“We have a bit of a family cocktail tradition on special occasion family dinners,” writes Geoff Carey of Pagewood. “So, after ordering eight Margaritas (C8) and waiting a bit longer than usual, eight large Margherita pizzas arrived at the table. Laughter all round the restaurant except for the scowl on the manager’s face.”
Jack Dikian of Mosman wonders if George Manojlovic’s possum problem (C8) might be home-grown: “George, are you sure it’s not your off-peak hot water system kicking in at 3 am and stirring the poor things from deep sleep?”
“I envy George his rhythmically possessed possums,” says Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic). “Their southern brethren are less rhythmically accurate, as they wear clogs. The Eltham Possum Clog Dancing Society meets on my tin roof at 2 am precisely, for several minutes of enthusiastic footwork. I would not let my students play as unrhythmically as these leadfooted kin to Leadbeater’s possums.”
“Not so much a wallop (C8), but something more sinister in English town names,” offers Roger Hallett of Toowoomba. “My favourite is Lower Slaughter which is the quintessential Cotswold English town, complete with a gentle mill stream and a centuries-old church. There is of course, an Upper Slaughter as well, but no Middle”.
Roger Bendall of Darling Point thinks we should “Forget the wallops. Nothing beats the villages along the banks of the River Piddle in Dorset UK, including Piddletrenthide, Piddlehinton, Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Affpuddle, Briantspuddle, and Turnerspuddle. Needless to say the river ends at Poole.”
That pesky librocubicularist (C8) question appeared in the Herald Superquiz 20 days ago, yet still, they come: “My husband doesn’t see his sister very often,” notes Mia David of Wollongong. “But on Fridays they ring each other to compare their efforts to solve DA’s cryptic crossword. Does that make them bimasocruciverbicularists, I wonder?”
He’s not one to boast, but Lance Dover of Pretty Beach thinks “The new name for literate light post nesting ospreys, avescruciverbacubicularists, puts me in mind of our English teacher, back in the day, who cautioned successful students against use of rodomontade in telling others of their achievements. I am prepared to disobey if this gets into Column 8.” Don’t worry. It’ll never happen.
“I’ve long struggled to decipher the breathless, excited 30 second grab from sportspeople after a game (C8),” declares Rob Venables of Bermagui. “Do any C8-ers know where I can buy a radio with subtitles?”
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