob for?’ He said ‘It’s the choke’. Not knowing what a ‘choke’ was, I pulled it. The knob kept coming out with a long wire attached. This infuriated the owner, and he stopped the car and told me to get out. As I stood, dejected, aside the car, he drove off but indicated left by a little orange mechanical arm (C8) which popped out sideways. As I was too near the car, it brushed against me and broke off. The driver wouldn’t speak to me for weeks.”
Donald Hawes of Peel recalls that on buses “a little hand slid out on a rail, and it could be tilted horizontally to the right or vertically for left-hand turns and stopping. A one-armed driver in our street had his Austin fitted with one, and I often wondered about his hand having to leave the steering wheel to execute this action.”
Column8@smh.com.au
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